Brine curing some bellies.

[gearloose]

I have two pork bellies from Sam's club. (Half bellies?) The last time I made belly bacon, I used a dry rub. This time, I thought I'd try a variation of Pops6927's basic brine recipe.

I'm using a LEM's meat lug with a snap on lid so I can do both bellies in one container.

My version of Pop's recipe for 2 gallons of brine:

2 cups canning salt
3 cups brown sugar (not enough dark brown sugar in my cabinet, so one cup of light brown.)
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp. Instacure #1 (a little more than Pops uses, but well within guidelines)
3Tbsp. of European spice mix, aka: Black Forest spice mix. (not a commercial mix)
2 gallons water.


The bellies are resting in the new reefer for the next 14 days. I'm keeping them off the bottom of the lug with a pair of repurposed silicone "roaster racks" and submerged with a couple of gallon zipper lock bags of water. I'll flip them over every day. (more pics to come.)

BTW, a lug with two bellies and two gallons of brine is heavy! After transferring the full lug from my kitchen door to the reefer on the opposite side of the garage, I had to change my shirt and mop the garage floor!!! :eek: :rolleyes: :p

 

[pc farmer]

Sweet Gonna be good.

I use a black forest seasoning in a dry cure for bellies.

 

[motocrash]

I'm in.
Waiting...
Ok...Patience is a virtue.......
Bill

 

[GaryHibbert]

Whats in a black forest spice mix??
Gary

 

[motocrash]

Whats in a black forest spice mix??
Gary

Come off the recipe please.

 

[gearloose]

Whats in a black forest spice mix??
Gary

My version of European spice mix, aka: Black Forest seasoning
Note: Quantities are in parts so that the recipe can be easily scaled for as much or as little as you want.

5 parts White pepper
1 part Ground Nutmeg
1 part Ground Mace
0.5 part Ground Cardamom
8 parts Sugar (white, brown or maple)

Mix spices well and store in an opaque airtight plastic container.

For dry cure:
Use http://diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html cure calculator to determine amounts of cure, salt & sugar (separate from Euro seasoning) based on total weight in grams of the pork belly.
Cover pork belly with all of the cure mixture and rub mixture into the meat. Place pork belly in large ziplock bag, adding to the bag any of the cure that falls off during the rubbing process. Close bag & refrigerate for 7-10 days. Turn daily and massage meat through the bag every day. Remove and rinse after 7 days. Pat dry. Sprinkle with European spice mix, return to bag and refrigerate an additional 5 days. Cold smoke.

 

[motocrash]

Thanks Old Curmudgeon !

Bill

 

[foamheart]

Something to remember........ Canning salt is what I use. I like it because it dissolves so easily due to the finer grind. Remember that canning salt should be considered by weight vs volume, or your brined meat will be salty. I normally back off of Pop's 1/1/1 mixture and use only about 3/4 for salt quantity when using canning salt.

Just what I have learned..... you may prefer the saltier bacon.

 

[GaryHibbert]

Thanks for the recipe. Appreciate it greatly.
Gary

 

[SmokinAl]

Looking forward to seeing the bacon!
Al

 

[gearloose]

Well, after two weeks in the brine and a couple of days in the reefer with pepper & rub, today was the day that the bellies went in the smoker. They're almost done! I've held the smoker temp at 125 degrees all day. I'm looking forward to the first taste. :)

 

[GaryHibbert]

Sorry Double post
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Are you doing a single or multiple cold smokes??
Gary

 

[disco]

Watching!

 

[gearloose]

Are you doing a single or multiple cold smokes??
Gary

Just one long, slow smoke from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. I used two amnps side by side to get a heavy smudge. (hickory) I just finished trimming and squaring the slabs, getting ready to slice tomorrow. I hand cut a few slices off the trimmings to fry up, and they are plenty smoky for me.

 

[lovethemeats]

I bet its gonna be pretty tasty

 

[foamheart]

You've got my mouth watering!