wet brine absorption?

[simple]

One of the things I keep seeing here, and have experienced with what little bacon I've done is the lack of shrinking/curling due to the bellies not being injected the way they are in supermarket bacon.

What affect does this process (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/124885/bacon-made-the-easy-way) have on that situation?  Does the belly absorb an excessive amount of liquid sitting in the wet brine?  Will it shrink more like store-bought when fried/baked?

I'm planning on doing another belly sometime in January using Pop's brine recipe and I'm curious

 

[daveomak]

Store bought bellies are usually beaten, flattened, hammered, pulverized etc, all in the name of getting them flat and a uniform thickness to go through the automatic skinning machine and slicer and packager etc....  and they are injected to a certain weight gain to meet specs... I'm not sure any of it sees the smoke house any more.... liquid smoke may take the smokers place in some varieties of bacon.... 

To your question.... I have made bacon and it does not shrink as much as store bought... and there ain't near the water in it either....  and it tastes like bacon tasted, when I was a kid, and bacon had the skin on it when you bought it.... and the house smells of smoke when you fry it...  That is how you know it hung in the smoker....  

Dave

 

[venture]

All I can say is make your own bacon.  You will love it!

Don't compare it to store bought bacon.  Store bought bacon will be the inferior product!  Even if that is what you grew up eating!

If you really want store bought bacon,  it is much less work to just go buy it.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[diggingdogfarm]

All bacon will shrink at least a little bit, brined shrinks more than dry-cured, commercial bacon shrinks a lot because of the added phosphates that retain lots of water.
If you don't want shrinkage and you like really good concentraded bacon flavor, go with true dry-cured bacon,


~Martin