Old World Bacon... My Way....

[Hamdrew]

I use it partially because they are plentiful (i.e. cheap) here, but pin oak (in the red oak family but some is pretty white) adds something deep/special like hickory, IMO. A little cherry never hurts either.

 

[hoity toit]

Great discussion gentlemen. Ya'll are like therapy for me teaching to be patient. Something that I am not good at!! LOL! I'll need to read and reread this thread to get my bacon elevated to a higher level.

BTW- daveomak, I read the times you posted to Mrs. Wurtz, and she told me that I need to do the same. Guess this is my first lesson in patience?! And for grips and grins, Mrs. Wurtz thought 11 days for our German Bacon to dry brine was too long?! Go figure! LOL!
John

I like the 14 day cure on the bacon also. It seems to be just about right time and gives you assurance it is fully cured.

HT

 

[daveomak]

To those that miss the flavor of "slab bacon" that was readily available in the meat markets up until the 1960's, here's my adaptation to that great flavor...
It's still available at niche markets at a ridiculous price....

The commercial mix I have been using is nowhere to be found.... I did find a suitable substitute at Walton's.. Their Turkey cure is a reasonable facsimile to my "old" cure mix....


Ingredients
Salt, Cane and Maple Sugar (100% Maple Syrup), Sodium Nitrite (1%).

I have requested the %Salt in the Turkey Cure from Walton's, and will report their response when I receive it..


I'll be back in a couple 3 weeks to finish this thread....
Dave

...

Well, Walton's got back to me TODAY !!!!

I think they are in violation of Federal Law not listing ingredients for consumers...

Here is their reply...


Raven Jackson <[email protected]>
Thu 6/17/2021 12:07 PM





Good afternoon,

We apologize in the delay of contact. We had a glitch in our system and none of our contact form emails came through until yesterday. Unfortunately we do not have access to the exact seasoning breakdowns from the vendor, the basic and allergy information are what they are required to provide. Please let us know how we can help you in the future, and we certainly will send a prompt reply!

Thank you and have a great day,

Raven J
Customer Service

 

[SmokinEdge]

That’s shady, to say the least.

 

[SmokinEdge]

what % in a range would you guess the salt is at? My taster could tell you if it was above or below the 1.5-1.75% range as applied to the meat upon finishing.

 

[daveomak]

I can probably tell if it's too much salt... I wrote her another note asking for the supplier so I can write them.... She may not like my comment about being in violation of federal law about ingredients...

When I wrote AC Leggs, they were kind enough to send me the following....

 

[SmokinEdge]

Wow, unless I’m reading that wrong (probably the case) the sodium is way dang high??

 

[bill1]

Wow, unless I’m reading that wrong (probably the case) the sodium is way dang high??

They mix units of mg and g on this table...and there's 1000mg per g. So there's 57.2 g of sodium per 250g serving. Since Cl is about half again higher atomic weight than Na, there's probably 80-90g of chlorine unaccounted for. So the salt (NaCl) content is about 140-150g of the 250g serving or about 60% of the total. That's consistent with the last thing in their datasheet which says salt is 59-73% of the total.

 

[daveomak]

Wow, unless I’m reading that wrong (probably the case) the sodium is way dang high??

Edge, morning.... You are putting the car before the horse here...
The mix may seem high BUT... the package is 8 ounces and they recommend adding it to 25 pounds of meat....
That is a HUGE dilution... a 50:1 dilution....

 

[daveomak]

A reply from Walton's... They ARE good folks.... That's why they are on my GO_TO list of suppliers...

Good morning,

We are in no violation of any Federal law as the ingredients listed on our site and our catalogs are all we are legally obligated to provide. Like most generic seasonings and cure found on a grocery shelf, they do not state specific percentages, calories, sugars, etc- simply the ingredients and allergies. If an allergen or gluten is present, that information must and will be listed on our website. We would not withhold information that could harm our customers.

We will be able to put in a courtesy request to the vendor once you have provided the item code of what you are needing. That should be with us within the next week.

Thank you,

Raven Jackson

Customer Service

 

[SmokinEdge]

Edge, morning.... You are putting the car before the horse here...
The mix may seem high BUT... the package is 8 ounces and they recommend adding it to 25 pounds of meat....
That is a HUGE dilution... a 50:1 dilution....

Dave, so this is about 0.5% salt per pound. I see that now.

 

[daveomak]

OK... Excalibur got back to Walton's and they were kind enough to relay the info to us...

 

[daveomak]

So... Here's the real calculation...

Adding 6.9 grams of the Turkey cure/# will get you ~156 Ppm nitrite..

The Turkey Cure is ~81% salt... at 6.9 grams per/# = 5.6 grams salt/#.. = ~1.2% salt...

If you like more salt than what the Turkey cure will deliver, add 0.45 grams salt/# for a 0.1% raise in salt content