- Nov 10, 2012
- 5
- 1
Just did my first batch of bacon. 60 lbs of it. (I like to make big mistakes) I think I may have messed up.
Some of it is black, which I assume is not edible. (See pics) I'm all ears for recommendations at this point, as well as where I may have gone wrong. I'm currently inclined to just cut out the black stuff and see if it starts to smell after a week in the fridge.
The crime scene:
This is all meat that was butchered by my sister-in-law. She raises pigs. A fair amount of it was freezer burnt in ziplocs, and I question if she knew what she was doing during the butcher process. It's possible I was screwed from the start... I did my best to remove anything that didn't look great, but honestly I've seen worse meat.
Regardless of the less than perfect meat quality, I'm not sure I did everything right. I dry cured in gallon bags by weight: 3% salt, 1.25% brown sugar, .25% #1 cure. 16 day cure @ 38 degrees. 12 hour smoke ranging 75-120 degree grate temp.
There are two mistakes I feel I may have made:
1) I had multiple pieces of meat in each bag, and some of the pieces of belly were folded in half. I thought I did a good job of distributing the cure, and i flipped and massaged bags about every other day. The biggest patch of black is where a belly was folded in half. I feel I should have had one piece of meat per bag, and if a belly didn't fit I should have cut it in half into two separate bags instead of folding it in half in one bag.
2) It was all frozen when I got it. I defrosted it for 2 weeks at 34 degrees before I started the cure. I should have started the cure after 1 week of defrosting. I don't think this was the problem, but maybe.
Roast me....
Some of it is black, which I assume is not edible. (See pics) I'm all ears for recommendations at this point, as well as where I may have gone wrong. I'm currently inclined to just cut out the black stuff and see if it starts to smell after a week in the fridge.
The crime scene:
This is all meat that was butchered by my sister-in-law. She raises pigs. A fair amount of it was freezer burnt in ziplocs, and I question if she knew what she was doing during the butcher process. It's possible I was screwed from the start... I did my best to remove anything that didn't look great, but honestly I've seen worse meat.
Regardless of the less than perfect meat quality, I'm not sure I did everything right. I dry cured in gallon bags by weight: 3% salt, 1.25% brown sugar, .25% #1 cure. 16 day cure @ 38 degrees. 12 hour smoke ranging 75-120 degree grate temp.
There are two mistakes I feel I may have made:
1) I had multiple pieces of meat in each bag, and some of the pieces of belly were folded in half. I thought I did a good job of distributing the cure, and i flipped and massaged bags about every other day. The biggest patch of black is where a belly was folded in half. I feel I should have had one piece of meat per bag, and if a belly didn't fit I should have cut it in half into two separate bags instead of folding it in half in one bag.
2) It was all frozen when I got it. I defrosted it for 2 weeks at 34 degrees before I started the cure. I should have started the cure after 1 week of defrosting. I don't think this was the problem, but maybe.
Roast me....
