Need some Advice

[exromenyer]

I picked up my pork belly yesterday and they weighed in at 5.89, 5.48, 5.82 and 5.82 pounds for a total of 23.01 pounds. I cleaned them up and they are currently weighing in at three of them at 5lbs and one of them at 4lbs 14ozs. I think I can call it 5lbs on the last one and be safe for a total of 20 pounds. I have them cut into 4 slabs.

I’ve been working with DaveOmak however he hasn’t answered me today and I want to be sure I can get this started tonight or tomorrow at the latest. What I have for a 1 pound mix is the following:

1 pound = 454 grams

454 x 0.85 = 386 grams of Kosher Salt
454 x 0.15 = 68 grams of White Sugar
454 x 0.0085 = 3.9 grams of Pink Cure #1

Put those altogether (386+68+3.9) and I get 458 grams of BASE MIX which I should add at a 2% rate and that is 9.1 grams of BASE MIX per pound of pork belly.

That would mean I should add to each bag:

5.0 lbs. of pork belly ADD 45.5 grams of BASE MIX to attain 2% rate.

That tells me I have a total of 182 grams of BASE MIX I am using at a 2% rate for my 20 pounds of pork belly and have about 272 grams left over which would do approximately 29.8 lbs. of additional meat giving me the total of ~50 lbs. of meat I could cure.....

What I am struggling with is the 3.9 grams of Pink Cure #1. That just does not seem like enough to be spread amongst the 4 pork bellies. The directions on my bag say “add 1 teaspoon per 5lbs of meat to cure.” That would mean by those directions I should be using 4.2 teaspoons or 20 grams.

I sure hope I made sense!!!!!

I just need someone to tell me I’m on the right path here…… OR Not and provide me some direction. I am ONLY wanting to do a dry brine to put in the refer, I don’t want the pops wet brine.

Thank you,

Tony

 

[piker]

I picked up my pork belly yesterday and they weighed in at 5.89, 5.48, 5.82 and 5.82 pounds for a total of 23.01 pounds. I cleaned them up and they are currently weighing in at three of them at 5lbs and one of them at 4lbs 14ozs. I think I can call it 5lbs on the last one and be safe for a total of 20 pounds. I have them cut into 4 slabs.

I’ve been working with DaveOmak however he hasn’t answered me today and I want to be sure I can get this started tonight or tomorrow at the latest. What I have for a 1 pound mix is the following:

1 pound = 454 grams

454 x 0.85 = 386 grams of Kosher Salt
454 x 0.15 = 68 grams of White Sugar
454 x 0.0085 = 3.9 grams of Pink Cure #1

Put those altogether (386+68+3.9) and I get 458 grams of BASE MIX which I should add at a 2% rate and that is 9.1 grams of BASE MIX per pound of pork belly.

That would mean I should add to each bag:

5.0 lbs. of pork belly ADD 45.5 grams of BASE MIX to attain 2% rate.

That tells me I have a total of 182 grams of BASE MIX I am using at a 2% rate for my 20 pounds of pork belly and have about 272 grams left over which would do approximately 29.8 lbs. of additional meat giving me the total of ~50 lbs. of meat I could cure.....

What I am struggling with is the 3.9 grams of Pink Cure #1. That just does not seem like enough to be spread amongst the 4 pork bellies. The directions on my bag say “add 1 teaspoon per 5lbs of meat to cure.” That would mean by those directions I should be using 4.2 teaspoons or 20 grams.

I sure hope I made sense!!!!!

I just need someone to tell me I’m on the right path here…… OR Not and provide me some direction. I am ONLY wanting to do a dry brine to put in the refer, I don’t want the pops wet brine.

Thank you,

Tony

I have mrade a lot of bacon over the years and have always added one teaspoon of cure per five lbs. of belly. I always change the rest of the rub for a different taste. I never had any problems and the bacon is excellent. I have probably done about one hundred ten lbs. bellies. No doubt it is my favourite and all my family and friends

 

[tallbm]

I'm with piker. The safest and simplest thing would be to follow the directions of 1tsp per 5 pounds if you have any concerns.
I would simply mix up your base and then separate your base per belly and then finally add the proper amount of curing salt to each base mixture for the weight of the belly you are curing with that mixture. Easy, peasy :)

 

[motocrash]

Have you not heard of Martin's calculator on here before? I and many others use it.Weigh each piece as you have and mix up the cure on a per bag basis.It even has a handy calculator...Boom.
http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

 

[exromenyer]

I have heard of it but I was wanting to know if the questions I asked and the formulas I was using were correct.

Thanks for the reply and link,
Tony

 

[torp3t3d0]

I TBLspoon Tinder Quick per pound
1 Tblspoon Brown Sugar
I tablespoon Maple Sugar....

Put in a 2 or 1 (depending on size) gal zip lock bag
Rub in the TQ inside the bag (then you won't lose any of it)
Rub in the Brown sugar/Maple sugar mix inside the bag

Seal up and put in refigerator for 14 days......and you have it cured.

 

[daveomak]

I’ve been working with DaveOmak however he hasn’t answered me today and I want to be sure I can get this started tonight or tomorrow at the latest. What I have for a 1 pound mix is the following:

WTF !!!!!!!!!!
We have had 19 conversations since December about how to figure out cure...... 9 since Monday.... You kept saying you understood what was going on... Don't throw me under the bus because you don't understand mathematics, OR English.....
........

 

[exromenyer]

WTF !!!!!!!!!!
We have had 19 conversations since December about how to figure out cure...... 9 since Monday.... You kept saying you understood what was going on... Don't throw me under the bus because you don't understand mathematics, OR English.....
........

Please accept my sincere apology, I had no intention of throwing you under the bus or undermining you. As I read the notes something wasn't clicking with the cure. My pink cure #1 says 1 level teaspoon for 5 lbs. of meat and I just couldn't understand how 3.9 grams was going to cure 20 lbs of meat. It just didn't make sense.

Tony

 

[exromenyer]

Update:

Thanks to Daveomaks guidance my bacon ended up being OUTSTANDING..... I sure hope that he accepts my apology, I hate for people to be mad at me. I meant no disrespect, and just needed some better understanding......Better late pics then none.....

 

[daveomak]

teaspoons are NOT all equal.... Get a grams scale 0-100 grams and weigh the ingredients.... 1.1 grams cure#1 per pound of meat..... These 2 that I have, the one on the left weighs 25% higher than the one on the right..