Injecting brine

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Killa J

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Apr 10, 2018
88
19
I watched a YouTube video where the guy from Chud’s BBQ injects a pork belly and then smokes it the next day. He hot smoked it, so I know it’s safe, but do you still get the same bacon flavor that way? Not having a pork belly curing for days in the fridge would go over much better with my wife, she hasn’t been a fan of me making bacon because of that in the past.
 
I watched a YouTube video where the guy from Chud’s BBQ injects a pork belly and then smokes it the next day. He hot smoked it, so I know it’s safe, but do you still get the same bacon flavor that way? Not having a pork belly curing for days in the fridge would go over much better with my wife, she hasn’t been a fan of me making bacon because of that in the past.
Short answer is no on flavor. It won’t be as good. That said almost all commercial bacon is made that way, but when they stitch pump they use 120ppm nitrite and add sodium erythorbate as a cure accelerator and the cure happens fast, but for it to work well the bellies need to go through a vacuum tumbler to massage the injected cure throughout the meat. They add different commercial ingredients to get that store bacon flavor. I’ve done the pump at 10% of meat weight and I’m not a fan. Good cure takes time. Every time I try to find a fast way, flavor always suffers. Get a little dorm fridge that you can tuck out of the way to use just for curing so you stay outta mommas fridge.
 
Short answer is no on flavor. It won’t be as good. That said almost all commercial bacon is made that way, but when they stitch pump they use 120ppm nitrite and add sodium erythorbate as a cure accelerator and the cure happens fast, but for it to work well the bellies need to go through a vacuum tumbler to massage the injected cure throughout the meat. They add different commercial ingredients to get that store bacon flavor. I’ve done the pump at 10% of meat weight and I’m not a fan. Good cure takes time. Every time I try to find a fast way, flavor always suffers. Get a little dorm fridge that you can tuck out of the way to use just for curing so you stay outta mommas fridge.
Can you please post a ham method that you think produces a better ham then using the 10% method? Thanks
 
I watched a YouTube video where the guy from Chud’s BBQ injects a pork belly and then smokes it the next day. He hot smoked it, so I know it’s safe, but do you still get the same bacon flavor that way? Not having a pork belly curing for days in the fridge would go over much better with my wife, she hasn’t been a fan of me making bacon because of that in the past.
I’d suggest you try it and see if you like it. Happy wife equals happy life so if it turns out to your liking it’s a win win.
 
I say try it. Since it's hot smoked, no safety issues if brought to 145 and the cure is the proper ratio.
Short answer is no on flavor. It won’t be as good. That said almost all commercial bacon is made that way, but when they stitch pump they use 120ppm nitrite and add sodium erythorbate as a cure accelerator and the cure happens fast, but for it to work well the bellies need to go through a vacuum tumbler to massage the injected cure throughout the meat. They add different commercial ingredients to get that store bacon flavor. I’ve done the pump at 10% of meat weight and I’m not a fan. Good cure takes time. Every time I try to find a fast way, flavor always suffers. Get a little dorm fridge that you can tuck out of the way to use just for curing so you stay outta mommas fridge.
Sounds like maybe it won't be as tasty as it could be if cured in fridge.
On the other hand it sounds like smokin peachey smokin peachey is doing a 10% pump with hams and hot smoking the next day?
 
I say try it. Since it's hot smoked, no safety issues if brought to 145 and the cure is the proper ratio.
To smoke next day you would have to apply Sodium Erythorbate at 0.05% to meat weight included in the pump. Otherwise don’t do it.
 
I just assumed it was to give the bacon cured flavor and not taste like smoked pork belly

Edit - I should have mentioned that he also placed it in brine overnight, not just injected it. So he injected the brine and put it in a container of brine overnight.
 
Last edited:
That could be. Maybe if it's a restaurant they're giving themselves a margin of safety....
I just assumed it was to give the bacon cured flavor and not taste like smoked pork belly

It's hard to say but as an example, these chops get a cure for maybe 8 hours, but are either pan fried or hot smoked for Gepockelte, a German dish. It's partly a visual but the meat does firm a tick.
VUjd6Jn.jpg

The same with the center sausage (German), it gets a token amount of cure for the pink color. It's a fresh beef/pork sausage and is either grilled or pan fried. Chorizo is the top link, and another German recipe with pork and bacon ends is on the bottom. It has no cure
gOhnlhl.jpg
 
To smoke next day you would have to apply Sodium Erythorbate at 0.05% to meat weight included in the pump. Otherwise don’t do it.

So a " color fixative " is mandatory ?

What is sodium erythorbate?


Jul 17, 2019
KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE
Sodium erythorbate is the sodium of erythorbic acid, a highly refined food-grade chemical closely related to vitamin C, synthesized from sugar, and used as a color fixative in preparing cured meats. (Note: Erythorbate is NOT earthworms. Perhaps the spelling or pronunciation has contributed to this misconception because the hotline has received calls related to this concern.


Also, good fellow daveomak daveomak posted this a few years ago on a curing thread.

 
So a " color fixative " is mandatory ?

What is sodium erythorbate?


Jul 17, 2019
KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE
Sodium erythorbate is the sodium of erythorbic acid, a highly refined food-grade chemical closely related to vitamin C, synthesized from sugar, and used as a color fixative in preparing cured meats. (Note: Erythorbate is NOT earthworms. Perhaps the spelling or pronunciation has contributed to this misconception because the hotline has received calls related to this concern.


Also, good fellow daveomak daveomak posted this a few years ago on a curing thread.

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and it’s derivatives, such as sodium erythorbate, act as preservatives fixing color, but they also act as cure accelerators to nitrite Making the ultimate conversion to Nitric oxide much faster and thus completing that part of the cure process. Without some form of ascorbic acid present the curing process will not complete in 24hrs and you will be eating sodium nitrite. That’s not the goal
 
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