Just joined from the UK

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Smokey Ron

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2018
2
0
hi guys, just joined and wanting to know more about smoking my own bacon. I have been cold smoking my own smoked salmon for a while but just upgraded my smoker and now have space to do my own back bacon.

I am especially interested to have recommendations on the bread of pig that gives the better taste I.e. Gloucester old spot old white etc.

I live in the UK so love to hear from likeminded but also great to hear from you wherever in the world you are.

Ron
 
Hi Ron and welcome to the forum. There are a few of us from the UK who chat on here - Which part are you from? I too smoke a lot of salmon and also a lot of bacon - as I run a small commercial smokery in Kent.
You mention that you have recently upgraded your smoker. What are you using and do you have photos? We love to see photos on here.
Have you cured bacon before? It is not clear from your post whether it is the making of the bacon or just the smoking that you are asking about. I have used many different types of pig for making the bacon and, to be honest, none have really stood out from the others regarding flavour. This is just an observation though as I have not specifically targeted specific breeds. If you want one that was bread specifically for making bacon then you might want to try the Tamworth - though you may need to get it from your local Rare Breeds Centre as it isn't widely farmed commercially these days.

There are three main ways of making bacon - dry cure, immersion cure and injection/pump curing. Of these, the two most widely used for making bacon at home are dry curing and injection curing. Here in the UK the most common method is to dry cure however (from this forum) it appears that immersion curing is very common in the USA. I have used each of the methods and I find that dry curing gives me the best end product - as it gives a firmer bacon that has a lower end water content and stores longer than immersion cured bacon.

Unlike when you make your salmon, for bacon you will require some curing salt that contains Sodium Nitrite diluted in salt. This comes in several formulations but the most widely used is Cure#1 which is 6.25% Nitrite in 93.75% Salt. If you want to try making bacon then let me have your address in PM and I will pop some Cure#1 in the post for you to get you started. There is also a preparation called Cure#2 which also contains Potassium Nitrate, but this is not used for bacon.
For Back bacon use pork loin and for streaky bacon use pork belly.

If you want to try to immersion cure then one of the most popular brines on here is "Pops brine" and you can read about it here https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine.110799/. If you try this method then, when making the brine, please remember that the US Gallon (3.8 Litres) is smaller than the UK gallon (4.5 Litres).

Dry curing takes a little more precise weighing for the cure in the initial stages however the bacon making process is more straightforward and takes up much less room in the fridge.
For the cure you need to calculate how much to add based upon the weight of the meat that you are curing. To begin with you should start with 2.5% salt, 150 mg/Kg Nitrite and 1.25% sugar. If you are adding flavourings (e.g. black pepper) then use at a rate of 10g per 1 Kg of meat (1%). To take all of the complexity out of making the cure there are a number of online calculators that will do them for you. One that is widely used is from Digging Dog Farm
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Fill in the weight of the meat in grams and check that the other values are correct. Press "Calculate the cure" and the things that you need to weigh out are shown below. The Cure#1 is best weighed out using a scale that is accurate to 0.1g. Place these into a coffee grinder and add any flavouring then blitz for a few seconds to combine them all.
Rub the cure mix over all of the surfaces of the meat and retain any that falls off. Place the meat into a ziplock food bag and add back in any of the cure that did not stick to the meat. It is important that all of the cure gets added. Seal the bag, removing as much air as possible and place in the fridge for 10 days. If you have a vacuum packer then use this instead of the ziplock bag.
Over the 10 day curing period turn the meat over once a day to ensure that any brine produced stays in contact with all of the meat surfaces. Some meat will produce a lot of brine and others very little. Do not pour away any brine until the end of the curing period. The belly will not take as long to cure as the loin but, within reason, you cannot over cure, so if you leave them both for 10 days then they are fine. If you are in a hurry though the belly will usually be ready in about 7 days.
Remove the meat from the bag and rinse under cold water to remove excess brine/salt. Pat dry with kitchen towel and leave uncovered in the fridge overnight. This is now unsmoked bacon.
To smoke, hang it in the smoker for about 24 hours in total. The amount of smoke is really down to personal preference. I usually use Hickory but Oak is good too. This can be done in 3 x 8 hour sessions (overnight) and then returned to the fridge during the day. Smoking like this gives the smoke time to diffuse into the meat.
The bacon will keep as a block refrigerated for about 6 weeks but once it is sliced it should be used within a week. You can obviously keep it longer by freezing.

Don't forget to keep us updated.
Wade
 
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Welcome to the site from New England. Looks like Wade has your questions covered.

Chris
 
Hi Wade, thanks for a very comprehensive reply. I live in Lincolnshire but work in the UAE so only get here for the holidays here now. I will post you a photo of my new smoker I just opened as an early Christmas presents plus I had a side of salmon that needed smoking today. Trying a new twist of a gin infused flavour. I added juniper berry’s in the initial cure and also some in the oak dust to add flavour to the smoke. After 8 hours I will paint it with more gin and the vacuum seal it for 3 days in the fridge to allow the smoke an gin to develop. It could be Fanta or rubbish. I will let you know when I try it.

I have never tried bacon but looking forward to giving it a go. I have purchased a special curing mix from a butcher supplier for bacon as I know that mixing the nitrate is very tricky as a beginner.

Not sure I will have time this trip as we fly back to UAE on the 2 nd January. And I fear it will take more time from start to finish this trip.

I will upload a photo soon.

Ron
 
I have never tried bacon but looking forward to giving it a go. I have purchased a special curing mix from a butcher supplier for bacon as I know that mixing the nitrate is very tricky as a beginner.
Curing kits can be a quite variable depending on the brand. It is not uncommon for some kits to add 5% salt, which most people find unpalatable, and some also exceed the Nitrite maximum commercially permitted levels (bizarrely, there are no legal limits for Nitrite in home produced bacon). Which curing mix do you have and does it give you the cure contents on the pack? Products like Supracure are like this, however if used at half strength they give perfect salt levels and also meet the UK Nitrite limits. It also makes the cure go twice as far :)

Mixing cures can appear quite daunting at first, however once you have done it the first time you will realise how straightforward it actually is. When using a Cure#1 you just need to ensure that you only add 2.4g of cure for each Kg of meat. The amount of sugar and salt are less critical. The use of the online calculators take all of the calculation complexity away leaving you to experiment just with the flavours. If you want to read up a little on curing then you might find this resource some help - Curing Safety - Beginners start here

We used to hold our Annual BBQ and Smoking weekends at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire but we have just moved them down to Billing Aquadrome.
 
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