Bag cure bacon - cure time?

[TNJAKE]

Putting a brisket flat into a dry cure tomorrow for beef bacon

 

[SmokinEdge]

Putting a brisket flat into a dry cure tomorrow for beef bacon

Atta boy Jake. Cowboy bacon is good stuff.

 

[TNJAKE]

Atta boy Jake. Cowboy bacon is good stuff.

Should be tasty it's something I've had on the list for quite a while. There will be a thread in probably 20 days lol

 

[SmokinEdge]

I really enjoy smoked and sliced brisket with eggs and potatoes. Cure the brisket and smoke it or not and it’s delicious too. For a bacon type application for breakfast or on a burger or sandwich, I don’t use the aromatics in the cure. Just salt, sugar and cure. Then give it a nice garlic based rub before smoking.

 

[TNJAKE]

I really enjoy smoked and sliced brisket with eggs and potatoes. Cure the brisket and smoke it or not and it’s delicious too. For a bacon type application for breakfast or on a burger or sandwich, I don’t use the aromatics in the cure. Just salt, sugar and cure. Then give it a nice garlic based rub before smoking.

This will be just the usual suspects for cure. 14 days. Pepper and garlic afterwards for a day. Cold smoke 12 hours probably 6hrs a day with rest in between. Then a dry in fridge for a couple days. Slicer time

 

[SmokinEdge]

This will be just the usual suspects for cure. 14 days. Pepper and garlic afterwards for a day. Cold smoke 12 hours probably 6hrs a day with rest in between. Then a dry in fridge for a couple days. Slicer time

Delicious!

 

[thirdeye]

So - I can see that both wet and dry brine methods have their merits, though I can see the benefits of being able to control the flavoring better with the dry brine.

That's the beauty... of the charcutie. Heheheee.

I prefer dry curing on bacon (and fish), and one thing I consider is the handling and the fridge space. I can manage several bags of dry cure bacon, but would be pushing fridge room if wet curing the same number of bellies. Same for fish, I can stack multiple sides of dry cured fish but might need 2 brine buckets for the same amount.
All that said, I thoroughly enjoy trading my goods in order to sample techniques I don't use. Crazy 'eh?

Putting a brisket flat into a dry cure tomorrow for beef bacon

Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to your results. Here is a previous thread of mine on beef bacon. I really like it but the hardest thing for me was getting the thickness dialed in, and not overcooking it. Baking it -vs- frying is something to check out. Anyhoo, a little overcooking is about the same as sampling jerky, so it's all good.

 

[m0rie]

All of the recipes I have looked at for dry curing have you pat the cure mixture into the pork loin then put it into a bag with any extra cure mix. I might have done something wrong but it seemed like that made a fairly large mess (on the plate I was using) and I was not confident I actually got the required amount of cure mix on the loin. For the other two pieces I switched to just putting the loin in the bag first and dumping the measured cure mix into the bag, sealing and mixing the loin around in the bag until it looked fully coated. Seemed significantly easier but I worry that skipping the initial pat down is going to be an issue? Next day all three bags seem to have pulled an even amount of liquid when I went to massage and turn the bags.

 

[SmokinEdge]

All of the recipes I have looked at for dry curing have you pat the cure mixture into the pork loin then put it into a bag with any extra cure mix. I might have done something wrong but it seemed like that made a fairly large mess (on the plate I was using) and I was not confident I actually got the required amount of cure mix on the loin. For the other two pieces I switched to just putting the loin in the bag first and dumping the measured cure mix into the bag, sealing and mixing the loin around in the bag until it looked fully coated. Seemed significantly easier but I worry that skipping the initial pat down is going to be an issue? Next day all three bags seem to have pulled an even amount of liquid when I went to massage and turn the bags.

You are fine either way. Don’t get nervous or over think the process. Cure in general has a range to it. It’s not an exact part per million or weight but rather a minimum of 50ppm to a maximum of 200ppm. Our recipes follow 156ppm. So even if you lose a little cure mix you are still good. It’s the going over or to much cure that gets you in trouble. Over haul (turn every day) the bag and ride for the required time and the results will be fantastic.