Cure for cold smoking bacon? Dry? Wet? How much? How long?

[laveen1]

I've smoked several 5# pieces on my Weber 22" kettle, but have not able to keep the temp below 100, so they ended up hot smoked. The last piece came out the best with an IT of 155 (smoked @ 220 - 225). Maybe if I do all my smoking after dark (outside temps usually between 30 and 45) I can maintain some lower grill temps.

Q1: What are the cure recipes for use with long time bacon smoking around the 80` temp? (I have Instacure #1 & Prague Powder #2)

Q2: If the IT stays below 90` is that OK for "cold" smoked?

Q3: How can I tell if the meat is adequately cured for long time smoking?

Q4: Once the meat is cured, can I hang it in a cool (65-70`) part of the house to create the pellicle before smoking? How long is safe?

Q5: If one night is not enough smoke, can I refrigerate the slab during the day and do a second (or third, etc.) smoke?

Please bear with me. I know these sound like dumb questions, but without experience I can't tell if I'm creating something dangerous, and if I don't have the knowledge I hesitate to try stuff like this.

Thanks for any help you can give this newbie.

 

[fpnmf]

See the making bacon url below...

Welcome..

This site has tons of info.

I suggest you spend some time reading all the different forums and the WIKIs.

Ask questions and use the handy dandy search tool for specific interests!!

Take the awesome free E-Course!!!

Have a great day!!!

Craig

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/wiki/about-jeffs-5-day-ecourse
 
      Make bacon the easy way!!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/109368/more-easy-made-bacon-with-q-view#post_666451

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/82034/how-to-post-qview-to-smf

 

[alblancher]

Laveen1,

Welcome to SMF.  You have a lot of good questions.  The first question will have a lot of different opinions from other members of the forum so I am going to leave that one open for now.

As for your other questions:

If you can't keep your cold smoke temps low enough, give up on your smoker and build a simple smoke generator.  Either use wood chip or dust in a tuna can with a soldering Iron or buy ether Todd's AmazinSmoker or a similar product or build a small smokehouse.  With the smokehouse you just need to have the fire far enough away from the cook chamber that the smoke will cool.

The cooler the better for cold smoking as long as you stay above freezing.  How long you smoke depends on how much smoke and color you want on your bacon.  I've smoked bacon for over 48 hours but believe it or not the bacon picks up maybe too much smoke

I don't think interrupting the smoke cycle causes too much trouble but depending on what you use to generate the smoke you may be good for a 5 or 6 hour nap before having to reload.

I find hanging the belly in the smokehouse with the door open will allow the pellicle to form,  a fan will help if drying inside.

There is a lot to learn about making your own bacon.  Dry cure or brine cure are the most popular.  They both produce good tasting bacon.

Good Luck and again  Welcome to SMF

 

[laveen1]

Hi, thanks for the welcome and the info. I went to fpnmf's post and found his cure:

"1 gallon water

1-2 cups salt

2 cups sugar

1 rounded Tablespoon pink salt (one ounce, 1/4 of the max allowed)"

My interpretation:

1 rounded Tablespoon = 1 Oz = 1/8 Cup = 1 part

can be used with any multiple. I.E. 2448 water, 16 OR 32 salt, 32 sugar, 2 Instacure - etc.

1224 parts water

8 parts salt OR 16 parts salt

16 parts sugar

1 part Instacure

Will a slab of bacon absorb the same amount of cure regardless of the amount of liquid mixture (I.E. one 5 lb. slab soaked in 3 gallons of cure for 7 days)?

 

[fpnmf]

As long as its covered it works...

I usually cover around 12-15 pounds in my bucket with 2 gallons.

So that means times 2 for all ingedients.

"1 gallon water

1-2 cups salt

2 cups sugar

1 rounded Tablespoon pink salt (one ounce, 1/4 of the max allowed)"

  Craig

 

[venture]

Wet?  Dry?  It all works as long as it is done right.

Try it both ways and tell us what you think?

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[tjohnson]

I agree with all the above

Your Weber Kettle is great for smoking, but need to keep the temps under 100°

Keep us posted on your next Bacon Smoke

Todd

 

[chefrob]

  (I have Instacure #1 & Prague Powder #2)

these are NOT the same and should not be subbed for each other......

Hi, thanks for the welcome and the info. I went to fpnmf's post and found his cure:

"1 gallon water

1-2 cups salt

2 cups sugar

1 rounded Tablespoon pink salt (one ounce, 1/4 of the max allowed)"

My interpretation:

1 rounded Tablespoon = 1 Oz = 1/8 Cup = 1 part

can be used with any multiple. I.E. 2448 water, 16 OR 32 salt, 32 sugar, 2 Instacure - etc.

1224 parts water

8 parts salt OR 16 parts salt

16 parts sugar

1 part Instacure

Will a slab of bacon absorb the same amount of cure regardless of the amount of liquid mixture (I.E. one 5 lb. slab soaked in 3 gallons of cure for 7 days)?

unless i'm reading it wrong (which i do from time to time) it looks like your 1 OZ  dry is what you are using for 1 OZ wet and this is how you are getting your calculations.........this will not work.

i recomend doing some more reading on this process before you attempt curing. you are asking some good questions and getting some good answers.

