First time Bacon, quick question on the Cure

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Italbro

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 6, 2017
5
0
Hi everyone,

First time post here. Following this site some for quite some time, helps me with all my recipes and cooks so Thanks Everyone :).

I'm doing bacon for the first time, purchased a pork belly, cut it in 2 (for 2 recipes), slightly over 1kg each and skin removed. Used the following recipe (with some minor tweaks) and used the calculator to get the right amounts.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bacon-step-by-step-video.282831/

so for 1300 grams of meat, used:
4.15 gr of Pink Cure #1
25.8 gr of Brown Sugar
22.9 gr of Sea Salt
2 teaspoon of Black Pepper
1/2 Cup of Maple Sirup (on only 1 piece)

I've mixed all those ingredients, pour 1/2 of the mix on 1 side, then other half on the other side and kept just a bit for the sides and top.

My main concern is the amount of the mix seemed to be short or border line limit. I'm not sure if this is normal, should have I added more since my skin was removed ? I have a feeling that I didn't have enough mix to cover the entire piece and 4.15gr of Pink Cure seemed very low.

Maybe it will turn out great and I'm only worried because its my first time but any type of help would be great.

I will cure the meet for 7-8 days, flipping side every day. I will then clean the meat, let it rest on the fridge uncovered for 1 day and then smoke till it reaches 150 internal temp.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
 
I'll just add...Flip and Massage. The massaging helps move the cure and any liquid around for distribution. Figure 7 days per inch and round up. Curing a few days longer is better than rushing the process...JJ
 
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If you thoroughly mix the ingredients as one mix, distribution will be easier and the "void" spots will be less obvious... Works for me...

4.15 gr of Pink Cure #1
25.8 gr of Brown Sugar
22.9 gr of Sea Salt
2 teaspoon of Black Pepper
 
Thanks everyone. yes I've combined all ingredients, mixed them up and applied trough the entire meat. Ill cure for 11-12 days (1.5 inch piece). cant wait to get this done. still 2 weeks to get there.
 
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