Prague Powder Proportion

[MP928]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a 10-lb belly from Costco and going to try some homemade bacon for the first time. My plan was to break up the slab into 2-lb chunks and try different recipes for each slab. I was going to try and adapt a coffee rub I sometimes use on meats to the bacon cure for a different flavor.

My question is, can I add the weight-based amount of Prague Powder #1 to the coffee rub to make it into a cure, or will the different proportions of sugar, salt, espresso from the rub change the required Powder amount? The Rub is made with 1.5C Brown sugar, 1C ground espresso beans, 1C Kosher salt, 1/4c Black pepper, 1/4C granulated garlic, with some other spices in smaller amounts added in. Would it be safe/correct to rub the belly with the pre-made rub and then just sprinkle on the amount of cure from the DD farm calculator?

Thank you all so much for any help you can offer! I cant believe I've gone this long without ever home-curing bacon, but this might be the start of a new obsession!!

Best,

MP

 

[PolishDeli]

can I add the weight-based amount of Prague Powder #1 to the coffee rub to make it into a cure

Yes, thats fine

will the different proportions of sugar, salt, espresso from the rub change the required Powder amount?

No, not any meaningful way

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought a 10-lb belly from Costco and going to try some homemade bacon for the first time. My plan was to break up the slab into 2-lb chunks and try different recipes for each slab. I was going to try and adapt a coffee rub I sometimes use on meats to the bacon cure for a different flavor.

My question is, can I add the weight-based amount of Prague Powder #1 to the coffee rub to make it into a cure, or will the different proportions of sugar, salt, espresso from the rub change the required Powder amount? The Rub is made with 1.5C Brown sugar, 1C ground espresso beans, 1C Kosher salt, 1/4c Black pepper, 1/4C granulated garlic, with some other spices in smaller amounts added in. Would it be safe/correct to rub the belly with the pre-made rub and then just sprinkle on the amount of cure from the DD farm calculator?

Thank you all so much for any help you can offer! I cant believe I've gone this long without ever home-curing bacon, but this might be the start of a new obsession!!

Best,

MP

I don’t recommend it.
First off the rub you want to make would be (for 10 pounds) about 3% salt and close to 4% sugar. I don’t think you would enjoy that. It would be much better to make up the rub in portion to the meat weight and apply no more than 2% salt and keep the sugar around 1% (bacon burns in the pan when high in sugar). Also cure #1 should be applied at 1.1 grams per pound. 2# chunks would be 2.2 g. That’s not much, so mixing it in with the rub is best, but don’t just mix up a random amount of rub. Make the rub for each piece (assuming different flavors) so you can control salt, sugar and cure amounts.

 

[MP928]

Sounds great! Thank you both for the help!