True Dry Cured Bacon.

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks guys!!! This "true dry" method has me intrigued. Think I'm gonna cut this in half and do 1 true dry and 1 vac sealed dry. Plan is to get everything going this Saturday and cure until April 19th. That's right about 3 weeks and puts me ready to smoke on a week that I have a Friday off.

A side X side comparison. I like that. Curious your final thoughts.

I generally do not recommend doing bacon naked longer than 2 weeks. So if pushing for another week I would suggest you bag it in a zip bag at the end of 2 weeks or you could start the whole process with collagen sheets. Either way, 3 weeks is to long naked.

That is unless you can keep humidity 75-80% the whole time, in which case 3 weeks is a breeze. Most refrigerator humidity is in the 40% range.

 

[Florida Chris]

I generally do not recommend doing bacon naked longer than 2 weeks.

Yes, now I remember reading that previously in the thread but thank you for reminding me. The fridge I'm using for this is definitely not the best for temp and humidity control so I'll be keeping a close eye on both.

It's a Roper fridge. How long have they been out of business now??? Still runs strong after ~30 years but it has it's cold spots and I'm not sure they even knew how to measure humidity back when this thing was made : )

I'll be watching the "true dry" and either zip locking or vac sealing when the time comes, but I'll do my best to try to let them cure an equal amount of time for a true side x side.

What's your thoughts on starting maybe mid-week or next weekend rather than this Saturday? Now you got me thinking that I'm also going to want the vac sealed sample to dry in the fridge a bit before smoking. How would you approach this to keep them on equal ground??