First smoke bacon

[lovetosmoke]

I smoked my first bacon last weekend. For some reason it extremely salty. I used a rub that you are supposed to rub into the bacon and let it cure for five to seven days. Before it is to be smoked I rinsed off the cure and soaked the meat for about twenty minutes in water. I then repeated the rinse and soak for another twenty minutes. I then smoked it for about four hours with apple wood. When I cooked the bacon it almost tasted like eating pure salt. Can anyone tell me why the bacon became so salty or if I am doing something wrong?

 

[cheech]

not sure how much salt did you use on it was it totally covered?

 

[ghost308]

I had the same problem the first time I made canadian bacon, try this next time.
Wash off all cure with cold water, soak bacon in luke-warm water for 2 hours, pat dry, put in a covered container in the fridge for 2 days for equilibration, then smoke Lowwww and Slowwww , 140 or lower for 10 - 16 hours depending on taste.

 

[t-bone tim]

Was this side bacon ?? or loin ( canadian bacon )?? if it was side bacon (belly ) maybe cut back the cure time a day or 2 ?? or add some extra sugar to the cure to help cut the salt ? just my .02 worth

 

[nogoer]

I made some cured pork chunks last weekend that were horribly too salty. I knew ahead of time i used too much tenderquick, but i also tried the soaking like you for about a half hour. Im pretty positive the shortish soaks aren't long enough to lessen the salt. Two hours or so of soaking like suggested above is probably the right amount.

Whats your recipe? Did you use tenderquick or a dry/wet rub of prague 1 and salt?

As for cutting back the cure time as suggested...the side meat needs to cure long enough to firm up or it wont come out right. My best suggestion is to find a way to reduce the salt amount or if using tenderquick use less of it. Make sure you use at least the minimum amount for saftey though.

Take my advice with some reservation though. Ive never made bacon and havent been curing for that long. I have done waaaaay too much reasearch and reading though so there should be something helpful in what i spout.

 

[cheech]

lovetosmoke can you give us some more information like size of the cut of meat, type of meat, recipe you used etc?