Help with first time bacon.

[SmokinEdge]

Is someone available to check my math before I do this? Also the belly seams very uneven in thickness. One end looks more like pork shoulder a bit. ??

I ended up portioning the belly into 3 pics. That's the reason for three measurements.

You are good to go. The thickness is fine. As long as it’s 3” or less you are golden. Go. 10-12 days at minimum and you will be rewarded.

 

[Delibar]

A few additional questions:
1. Do you always have to use the recommended salt + sugar when using cure #1 for the dry rub?
2. Even when making snack sticks I have dissolved the cure #1 with a store bought mix (Willie's Snack Stick for example) I have not included salt + sugar.

Is the salt and sugar a requirement when using cure #1?

Thanks all.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Is the salt and sugar a requirement when using cure #1?

Yes it is when building your own rub. If buying a pre made rub or seasoning with no cure #1 then you need to add the cure, but if building your own dry rub (as is this discussion) you have obviously add salt and sugar as well as cure #1

 

[hooked on smoke]

Cure mixture applied and bagged yesterday evening. Into the fridge they went.

I noticed this morning 2 of the 3 bags already have some liquid in them, I'm guessing this is normal?
Now, do I flip and message the bags every 2 days?
Based on the different thicknesses will I need to pull the thinner pieces before the thicker or will they be okay to ride it out for the 12-14 days? Based on the calculations they technically will finish at different times. How does that work?

I'm figuring all this out with the help of you all and I really appreciate your input.

Thanks again and everyone.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Cure mixture applied and bagged yesterday evening. Into the fridge they went.

I noticed this morning 2 of the 3 bags already have some liquid in them, I'm guessing this is normal?
Now, do I flip and message the bags every 2 days?
Based on the different thicknesses will I need to pull the thinner pieces before the thicker or will they be okay to ride it out for the 12-14 days? Based on the calculations they technically will finish at different times. How does that work?

I'm figuring all this out with the help of you all and I really appreciate your input.

Thanks again and everyone.

Flip every couple days. The liquid in the bag is normal, the fresher the meat the more liquid. At about day 5 to 7 most of the liquid will reabsorb into the meat and disappear. Don’t worry about the difference in thickness of meat. Let it all ride 10-14 days. You will develop good flavor. One of the big benefits of using a weighed out dry cure to meat weight is that the meat will never be more or less salty than what you actually applied. So 10-14 days is best but 21 days is fine to if life happens and you can’t get to it. You will enjoy the results.

 

[DougE]

Don’t worry about the difference in thickness of meat. Let it all ride 10-14 days. You will develop good flavor. One of the big benefits of using a weighed out dry cure to meat weight is that the meat will never be more or less salty than what you actually applied.

What Eric said. The thinner pieces will be just fine riding as long as the thicker ones. You can't overcure with an equilibrium cure like this.

So 10-14 days is best but 21 days is fine to if life happens and you can’t get to it. You will enjoy the results.

Yep, sometimes life gets in the way but going longer than the 14 days I normally cure bacon for doesn't really change anything. I'd put the limit with cure#1 to 30 days though.

 

[hooked on smoke]

Flip every couple days. The liquid in the bag is normal, the fresher the meat the more liquid. At about day 5 to 7 most of the liquid will reabsorb into the meat and disappear. Don’t worry about the difference in thickness of meat. Let it all ride 10-14 days. You will develop good flavor. One of the big benefits of using a weighed out dry cure to meat weight is that the meat will never be more or less salty than what you actually applied. So 10-14 days is best but 21 days is fine to if life happens and you can’t get to it. You will enjoy the results.

You rock, thanks for the help.

 

[hooked on smoke]

What Eric said. The thinner pieces will be just fine riding as long as the thicker ones. You can't overcure with an equilibrium cure like this.

Yep, sometimes life gets in the way but going longer than the 14 days I normally cure bacon for doesn't really change anything. I'd put the limit with cure#1 to 30 days though.

