My First Canadian Bacon Cure

[Worble7]

Definitely interested in your thoughts on that one.

same here

The celery powder is the cure, that’s what makes that interesting, no cure #1 used just the cultured celery powder. Most any product you see in the deli isle that says “uncured” bacon or ham and such is all made with celery powder as the curing agent. It contains natural nitrates and nitrites.

as far as spices, many actually. Fennel like Italian style, pickling spice like for corned beef or pastrami. I also have a holiday spice mix that has white pepper, nutmeg, mace and coriander with copious amounts of sugar. For my day to day though it’s just pepper white or black and garlic sometimes we red Chile them up too.

same curing time for celery powder??

 

[SmokinEdge]

same here

same curing time for celery powder??

Supposed to be same. Same nitrite concentration as cure #1. Still will do my usual 14 days on bellies.

 

[mr_whipple]

Bought a 10.07 lb pork belly to make me some bacon. After removing the skin for my scaned time I did a look better this time almost removed only the skin I had 8.54 lbs 3880 grams of pork so what I did was made 2400 grams of regular bacon and 1480 grams or peppered bacon.
My math I hope its good. Also I got about 98%-99% thanks to @mr_whipple Idea :)

Regular bacon 2400g meat weight
I cut in half to do each side of meat in plastic bag
Salt) 1.5% so 2400 x .015 = 36g 18g
Sugar) .75% so 2400 x .0075 = 18g 9g
Cure #1) .25% so 2400 x .0025 = 6g 3g

Peppered bacon 1480g meat weight
I cut in half to do each side of meat in plastic bag
Salt) 1.5% so 1480 x .015 = 22.2g 11.1g
Sugar) .75% so 1480 x .0075 = 11.1g 5.5g
Cure #1) .25% so 1480 x .0025 = 3.7g 1.8g

Hope my number are right as its in the refrigerator. Thanks Jeff

Not sure what my idea was but thanks! And bacon..... yum!!

 

[Worble7]

Not sure what my idea was but thanks! And bacon..... yum!!

you told me to put the cure in a small dish and sprinkle it on inside the bag. Worked great the only loss was the cure on my hands. Thanks Jeff

 

[Worble7]

Hello All,
I have 4 days left in my bacon cure. I will be smoking it on Wednesday as I have to work on Tuesday. So @SmokinEdge did yours finish yet? I really what to hear how your experiment went :). Jeff

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hello All,
I have 4 days left in my bacon cure. I will be smoking it on Wednesday as I have to work on Tuesday. So @SmokinEdge did yours finish yet? I really what to hear how your experiment went :). Jeff

Tomorrow is the day. Supposed to rain all day so I may have to improvise but it will get smoked this weekend, pellet grill if necessary (it’s under roof) I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

[Worble7]

Tomorrow is the day. Supposed to rain all day so I may have to improvise but it will get smoked this weekend, pellet grill if necessary (it’s under roof) I’ll let you know how it goes.

sounds good SomkinEdge

 

[Worble7]

Hello All,

So today is the day taking the bacon out……….So I washed under cold water now I’m soaking for 1 hour in water. Then I was going to put it in the smoker at 110° no smoke and dry it for a 1 hour. Turn the smoker add wood and smoke at 140° for 1 hour then bump it up to 160° for 1 hour and then to 200° until IT is 155°. It the correct or do you have a different way? Also, with it cured do I have to worry about the danger zone 140 in 4 hours?? Any help would be appreciated Thanks Jeff

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hello All,

So today is the day taking the bacon out……….So I washed under cold water now I’m soaking for 1 hour in water. Then I was going to put it in the smoker at 110° no smoke and dry it for a 1 hour. Turn the smoker add wood and smoke at 140° for 1 hour then bump it up to 160° for 1 hour and then to 200° until IT is 155°. It the correct or do you have a different way? Also, with it cured do I have to worry about the danger zone 140 in 4 hours?? Any help would be appreciated Thanks Jeff

First off if you used our formula, I don’t recommend a rinse or soak, it’s not needed.

Pork only needs to reach IT of 145* I don’t recommend bacon taken past that. It is most usually fried or otherwise cooked longer anyway, we want to preserve the quality of the meat and not render the fat at all if possible, so a final smoker temp of 170* is all i go as maximum. The smoke time all depends on how much smoke flavor you want. Start at 120* for 1 hour to dry, then bump to 130* for an hour with smoke, then bump to 140* for an hour bumping 10* every hour by 10* to a maximum of 170* to take the IT to 145*. You can shorten the smoke time by starting at 130 or 140* and bumping up to the maximum 170*. Don’t render the fat on the bacon anymore than is necessary. The 40 to 140* rule does not apply really with cure 1 but nitrite doesn’t take care of all bacteria just some of them so good practice in food safety still applies to me with warm/hot smoking, although I don’t mind going 5-6 hours in smoke but watch for case hardening, that will look like jerky on the surface. At that point the meat is done taking smoke and should come off the smoker.

 

[Worble7]

First off if you used our formula, I don’t recommend a rinse or soak, it’s not needed.

Pork only needs to reach IT of 145* I don’t recommend bacon taken past that. It is most usually fried or otherwise cooked longer anyway, we want to preserve the quality of the meat and not render the fat at all if possible, so a final smoker temp of 170* is all i go as maximum. The smoke time all depends on how much smoke flavor you want. Start at 120* for 1 hour to dry, then bump to 130* for an hour with smoke, then bump to 140* for an hour bumping 10* every hour by 10* to a maximum of 170* to take the IT to 145*. You can shorten the smoke time by starting at 130 or 140* and bumping up to the maximum 170*. Don’t render the fat on the bacon anymore than is necessary. The 40 to 140* rule does not apply really with cure 1 but nitrite doesn’t take care of all bacteria just some of them so good practice in food safety still applies to me with warm/hot smoking, although I don’t mind going 5-6 hours in smoke but watch for case hardening, that will look like jerky on the surface. At that point the meat is done taking smoke and should come off the smoker.

Thanks SomkinEdge for the quick reply I was going on memory for finale temp oops 145° IT I will do . I did not know about not soaking in water my bad only did once so should not be to bad. Now my electric smoker is not going to low at this time still checking as the meat is getting to room temp. Did you do your bacon? Thanks Again Jeff

 

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks SomkinEdge for the quick reply I was going on memory for finale temp oops 145° IT I will do . I did not know about not soaking in water my bad only did once so should not be to bad. Now my electric smoker is not going to low at this time still checking as the meat is getting to room temp. Did you do your bacon? Thanks Again Jeff

Yup I did my belly or fresh side. Here is a link.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/hot-bacon-two-ways.323845/

 

[Worble7]

sorry I'm late at posting here's my bacon and it taste sooooo good. I should have froze it a little bit as grease splatter from the slab of bacon. @SmokinEdge yes that's a Berkel slicer I bought 12 years ago. Jeff

 

[SmokinEdge]

Love that slicer and the bacon looks like a lot more! Easy peasy and delicious bacon. Plus the process is 100% repeatable, no saying it was great one time but not another. It’s always the same.

 

[DougE]

Plus the process is 100% repeatable, no saying it was great one time but not another. It’s always the same.

This! No guessing how the next batch will come out.