Injecting brine

[Killa J]

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.

 

[smokerjim]

no answer here but i'll be watching.

 

[SmokyMose]

What did he inject it with?

 

[SmokinEdge]

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.

 

[Killa J]

What did he inject it with?

Pretty standard curing brine - water, salt, curing salt, maple syrup

 

[SmokyMose]

Pretty standard curing brine - water, salt, curing salt, maple syrup

I suppose you could get some maple flavor that way ( I use maple extract in the brine), but I don't know why he used the cure salt just to hot smoke it the next day.

 

[smokin peachey]

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

 

[smokin peachey]

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.

 

[thirdeye]

I suppose you could get some maple flavor that way ( I use maple extract in the brine), but I don't know why he used the cure salt just to hot smoke it the next day.

Maybe he was using it for color?

 

[motocrash]

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 is doing a 10% pump with hams and hot smoking the next day?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Can you please post a ham method that you think produces a better ham then using the 10% method? Thanks

What’s in your 10% pump?

 

[SmokinEdge]

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.

 

[SmokyMose]

Maybe he was using it for color?

That could be. Maybe if it's a restaurant they're giving themselves a margin of safety....

 

[Killa J]

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.

 

[thirdeye]

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.

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

 

[motocrash]

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.

AskUSDA

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

Don't heat pink cure in your brine.

You look at 100 brine recipes containing curing salt and you will find that 95% of the recipes call for or say that you can heat the mix on the stove and whisk or stir while boiling. I am in the camp of playing it safe and not heating my brine with curing salt in it. You may not have heard...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[SmokinEdge]

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.

AskUSDA

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

Don't heat pink cure in your brine.

You look at 100 brine recipes containing curing salt and you will find that 95% of the recipes call for or say that you can heat the mix on the stove and whisk or stir while boiling. I am in the camp of playing it safe and not heating my brine with curing salt in it. You may not have heard...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

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