Good to know, thank you. I love this place!

 

[DougE]

I love this place!

You won't find a site on the interwebs with a larger knowledge base than this one when it comes to smoking and curing meats.

 

[tallbm]

A few additional questions:
1. Do you always have to use the recommended salt + sugar when using cure #1 for the dry rub?
2. Even when making snack sticks I have dissolved the cure #1 with a store bought mix (Willie's Snack Stick for example) I have not included salt + sugar.

Is the salt and sugar a requirement when using cure #1?

Thanks all.

When you buy an off the shelf mix like the Willie's Snack Sticks, the seasoning is mostly salt and sugar along with their other seasonings for flavor so as SmokingEdge stated there is no need to add any salt and sugar with the store bought seasoning THOUGH you do need to add cure#1 to it... which they often provide in a separate baggy within the seasoning package.

When you make your own cure and seasoning you MUST use salt for sure. Sugar helps but seems to be optional. Salt is the magic component that wants to really really penetrate and travel equally into everything it is in contact with.

One more tip about store bought seasonings. I often find them to be way too salty and they don't scale well based on their by volume instructions (by volume = teaspoons/tablespoons). So for each store bought seasoning I buy convert to per pound seasoning amounts for 1 pound of meat.

I do this by weighting the amount of seasoning in the pack (yeah I pour it out because the amount on the label is often off) and seeing how much seasoning they claim a whole pack does.
For example a pack of seasoning for 20 pounds of meat may contain 510gms of seasoning.
So 510gm divided by 20 lbs = 42.5gms of seasoning per 1 pound of meat.
I then mix up 42.5gm of seasoning for 1 pound of meat and do the fry test and adjust from there.

I find this way to be very very very good to start with and almost every store bought seasoning does over 2% salt and 1% sugar or so for their seasoning mixes. I prefer about 1.65% salt so more often than not I end up adjusting the per pound weight down to be less salty, BUT there are a few I have adjusted up because sometimes seasonings are just bland.


I have personally seen that this applies to bacon seasonings just as much as sausage seasonings. I've done this with at least 3 LEM's bacon seasoning backs that I either bought or were gifted and used this with at least 5 Lems sausage seasonings, 1 ownes, 2 AC Leggs, and a couple of random Jerky seasonings. My little discovered process for off the store seasonings seems to work super well with all of them to help get close so you can dial it in via the testing process :D
It is horrible to not figure this out and then discover the problem after making like 40 pounds of meat that is too bland or too salty because measurements didn't scale or were just plain stupid to begin with hahahha.

I hope this info helps :D

Good to know, thank you. I love this place!

I'm a huge fan of equilibrium cure, dry or wet. And yeah this site and these people are the best source of this stuff IN THE WORLD!!!!

 

[hooked on smoke]

Side question,
I've had my cure#1 for a little over a year now. I've stored it in a ziploc or vacuum sealed bag. It seems clumpy . If I remember right, it has been like that since I purchased it. Is there a way to know if it's still okay.
Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite me after prepping my first batch of bacon. Ahhh!

 

[DougE]

I have some cure#1 that is a few years old. It's lost most of the pink color and has turned almost as white as table salt. It still works as advertised.

 

[hooked on smoke]

I have some cure#1 that is a few years old. It's lost most of the pink color and has turned almost as white as table salt. It still works as advertised.

Mine seams almost moist and clumpy. ??

 

[Fueling Around]

A few additional questions:
1. Do you always have to use the recommended salt + sugar when using cure #1 for the dry rub?
2. Even when making snack sticks I have dissolved the cure #1 with a store bought mix (Willie's Snack Stick for example) I have not included salt + sugar.

Is the salt and sugar a requirement when using cure #1?

Thanks all.

I'm not sure the full context when dealing with a commercial seasoning blend.
I make my own seasoning, delete sugars and drop the salt to 1/2 to 1% based on the 1/4% the cure #1 adds.

