First time home curing and smoking bacon

[chopsaw]

You're fine . Let it sit in the fridge for a day or two . Then slice and fry .
It looks great .

Edit :
I would slice along the length , not the width . You do which ever you like though .

 

[millerbuilds]

Looks great! I like to let the slab sit in the fridge for a couple days before slicing and frying. IMHO it allows the smoke and flavor to "settle in".

- Jason

 

[Pit pixie]

Looks great! I like to let the slab sit in the fridge for a couple days before slicing and frying. IMHO it allows the smoke and flavor to "settle in".

- Jason

Its in the fridge now.
I took a few slices off to see what it taste like.
Its a little salty, I am hoping the inner meat is less so.
Ill share some more pics in a day or so.

 

[Pit pixie]

Thank you so much guys for all your help.

Lucy

 

[TNJAKE]

What's your cure recipe?

 

[Brokenhandle]

When you do your next batch and after curing, cut a slice out of the middle and do a fry test before smoking. That way if it's too salty you can soak it in cold water for an hour or so and change the water at least once. Once it's smoked you can't do anything about it.
What I referred to earlier about cold smoking...

Using a tube for smoke, and an amnps (not pictured)

We know you will do more! It's a good day for bacon...have 33 lbs smoking now.

Ryan

 

[Pit pixie]

What's your cure recipe?

Thats the cure recipe I used.
First time I have ever cured as well.
I swapped all salt and cure in this recipe for a pre mixed cure for cooked meats.

General Purpose Cure (For Cooked Products)

This general purpose cure is a safe and easy to use cure for hams and bacon or any product that requires cooking before consumption. Simply replace the salt and cure quantity in any recipe with our pre-mixed salt. Contains salt and Sodium Nitrite in the correct ratio for safe and effective...

www.homecuring.co.uk

I left for 7 day, rubbing every day and then washed off the cure and air dired in the fridge for 24 hours.

 

[TNJAKE]

View attachment 641575

Thats the cure recipe I used.
First time I have ever cured as well.
I swapped all salt and cure in this recipe for a pre mixed cure for cooked meats.

General Purpose Cure (For Cooked Products)

This general purpose cure is a safe and easy to use cure for hams and bacon or any product that requires cooking before consumption. Simply replace the salt and cure quantity in any recipe with our pre-mixed salt. Contains salt and Sodium Nitrite in the correct ratio for safe and effective...

www.homecuring.co.uk

I left for 7 day, rubbing every day and then washed off the cure and air dired in the fridge for 24 hours

When you say you replaced the salt and cure with the pre mix you bought did you use 5 tablespoons of the pre mix cure?

 

[Pit pixie]

When you say you replaced the salt and cure with the pre mix you bought did you use 5 tablespoons of the pre mix cure?

Yes I did, when doing it I was not sure but that's what the supplier if the pre mix suggests so I went with it.

However there was this inside a book that come with the mix....

I do use messuring spoons not not scales, just for ease more than anything.

I do think I used to much salt/cure which is why it is salty.

 

[TNJAKE]

Yes I did, when doing it I was not sure but that's what the supplier if the pre mix suggests so I went with it.

However there was this inside a book that come with the mix....View attachment 641579

I do use messuring spoons not not scales, just for ease more than anything.

I do think I used to much salt/cure which is why it is salty.

You are correct you used wayyyyyyy too much cure. Next time follow those steps that you took a picture of. When you weight your ingredients you will never have any doubts and your belly will never be too salty. Also will be repeatable time after time. Don't mix recipes unless you know what you are doing. Too much cure #1 can be dangerous to your health

 

[Pit pixie]

You are correct you used wayyyyyyy too much cure. Next time follow those steps that you took a picture of. When you weight your ingredients you will never have any doubts and your belly will never be too salty. Also will be repeatable time after time. Don't mix recipes unless you know what you are doing. Too much cure #1 can be dangerous to your health

This is soo hard.
Oh well I'll try again and see what happens lol

 

[TNJAKE]

This is soo hard.
Oh well I'll try again and see what happens lol

It's not hard at all but it is very important to be careful with the curing salt. If you are intimidated by the math here's a curing calculator that will help remove the guess work

Netfirms | This site is temporarily unavailable

Small business web hosting offering additional business services such as: domain name registrations, email accounts, web services, FrontPage help, online community resources and various small business solutions.

www.diggingdogfarm.com

Order you a gram scale off Amazon. They are cheap

 

[JLeonard]

It's not hard at all but it is very important to be careful with the curing salt. If you are intimidated by the math here's a curing calculator that will help remove the guess work

Netfirms | This site is temporarily unavailable

Small business web hosting offering additional business services such as: domain name registrations, email accounts, web services, FrontPage help, online community resources and various small business solutions.

www.diggingdogfarm.com

Order you a gram scale off Amazon. They are cheap

I Second what Jake said here. I got a scale for less that $20 off the 'zon. and the digging doc calc is bookmarked on my iPad.
Jim

 

[Retired Spook]

I am absolutely sure that there are people here that are far more knowledgeable than me but this is my cure recipe and a photo of the curing salt (pink) that I use.

