Dry cure measurements

[oleolson]

I picked up a 4.5 lb piece of pork belly from Costco and am looking for the amounts of salt, brown sugar, and cure I should be using for this size.  I plan on cold smoking it and slicing it into bacon slices.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

 

[lamar]

The amount of cure depends on what king of cure you are using. The package should tell; you how much per pound of meat to use. If you are using Morton's Tender Quick, it has salt already in it. Do a search for Bear's recipe for bacon and you will find all you need to know about making bacon.

Good luck

Lamar

 

[oregon smoker]

 
I picked up a 4.5 lb piece of pork belly from Costco and am looking for the amounts of salt, brown sugar, and cure I should be using for this size.  I plan on cold smoking it and slicing it into bacon slices.  Any help would be appreciated. 

Ole,

Here are links to two different dry bacon cures , two opinions two applications both are excellent choices.  I personally use a variant of BearCarvers due to the lower salts, I tried various wet cures and my wife could not tolerate the sodium at the finish. I then worked with these two dry methods (with better success for Mrs OS) , and after multiple batches I then modified it to our liking (major health reasons) Now we have our solution to our bacon quandary. I have links below for you,

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/96761/smoked-bacon-step-by-step-with-qview

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/159333/bears-step-by-step-index#post_1149932

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/108099/bacon-extra-smoky

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/178233/mr-ts-sugar-cured-bacon

Keep On Smokin,

Tom

 

[oleolson]

Awesome!  Thank you!

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Give this a read. Everything you need to know about cure is here in one place.

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts

 

[gibsorz]

If you are using cure #1, a member on this site created an excellent calculator.

http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html?result=7560+8618&secret=

This will work with both dry cures and brine. For a brine combine the weight of the water along with the weight of your meat and place that in the weight of the meat box. I adjust parts per million to 120 for bacon. Everything else I keep at 156.