BACON (Extra Smoky)

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So I'm in the process of curing 9lbs of pork bellies for bacon right now. I cut the slab into 3 smaller slabs so they would each fit into the larger zip bags I have. 2 days in I have noticed that 2 of the 3 bags have sprung leaks. I have the bags in a large pan in case this would happen, but my concern is that I have read not to discard the liquid in the bags as it will reabsorb into the meat. Should I be concerned that I have lost some of this liquid?


Since you don't know which bag leaked the juices, I would just put them in new bags & hope for the best, and do a "Salt-Fry Test after curing & check to make sure it's cured to center (Pink).
If only one was leaking you could add the juice back into that one.
If you want to find out which one is leaking, drain the juice & save it & the meat. Then fill the bags with water & see which one leaks.
You don't want to add new cure because you could be adding too much.

Bear
 
Dump all the liquid into a stainless steel stock pot, put the bellies in and weight them down with a 1gal zip lock bag filled with water, then rotate them daily.

Randy,


No, There wouldn't be enough liquid to do any more than lay under the bottom piece.

Bear
 
I can see I have to explain why you can't do some of these suggestions:

So if we Dry cure for 2 days, and lose some of the liquids from one or more of the bags;
We don't know how much we lost from which bag.
So some of the cure went into the meat, and some of the cure was lost with the loss of liquid that was leaked.

We can't just throw two pieces in a pot along with the captured liquid, because it would only be enough liquid for the bottom of one piece to lay in.
We also couldn't add much water, because that would dilute the cure that is in the recaptured liquid, so it would no longer be the proper amount of cure going into the meat.

My Suggestion:
I would do what I said in Post #282 (above).
Then if the test shows it's cured to center, you're good to go.
If it shows you aren't cured to center, I would recommend Hot Smoking it from 40° to 140° in less than 4 hours.

Bear
 
Finally got to know this one off my list. Here's a link to my post

bacon1.jpg


Thanks again Bear for all the great Step-By-Steps.
 
Bearcarver - first and foremost thank you for all of the information and encouragement you provide on this forum. I think I've read at least half of your step-by-step guides.

Picked up a 9 pound pork belly from Costco and it is curing as of yesterday AM. Went to rotate it this morning and I can feel that it is already starting to firm up.

Looking forward to smoking it in about a week or so in my MES 30 with AMNPS, then let it rest in the fridge for a couple of days before slicing.

Scott
 
Sounds Good, Scott !!
Alert me when you post it---I don't want to miss it, like I miss so many other good ones!!!

Bear
 
Unless you have a dedicated fridge for this I would recommend putting the smoked bacon in bags to rest just finished 10lbs last night and the better half didn’t complain of everything tasting like smoke (learned from the first time and bear saying to do that lol)
 
Unless you have a dedicated fridge for this I would recommend putting the smoked bacon in bags to rest just finished 10lbs last night and the better half didn’t complain of everything tasting like smoke (learned from the first time and bear saying to do that lol)

Excellent point - will do on the bags.

Scott
 
Where does one get Tender Quick?

It's made by Morton's Salt.
I get mine from Wegman's (food market), but some Walmarts have it, and some Butcher Shops.
As a last resort you can get it from the Internet, but it's usually cheaper when bought at Food marts, locally.
Last bag I got was about $6 for a 2 pound bag.

Bear
 
First crack at Bears recipe. I had to the soak the bacon for a hour to get the salt taste to my liking. Success for sure!

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So I'm in the process of curing 9lbs of pork bellies for bacon right now. I cut the slab into 3 smaller slabs so they would each fit into the larger zip bags I have. 2 days in I have noticed that 2 of the 3 bags have sprung leaks. I have the bags in a large pan in case this would happen, but my concern is that I have read not to discard the liquid in the bags as it will reabsorb into the meat. Should I be concerned that I have lost some of this liquid?
A little late to the party, just saw this. I wonder if at this point, with 2 out of 3 bags leaking, I think I would abandon the dry brine and move the bellies into an equilibrium wet brine like Pop's to finish.
 
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