British Back Bacon

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sniper7990

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jan 13, 2015
156
17
Right, just cured these two loins. Both been in dry rub/brine for 10 days. The dark one is a sweet molasses cure, the other is a simple salt/sugar cure, which has been cold smoked over hickory dust for 24 hours.

How long do you guys think these will  keep in the fridge without freezing/vac packing etc?

 
With this back bacon there will have been relatively little water loss (as a %age) and so you will be relying almost entirely on the salt/nitrite concentrations as the cure. Without lab testing there is actually no way of knowing the shelf life with certainty as it will depend on the amount of residual salt and Nitrite in the bacon after curing and the temperature of your fridge.  Did you calculate the expected residual nitrite in your bacon? Providing you have managed to achieve ~170 ppm nitrite, if kept refrigerated you should be OK for at least 10 days. If you intend to keep it longer then you really should freeze it as soon as possible. 

You will need to look for the indications to see when it is beginning to spoil.
  • Smell the bacon. If it smells like fresh meat, then it's not spoiled. If it smells weird, like rotting, sour or an offish odor, then it is probably spoiled.
  • Take a good look at the bacon. Good, non-spoiled bacon, should have a fresh, pinkish color and be bright. If you notice that the bacon has green dots all over, looks dull or that the flesh is turning a gray-brown, then it is probably spoiled.
  • Feel the bacon. Bacon is usually not slimy. If you noticed that the bacon is slimy, then it's most likely spoiled.
At this point I suggest that you keep what you think you will use for the next week in the fridge and then slice, pack and freeze the rest.
 
Nice one, cheers Wade. All seems ok at the moment. Do you suggest keeping the bacon in zip-loc bags in the fridge or just on a plate on the shelf?
 
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