Mine seams almost moist and clumpy. ??

That's when I noticed my cure was funky as the batch of bacon I processed with it took 5 weeks. .
Discard and get a new batch.

 

[hooked on smoke]

I'm not sure the full context when dealing with a commercial seasoning blend.
I make my own seasoning, delete sugars and drop the salt to 1/2 to 1% based on the 1/4% the cure #1 adds.

That's when I noticed my cure was funky as the batch of bacon I processed with it took 5 weeks. .
Discard and get a new batch.

Ahhh, no. Is my bacon ruined??? Dang it!!

 

[DougE]

Ahhh, no. Is my bacon ruined??? Dang it!!

I'd let it ride a couple weeks and see what ya have.

 

[Delibar]

When you buy an off the shelf mix like the Willie's Snack Sticks, the seasoning is mostly salt and sugar along with their other seasonings for flavor so as SmokingEdge stated there is no need to add any salt and sugar with the store bought seasoning THOUGH you do need to add cure#1 to it... which they often provide in a separate baggy within the seasoning package.

When you make your own cure and seasoning you MUST use salt for sure. Sugar helps but seems to be optional. Salt is the magic component that wants to really really penetrate and travel equally into everything it is in contact with.

One more tip about store bought seasonings. I often find them to be way too salty and they don't scale well based on their by volume instructions (by volume = teaspoons/tablespoons). So for each store bought seasoning I buy convert to per pound seasoning amounts for 1 pound of meat.

I do this by weighting the amount of seasoning in the pack (yeah I pour it out because the amount on the label is often off) and seeing how much seasoning they claim a whole pack does.
For example a pack of seasoning for 20 pounds of meat may contain 510gms of seasoning.
So 510gm divided by 20 lbs = 42.5gms of seasoning per 1 pound of meat.
I then mix up 42.5gm of seasoning for 1 pound of meat and do the fry test and adjust from there.

I find this way to be very very very good to start with and almost every store bought seasoning does over 2% salt and 1% sugar or so for their seasoning mixes. I prefer about 1.65% salt so more often than not I end up adjusting the per pound weight down to be less salty, BUT there are a few I have adjusted up because sometimes seasonings are just bland.


I have personally seen that this applies to bacon seasonings just as much as sausage seasonings. I've done this with at least 3 LEM's bacon seasoning backs that I either bought or were gifted and used this with at least 5 Lems sausage seasonings, 1 ownes, 2 AC Leggs, and a couple of random Jerky seasonings. My little discovered process for off the store seasonings seems to work super well with all of them to help get close so you can dial it in via the testing process :D
It is horrible to not figure this out and then discover the problem after making like 40 pounds of meat that is too bland or too salty because measurements didn't scale or were just plain stupid to begin with hahahha.

I hope this info helps :D


I'm a huge fan of equilibrium cure, dry or wet. And yeah this site and these people are the best source of this stuff IN THE WORLD!!!!

Thanks Tallbm and the rest. This is exactly the info looking for and what I assumed. I do use my own cure #1 vs the packets that are provided with store bought shelf mixes. All meat weighed in grams, then use diggingdog calc to determine amount of cure #1. Smoke on!

 

[Fueling Around]

Ahhh, no. Is my bacon ruined??? Dang it!!

I think not.
My (new) cure #1 is nice fine dry granules.
I bought my first from a local meat market that also caters to home processors. It arrived kinda damp as a product that was frozen in a ziplock bag and defrosted. It served me well for many years but even stored in a mason jar it eventually failed.

I'd let it ride a couple weeks and see what ya have.

Thanks Doug

After the cure time, take one of the three pieces and smoke it. Slice and check for grey spots.

 

[hooked on smoke]

Dang it, now I'm nervous . I'll have to wait and see.

 

[hooked on smoke]

I purchased my first batch of cure #1 from Amazon.
Should I not rely on the quality they sell?

Where would be a good place to purchase my next batch?