FYI - dry is weight and liquid is volume......1 oz of dry does not equal 1 oz of liquid

i personally dry cure and my formula is for every pound of meat:

1 gm cure #1

7 gm kosher salt

5 gm raw sugar

from there you can add spices and stuff

 

[laveen1]

Ahhh - Sorry about that. I'm not making my self clear.

I know that dry/wet measure is different, and I always use either a scale for dry (if I know the target weight), and measuring spoons or cups for volume. Some recipes give only volume for some common ingredients such as sugar and salt. I always start with a known recipe, and multiply or divide as necessary.

I have done both dry and wet cures. I don't have room in the family refrigerator for a brining container other than a brining bag, so I like the convenience of dry, as compared to wet. However, wet would seem to be a better way to distribute the proper amount evenly.

My question about wet curing is:

Assuming I have used the proper proportions, will meat cure differently if I submerge the meat in 2 gallons or 10 gallons? Will not the surface of the meat will be exposed to the same amount of cure regardless of the size of the container and the amount of liquid in it as long as it's submerged?

P.S.

I will use your recipe the next bacon I cure dry. Do you have a wet recipe?

 

[fpnmf]

>>>>>Assuming I have used the proper proportions, will meat cure differently if I submerge the meat in 2 gallons or 10 gallons?

..No!!

Craig

 

[laveen1]

OK, now I need to find some wet cure recipies for cold smoking bacon.

 

[alblancher]

The amount of brine used is irrelevant,  The brine will have a consitent concentration of Sodium nitrite in it.  The meat will try to attain the same concentration of Sodium nitrite as found in the brine.   We mix brines/cure mix to a safe level of Sodium Nitrite concentration so the meat cannot exceed that amount.  In other words you can't have a higher ppm of cure in the meat then you have in the brine.  This is valid for cuts with high surface area related to mass, like slabs of bacon 

When curing larger cuts (hams, whole butts) an injection and prolonged soak times are used and then the amount of brine absorbed by the cut is important because you are physically placing cure into the interior of the meat.

Look at the dry cured bacon calculator and procedure wiki.  If you are exploring both types of cure methods the Wiki may be helpful

 

[laveen1]

Thank you, - that looks like a really good source of information for me.

I think it's great the way everyone has been so helpful. Thanks to all. I'll post some pics from the next project.

(However, if I don't get back to work now I may not be able to pay for my next bag of coal.)

 

[alblancher]

Laveen1

Get back to work!

 

[SmokinAl]

OK, now I need to find some wet cure recipies for cold smoking bacon.

This is Pops recipe, a lot of us use it.

real simple curing brine:

 for every 1 gallon of water, add:

1/3 - 1 cup sea salt (depending if you're on a lo-salt diet)

1 cup granulated sugar or Splenda[emoji]174[/emoji]

1 cup brown sugar or Splenda[emoji]174[/emoji] brown sugar mix

1 tbsp cure no. 1 pink salt

stir thoroughly until clear amber color, pour over meat, inject if necessary to cure from inside-out as well as outside-in

weight down with a partially filled 1 qt or 1 gal. ziploc bag or bags to keep meat immersed

Curing times vary with meat, but generally overnight to 2-3 days for chickens and turkeys, 8-10 days buckboard bacon, 10-14 days belly bacon, pork shoulder, whole butts, 3-4 weeks whole hams, 10-20 days corned beef (fresh beef roasts, briskets, rolled rib roasts, etc.)   If whole muscle is more than 2" thick, then inject so it can cure i/o as well as o/i, and/or in and around bone structures, etc.

You can add any other flavorings you'd like, this is just the basic curing brine. 1 heaping tablespoon of cure is about 1 ounce.  The maximum concentration allowed safely is 3.84 ounces per 1 gallon of brine (24 lbs.per 100 gallons: 16 oz. x 24 = 384 ounces, 1/100th is 3.84 ounces).  You can experiment with different concentrations as long as you keep it between those parameters:

 

[laveen1]

From my office cam

 

[chefrob]

can't go wrong with pop's formula......i prefer dry cure simply due to the lack of space and i can get more meat cured at once time in the space allotted.

 

[mballi3011]

I also like the dry cure method myself. Now Pops recipe is good to.

 

[papagreer]

You can soak a 5# slab in 100 gallons of brine as long as the mix is correct. Good luck with the bacon, I have some soaking right now...3 days in... Cant wait for the weekend so I can smoke it!

Chris

 

[brentforsberg]

So my friend had a pig butchered and we asked the processor to leave the pork belly whole so we could cure our own bacon.  Went to pick up the pig to find the porkbelly presliced and in 1lb packages.  He apologized for the mix up and said oops.  Anyway, to try and salvage the problem,  last night I put the strips in a cure of

2cups Kosher Salt, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1/4 cup of ribrub I made some time ago and had left over, pepper, and sage.  Depending on how it looks I am going to try a cold smoke of the strips tonight or tomorrow with some apple or cherry wood, for about 4 hours. Using the cold smoke method in order to try and not turn these stips into pig jerky.  Looked up tips online and found this thread.  I should have just came to the forum and searched here, since I had asked about this method almost a year ago here and forgot :)    Just wanted to post and keep track of what happens.  If anyone else has better ideas, we have 4 more pounds of these strips left to work with.

Bacon cure.jpg

• brentforsberg
• Jan 16, 2013