My bacon ate my pan..

[pit 4 brains]

I have cured a lot of bacon, pastrami, roast beef, etc. and I have never seen this.
I cured up a single pork belly using my regular recipe for belly:
By weight..
1.5% salt
.75% dark brown sugar
.25% pink salt (#1)
I like to convert to g/Kg to measure

with a 1.53Kg belly, I used
@15g/K= 22.95 or 23 g non iodized salt
@7.5g/K= 11.5 or 12g sugar
@2.5g/K = 3.9g or 4g #1

Feel free to check my math here.
After two weeks uncovered in the fridge, I found that everywhere the belly had touched the pan, it corroded right through. The bacon had some minor gray coloring at the points of corrosion so I simply trimmed it off and there was no real penetration into the meat that I can tell.
Is there any reason to believe this bacon is not safe? I have it out cold smoking now (if you can call it cold smoking in SC) with OAT of 86F and RH 75%.

 

[normanaj]

You always use disposable aluminum pans? You never know where they're made or exactly what they're 100% made of.

 

[pit 4 brains]

You always use disposable aluminum pans? You never know where they're made or exactly what they're 100% made of.

Up to now, yes I do. This particular one came from the dollar tree. Two pack for $1.75.
I cook out doors 4-5 times a week so I use a lot of pans to help keep my smoker clean and for panning butts, triskets etc..

 

[normanaj]

This particular one came from the dollar tree. Two pack for $1.75.

Enough said.

 

[kilo charlie]

Aluminum is reactive and no one knows the quality of the Dollar Tree pans.

Stick to high quality pans or use food safe plastic or glass in the future to avoid the reaction.

You've already cut off the bad and noted no penetration of the meat so go for it.

 

[pit 4 brains]

Aluminum is reactive and no one knows the quality of the Dollar Tree pans.

It is reactive to acids and bases.
Apparently this is the first time I have had the actual meat physically touch the aluminum while curing. In times past, if I don't use my plastic tubs, I simply put a SS rack in the pan, no problems. Even the little bit of liquid that drips in the aluminum pans doesn't do this. Perhaps because the nitrite is in the meat, not the drippings.
I guess where I was going with this is there has to be an anode and a cathode and an electrolyte to have corrosion. Here the aluminum became the anode, the moisture in the meat the electrolyte (accelerated by sodium nitrite) but I cannot believe that raw meat can become a cathode and receive electrons through the electrolysis process. Aluminum is inherently protected by it's own aluminum oxide after being exposed to oxygen and is usually very resistant to corrosion. I have a feeling, I don't KNOW this about curing meat with sodium nitrite, that in the process of becoming nitric oxide, it formed nitrous acid. That acid, in direct contact with the aluminum oxide, actually reduced the aluminum and transferred it to the meat.

Stick to high quality pans or use food safe plastic or glass in the future to avoid the reaction.

You've already cut off the bad and noted no penetration of the meat so go for it.

Yes indeed. Just thought it would be a cool topic to share with everyone.
I normally use big plastic tubs for large batches but when I do small pastramis and, like here, a single belly, A foil pan and rack have always worked. Guess you don't want the meat to touch the pan.