Longer curing time issues?

[jcam222]

i have about 25 lbs of buckboard and 7 lbs of belly curing in Pops brine. Normally go about 10 days but because of the belly targeted 14 days. Due to unexpected travel I am actually pulling it at 17 days and smoking at 18. Any issues or concerns with the extended cure time? No smell to meats , everything looks great. Any advice appreciated. Planning on smoking tomorrow.

 

[indaswamp]

No issues...as long as the brine is held around 37~38* and it is not 'ropey'. Pops brine is an equilibrium cure so no worries about over saltiness. The longer time will just allow for better equalizing of the salt through the meats.

 

[Norwester55]

It also gives the sugar more time to permeate the meat. The 1st time I used Pop's cure for buckboard, due to "stuff" happening I went 21 days in the cure and smoked on the 22 day. Since then I've tried it at the recommended cure time and have decided that I'll do at least 21 days from now on as the bacon was much tastier and had a better overall texture.

eta per Pops (IIRC) sugar takes longer to permeate meat than salt.

 

[jcam222]

Thanks for the responses guys. Came out definitely better than the batches I do with shorter cure times. I do Splenda instead of sugar in my brines. This time I used a small bottle of sugar free brown sugar concentrate in the brine. The frig smelled like candy, so much so that I swapped out the brine on day 6. It came out with a phenomenal brown sugar flavor!! Definite new add to all future batches.

 

[Bearcarver]

With Pops' Brine cure, longer doesn't hurt a bit.
With a Dry cure it's not good to go too much longer than a couple weeks.

Bear

 

[jcam222]

Long afternoon of slicing and vac packing. Got about 14 lbs. of buckboard slices, 3 lbs. of cubed ends , 2 lbs. of shorts and 3 lbs. of belly bacon. I use the cubed ends for frying cabbage and such and then shorts on burgers and salads.

 

[solman]

Thanks for the responses guys. Came out definitely better than the batches I do with shorter cure times. I do Splenda instead of sugar in my brines. This time I used a small bottle of sugar free brown sugar concentrate in the brine. The frig smelled like candy, so much so that I swapped out the brine on day 6. It came out with a phenomenal brown sugar flavor!! Definite new add to all future batches.

Can you post your recipe for using the sugar free brown sugar concentrate? I'm very interested in trying it out.

 

[Bearcarver]

Long afternoon of slicing and vac packing. Got about 14 lbs. of buckboard slices, 3 lbs. of cubed ends , 2 lbs. of shorts and 3 lbs. of belly bacon. I use the cubed ends for frying cabbage and such and then shorts on burgers and salads.

Sounds like a Great Plan for distribution!!
Nice Job!!
Like.

Bear

 

[jcam222]

Can you post your recipe for using the sugar free brown sugar concentrate? I'm very interested in trying it out.

Sorry for the late reply, somehow missed your question. So I used Pop's brine recipe with the following changes
1) The sugar and brown sugar both I just used Splenda
2) For salt I use Kosher which effectively is less salt than when using sea salt
3) I used a full 10 ml bottle of OOOFlavors Brown Sugar Flavored Liquid Concentrate Unsweetened (Amazon)in about 5 gallons of brine

I was unsure as the frig smelled like candy so at about day 6 i swapped out the brine for fresh without the flavoring. Came out darn good. next time I am going to use the oooflavor in the brine for the full 14 to 18 days.