I do mine for 14 days. I have a slab of beef belly dry curing right nowI am doing a dry rub. Mix the ingredients place in a sealed bag and place in the fridge turning everyday for x days. X = 8 to 10 days, still working on x.
I generally do bacon for 14 days. Doesn't matter how thick the slab is. 14 days.14 days is well past the minimum time to complete the curing process, but the extra time allows for flavor development, and it's really not worth rushing it through at the bare minimum if you're going to go through all this work.I am doing a dry rub. Mix the ingredients place in a sealed bag and place in the fridge turning everyday for x days. X = 8 to 10 days, still working on x.
Pumped bacon, specifically, is limited to 120ppm nitrite and must also contain a cure accelerator like sodium erythorbate, but this only applies to pumped bacon. The USDA Would like all bacon limited to 120ppm, but if dry cured, the upper limit still applies at 200ppm, and if making pancetta you could go to 625ppm, although that is not needed.I hate to say it, but there may be some confusion potential in this thread, if read without stating dry or wet cures.. Some only applies to ham... bacon has its own chemical limits that are different. 156ppm is for ham products if immersed, not bacon. Advice and techniques can get confusing and be wrong, if you don't spell out EXACTLY what curing method you're using, a dryrub, brine immersion, or pumped. So 156ppm is fine if dryrub, but if you make a brine and immerse it, the total ppm put into the brine is 120, and that is based off weight of meat PLUS the water.
I constantly see these limits incorrectly exceeded when folks advise making a strong (high cure1 sodium nitrite) brine, which does give 120ppm if exactly 10% of meat weight is injected/pumped into meat... but then they advise to dump rest around meat and let it soak. This usually exceeds allowed ppm with either of the 2 Calculation Methods, pumped or immersion, given in the Inspectors Handbook.
These limits are referenced with their sources in the USFDA FSIS Processing Inspectors Calculation Handbook. You can download it for free, google it, and it is a pretty easy read and gread document to have, because it tells you exactly how to correctly calculate the alliwed chemical amounts in a pickle, dry rub, pumped/massaged method, etc. From that document, page 28, Nitrites used in Bacon, Ingredient Limits:
120ppm required if pumped, with caveats.
120 ppm max if immersion cured.
200ppm max if dry rubbed.
Hope this helps!
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P.s.
The guys have answered your question.What I don't get is the calculator on DiggingDogFarm where I cannot seem to alter the input for cure from it's default 6.5% value and it also shows a 156PPM Nitrate value ( are these linked?). What's the difference between this 156 parameter and the Cure #1?
Basically, I'm not trusting the numbers I'm seeing, if correct, can someone explain the 6.5%?
Going to try my first attempt at making some bacon. I have the pork belly, Cure #1, salt, sugar. I found posts that state a good rule of thumb is:
.25% Cure #1
1.5% Salt
1.0% Sugar
What I don't get is the calculator on DiggingDogFarm where I cannot seem to alter the input for cure from it's default 6.5% value and it also shows a 156PPM Nitrate value ( are these linked?). What's the difference between this 156 parameter and the Cure #1?
Basically, I'm not trusting the numbers I'm seeing, if correct, can someone explain the 6.5%?
Thanks, Mark
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Glad it's working!After doing a fair bit of research I came up with my 10% brine method for making bacon.
It is very simple and has worked for me every time.
Meat weight in kg + 10% meat weight in H2O
For every kg of meat and water
25 g sugar
16 g salt
3 g cure #1
Mix dry ingredients with H2O add to meat and seal in bag flip every day smoke after 10 days.
JC
Dave, you need to relax. You have posted this many times, and while I agree generally with what you are saying, you are hammering on brine cure, but the original poster here has clearly stated that he is dry rubbing, and as such is well within USDA regulations. To go farther, if you are going to push FSIS, USDA regs for brine cure at 120ppm nitrite then please include their additional regulations on using a cure accelerator such as sodium erythorbate, that’s an equal regulation. Please educate yourself and have some fun, I’m happy to go as deep as you like on this subject, so if you are confused, please ask.Glad it's working!
It is probably important to point out to folks, if you are going to post cure recipes, that this would not pass a USFDA FSIS inspection for any bacon for sale in the US. You can of course do what you want in your own kitchen, but I believe you should note when you personally choose exceeding govt allowed nitrate levels, so you can allow readers the knowledge to make their own informed decision as to whether they want to follow the USFDA health and safety guidelines or ignore them...
Immersion cured bacon is limited to 120ppm sodium nitrite. This comes to 1.9g cure#1 per kg of meat and water.
Taste is different, not in a bad way. Maybe a little too smokey as I only tried an outside piece. Need to slice off another piece and try that.Looks great! How's it taste?
Bag it and let it rest in the fridge a couple days. The smoke will mello and spread even in the meat.Taste is different, not in a bad way. Maybe a little too smokey as I only tried an outside piece. Need to slice off another piece and try that.