This is a "dry cure." A "wet cure" (submerged in brine) is far more complicated, in my humble opinion, and you must know the exact weight of water and meat and calculate amount of cure perfectly.

For 5-lbs of bacon:

1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1-teaspoon onion powder
1-teaspoon garlic powder
1-teaspoon pink curing salt

Adjust up or down according to bacon weight.

Rub all over bacon and put in zip lock. Place zip-lock in fridge for 6 or 7-days. Each day, rub the bacon to distribute the cure and, flip the bag over.

When finished, rinse very well, then soak bacon in ice cold water in fridge for up to 24-hours to desalinate.

Then place slab on rack in fridge for additional 24-hours.

Then smoke!

This has worked well for me every time. Not saying I am an expert but I hope it helps you decide how to move forward with your next attempt!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yes I did, when doing it I was not sure but that's what the supplier if the pre mix suggests so I went with it.

However there was this inside a book that come with the mix....View attachment 641579

I do use messuring spoons not not scales, just for ease more than anything.

I do think I used to much salt/cure which is why it is salty.

Jake is taking good care of you.
Im not a huge fan of premix cures to me they may be handy but never taste just right, and that picture of the book included reads very vague as to what exactly we are applying in terms of salt, cure and sugar or other ingredients.

If you want to make life simple and make the best bacon you’ve ever had, let us help you formulate a recipe. You will need a gram scale, some cure #1 but otherwise just fine grain salt (non-iodized) and simple white sugar.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I am absolutely sure that there are people here that are far more knowledgeable than me but this is my cure recipe and a photo of the curing salt (pink) that I use.

This is a "dry cure." A "wet cure" (submerged in brine) is far more complicated, in my humble opinion, and you must know the exact weight of water and meat and calculate amount of cure perfectly.

View attachment 641580

For 5-lbs of bacon:

1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1-teaspoon onion powder
1-teaspoon garlic powder
1-teaspoon pink curing salt

Adjust up or down according to bacon weight.

Rub all over bacon and put in zip lock. Place zip-lock in fridge for 6 or 7-days. Each day, rub the bacon to distribute the cure and, flip the bag over.

When finished, rinse very well, then soak bacon in ice cold water in fridge for up to 24-hours to desalinate.

Then place slab on rack in fridge for additional 24-hours.

Then smoke!

This has worked well for me every time. Not saying I am an expert but I hope it helps you decide how to move forward with your next attempt!

All well and good, but what do you do when you have 3.5# of belly, or some other odd number in weight? You should really never cure meat with spoons and cups as measure. There are far too many variables. Use the metric system, weigh out the cure #1, salt and sugar. All of the flavor aromatics can be eyeballed. This will give complete control over the cure process and give exact repeatable results no matter the meat weight.

 

[Retired Spook]

All well and good, but what do you do when you have 3.5# of belly, or some other odd number in weight?

You get your calculator out and adjust up or down depending on weight.

The only ingredient you have to get perfect is the curing salt - if you believe a gram calculator is required to do that, I have no problem with that.

 

[Brokenhandle]

It can be a little overwhelming at first but is really quite simple, it was for me also at first when I started. Yes, get a gram scale, here is what I use for measuring cure 1

I also have a bigger one that goes up to 10 lbs for weighing meat.
Also the instacure #1 (Prague powder #1) , they had it on that site you got your other mixture.
By weighing everything in grams you can cure bacon and never have to soak it because it's too salty. The digging dog farm link makes it simple, just type in the weight of your meat.

Ryan

 

[Retired Spook]

Like almost everything - people have been curing bacon at home for a very long time - since way before anyone had gram scales!

But I am not opposed to using one - I just never felt like I had to.

Did not mean to offend anyone just wanted to help. Been makin' bacon at home for 30-years.

 

[TNJAKE]

Like almost everything - people have been curing bacon at home for a very long time - since way before anyone had gram scales!

But I am not opposed to using one - I just never felt like I had to.

Did not mean to offend anyone just wanted to help. Been makin' bacon at home for 30-years.

I don't think anyone is offended. We are all adults and most of us can carry a civil discussion. You are correct people have been curing for a long long time......back in the day it was also more common to die or get sick from guesswork. It's 2022 now and safety has come a long way. No need to be risky anymore with modern curing methods