Second attempt at curing bacon

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I've tried numerous ways to get maple flavor into bacon, without it tasting artificial. Maple syrup, either in the cure or brushed on before smoking did very little, other than burn the bacon quickly.
The latest thing I've tried is adding 2-3 tsp. of maple extract to the dry cure, to make a slurry. Still barely got any maple flavor. Got this from Amazon.
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Thank you all for your help.
I took my first attempt to work. I work in a building merchants. I work with 16 blokes, they all said first one was to salty. The second attempt they have also tired and loved!
Again thank you all so much for all your help
I hope you are keeping a notebook on your progress. By weighing the cure salt and sugar and applying that in percentage to meat weight, you will make a very consistent product. One that is very repeatable, baring meat quality, but still, salt , cure and sugar will be the same over and again.

My favorite basic rub is:
1.5% sea salt
.25% cure #1
.75% sugar
very basic delicious bacon and always the same.
(I usually add granulated garlic and ground white pepper by eyeball for flavor)
 
I hope you are keeping a notebook on your progress. By weighing the cure salt and sugar and applying that in percentage to meat weight, you will make a very consistent product. One that is very repeatable, baring meat quality, but still, salt , cure and sugar will be the same over and again.

My favorite basic rub is:
1.5% sea salt
.25% cure #1
.75% sugar
very basic delicious bacon and always the same.
(I usually add granulated garlic and ground white pepper by eyeball for flavor)
This! Keep notes on what works, and more importantly, what doesn't, and that basic bacon rub Eric uses is my go to. My bacon mostly turns out exactly the same batch to batch.
 
So I took the belly off after 4 hours, I got a cheep thermometer to chuck inside the chamber so could do this belly.
I think it did read right because at the 4 hour mark the fat started to render.
However it's turned out fairly well I think.

What do you think? View attachment 643830
View attachment 643831

She is now resting in the fridge till tomorrow.
Congrats on the Bacon production! You have the passion and you will do good as you move forward. And highly recommend to go ahead and invest in a decent thermometer unit; remote, measures grill temp and several food temps. It has taken my BBQ game, and cooking in general in fact, to a whole other level. Enjoy the bacon...nice color!

Rick
 
Give that a go. Without pumping cure solution you just are not going to get much flavor added.
When you say solution, is it a basic brine with some of it injected, or is it just spices and enough liquid for injecting, then continuing with a dry rub? Commercial bacon is injected, huh?

Rick
 
When you say solution, is it a basic brine with some of it injected, or is it just spices and enough liquid for injecting, then continuing with a dry rub? Commercial bacon is injected, huh?

Rick
It would be done in a similar way to Dave's ham injection rather than a dry rub.
 
When you say solution, is it a basic brine with some of it injected, or is it just spices and enough liquid for injecting, then continuing with a dry rub? Commercial bacon is injected, huh?

Rick
You can either mix a curing brine and inject or you can make up an injection based on something like un-salted vegetable broth at 10% of meat weight, add cure #1 at .25% to meat weight, salt at what percentage you like, sugar dissolve and inject it all into the meat all over.

Most all commercial bacon is injected with a stitch pump. This enhances the meat and insures they don’t lose meat weight, and is the fastest curing method. Commercial injected bacon also has to include a cure accelerator like ascorbic acid (sodium erythorbate) to make sure as little nitrite as possible is left in the bacon when complete. They also limit in going nitrite to 120ppm.
 
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