Brining cure vs Salt Cure?

[john3198]

Are there any advantages to using a brine to cure bacon (belly, butt, or loin) over a dry cure like Hi Mountain?

I can see that if you were doing very large butts or hams, that you might need to inject the brine to prevent bone souring.

Is one way better than the other for bacon?

 

[piker]

I have tried both ways and I think dry produces the better product. In my case only having a small frig to brine in I am restricted to size of container and with dry I can put more in to cure. Still the dry rub produces a much more flavourfull bacon. I will be trying a stronger brine in the future to see if I can get the same taste. Piker

 

[pignit]

I do both according to what kind of outcome I want. Both methods leave the meat with a bit different taste and texture in my opinion. If I'm going to do a buckboard bacon I will dry rub... but if I want to do a capicola I will use an injected brine. The brine will take 2 days and the dry rub takes 2+ weeks. I'm doing a brine injected chuckeeee right now for the first time. It's fun to experiment and see and taste the differences.