Rushing the cure

[willj]

This is my first time making my own bacon, and I've got a question. I'm having people over this weekend, but I wasn't able to get my pork belly until Monday afternoon. It's about 6 pounds, and I'm curing it with 1/4 cup kosher salt, 1/8 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon curing salt. My question is if the bacon isn't quite done curing by Saturday, what's the worst that will happen? I'm still a smoking novice and don't want to get too fancy on the first attempt, so I was planning to hot smoke it for an hour or two before chilling, slicing, and frying it.

Is four days of curing better than nothing, or am I setting myself up for disaster or at least lackluster bacon here?

 

[smokeamotive]

Don't walk...........Run away from that Idea!!!! Curing is NOT a recipe, it's a Formula! You cannot shortcut a cure. you are inviting Disaster!  I know you would like to impress you guests with homemade bacon but its not worth it! I let mine cure for 7 to 10 days depending on the size of the belly. Then cold smoke for 4 hours or more. Its worth the wait!!!!

BTW......Stop by roll call and introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself. Also please update your profile with your location. You would be surprized at how much it can matter when seeking help with something.

 

[smokinhusker]

No way! Great way to make everyone sick. 

Please swing by Roll Call and introduce yourself, so we can give you a proper SMF Welcome and please update your profile to include your location...it helps when answering questions to know what part of the world you are in.

Thanks!

 

[willj]

Thanks for your feedback! Out of curiosity, what is the actual danger here if I cured for four days and hot-smoked it for an hour or two? I thought the only real danger was trying to cold-smoke without proper curing.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

It's always better to take your time and do it the right way, but as long as you hot smoke it to safe temperature the only issue may be that it's not fully cured in the center.



~Martin

 

[chef jimmyj]

Yes you can Hot Smoke at 225*F for 2 hours then Chill, Slice and Fully Cook before serving. You may find some part of the meat pink after smoking and the center of the thickest part Gray. And Cold smoking under cured meat would be a danger. We take Safety very seriously and we worry about each other around here. Welcome to the SMF Family...JJ

 

[DanMcG]

If you want to cure it faster you might want to think about cutting that side into smaller pieces. 1 inch slices of belly (like a rib cut off a rack) would be cured in 4 days easily.
Anybody?
not that it's curing faster, it's just getting to the center sooner
I know the 1/4" thick jerky I helped my son with tonight will be ready in a less then a day.
just food for thought

 

[big lew bbq]

It's a marathon not a sprint!  Low and Slow as they say.  I have to agree about waiting out the correct cure time and cold smoking it.  Good Luck!

Big Lew BBQ

 

[catzcradle]

This is an interesting discussion, as the LEM's bacon cure I use says to cure for 4-6 days.  After talking to the guys at High Mountain regarding using their buckboard bacon cure, they gave me similar instructions for belly up to 1.5" thick as it takes 10 days to cure 3.5" thick pork shoulder.  On the other hand, they also said it won't hurt anything to let it go the full 10 days on the belly.  Do different curing agents cure the meat in different times?   I ran my most recent set of 3 bellies 5 days for the very thin (1" thick) belly, and am letting the thicker bellies (almost 2" thick) go for the 10 day mark.  I smoked the thin stuff on sunday, and came out great.

 

[willj]

Because of time constraints, I did in fact rush the cure. I hot-smoked part of it on that Saturday morning (4.5 day cure) and the rest, most of it, on Sunday night (6 day cure). The Saturday stuff was lackluster, yes, with a little gray in the middle. The stuff I smoked on Sunday night was perfectly serviceable, though - red all the way through, nice smokey flavor, generally better than bacon I'd get in a supermarket.

That said, I lost power in Hurricane Sandy and, with it, lost my frozen store of bacon. Were the bacon gods lashing out at me for my hubris? Perhaps. Anyway, I'll try another batch this winter and do it right this time.

 

[big casino]

I think Dan had the best idea smaller pieces cure faster/sooner, if it was a brine cure you could have possibly injected it too