Is Heart-Healthy Bacon an impossible oxymoron?

[Inscrutable]

It's a cure mix with maple flavoring . Morton's used to make one . A lot of the Owens seasoning use it in one form or another .
If you're adjusting salt for health reasons , you can do your own by percentage of the weight .
Salt , sugar , and cure 1 . You could add maple extract or syrup if you want the maple flavor .

Yes, I’m on <2000 mg/day … that’s pretty hard to do if you don’t make most everything yourself. But I may give myself a hall pass once a month.

It comes as a kit . The seasoning and the cure . The cure is salt , sugar . maple sugar and cure 1 .
Used at a rate of 1 3/4 tsp per pound , for that kit . I never cross them over , I keep it with the kit it came with . Any leftover gets tossed .
This is from a Summer sausage kit , but same stuff .
View attachment 715565

Ok, I see that now …

 

[mneeley490]

Turkey bacon?


Sorry, that's not bacon, not even close.

Turkey bacon is the reason I have trust issues.

 

[Hijack73]

I'm the weirdo who likes turkey bacon. I don't like turkey in any other form but turkey bacon tastes like a really good spam to me. Nope, it's not bacon, but it's thinly presliced premium spamoid lol

 

[Winterrider]

Owens bacon seasoning is very good. Curleys closed unfortunately

 

[chopsaw]

I'm the weirdo who likes turkey bacon.

Never had turkey bacon , but used to buy the turkey pastrami at a local deli . Good stuff .
I think the original was made with goose breast .

 

[pc farmer]

Just to back up what chopsaw said. I have used the ground formed bacon with venison from Owens bbq and it's very good.

 

[Fueling Around]

Thanks for the shout out Brokenhandle and SmokinEdge
I never go over 1% and usually run about 1/2% salt in my sausage or cures.
I was a bit leery about very low salt until I read a comment by Rytek Kutas where he stated the salt alone (roughly 1/4%) in cure #1 is enough to safely cure meat along with the sodium nitrite.
Also make sure your cure #1 is fresh. I got messed up by expired cure a couple of years ago.

Yes, I’m on <2000 mg/day … that’s pretty hard to do if you don’t make most everything yourself. But I may give myself a hall pass once a month.
...

If you're on a sodium restricted diet also remember to reduce or remove your added sugars as well. Processed sugars are highly inflammatory.

I dry cure bacon at 1/2% total salt which means cure #1 (1/4%) and 1/4% salt and NO sugar.
Cold smoking is good, but oddly I prefer hot smoking. My taste I guess.

Do not wet cure low salt meat. The brine gets the slime very quickly.

 

[mike243]

I think a brine is more accurate than a dry rub, the salt and cure is added in and no washing the unused salt rub off after set time,

 

[zwiller]

Anyone on sodium restriction needs to bump their water intake, research the sodium potassium pump, and start using potassium chloride (KCl) into their food. Yes KCl can be used to make bacon. Not straight but in conjunction with salt (NaCl) Sorry, no recipe or anything.

 

[Fueling Around]

I think a brine is more accurate than a dry rub, the salt and cure is added in and no washing the unused salt rub off after set time,

Probably, but I haven't had any problem with internal grey areas with dry rub
But as I mentioned earlier, a low salt wet brine gets slimy before the cure cycle is complete.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I think a brine is more accurate than a dry rub, the salt and cure is added in and no washing the unused salt rub off after set time,

Not true.
A piece of meat in a brine will pick or uptake various amount of sodium and cure from the brine. It’s not very predictable. You may like the results, but without laboratory tests it’s a crap shoot at the final uptake of nitrite and sodium.

With a dry rub, the salt and nitrite we apply directly reacts with the meat and 100% is infused into the meat. So the meat always ends up exactly as we applied cure, and is always 100% repeatable when applied to meat weight specifically.

 

[Fueling Around]

Anyone on sodium restriction needs to bump their water intake, research the sodium potassium pump, and start using potassium chloride (KCl) into their food. Yes KCl can be used to make bacon. Not straight but in conjunction with salt (NaCl) Sorry, no recipe or anything.

I never hear the potassium link.

 

[paulgeorge]

Fry up a slice of your homemade bacon before you smoke it. If it is too salty, soak it in water for awhile, then try it again. You will get a feel for how long to soak it, to get to your desired salt taste based on the recipe you use for curing.
If It's nitrates and nitrites you are concerned about, I recommend EcoCure from The Sausage Maker. It works great and we can't tell the difference between using that or pink curing salt. It's not cheap, but it doesn't take much to do a whole belly. No nitrates or nitrites and no celery derivatives. Check it out.
Other than that, get the best pork you can afford from a reputable source at Exclaimer.
With all of this, you will know what you have, what went into it, and it will be at your desired salt level.

Try curing pork belly with less salt, using brown sugar and natural sweeteners like maple syrup to balance flavors. Cure for 5-7 days, then rinse well before cold smoking at low temperature to reduce saltiness while keeping flavor.