first bacon attempt

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wagdog

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 26, 2014
58
11
Utah
As a result of my lurking, I chose to do a dry cure. It is a pain to weigh everything but I enjoyed it. I did two percent weight of the meat for my salt and sugar measurements and then the proper amount of instacure #1. I did an 8 day cure and smoked em today with hickory and apple.
 
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I just finished wrapping them and putting them in my soda fridge to rest and let the smoke flavor permeate. I'm having some tomorrow if I can keep my kids away from it. :-)
 
The bacon turned out awesome. The kids have already nuked about 2-3 pounds of it. I think I will only use Apple wood next time. The smoke flavor was pretty intense on the day that I finished smoking it. After it had rested in the fridge for a little it was just right. As soon as I get more pork belly from the Asian market I'm going to try Pop's brine. I want to see which my family likes more.
 
It was great. I have to admit that I got a little tired of weighing, measuring, and then trying to make sure I got every bit of the cure into the bag. It wasn't terrible but I can see why others use Morton's TenderQuick instead of measuring/weighing out pink salt, sugar, salt, etc. separately. I guess that is my lazy side talking. I was just thinking of trying a wet brine so I could mix up a solution a little easier and just drop the bellies in. 
 
I just picked up two bellies today.

I have a container of Honey Ham and Bacon Cure that I bought from Sausage Maker. I'm going to use their recipe to cure 1 belly.

I also bought a bag on Instacure #1 and #2.

I see you used #1. What recipe did you follow?

thanks!!
 
I had read a ton of threads about how much salt, sugar, and instacure #1 to use. I ended up following something from a post DaveOmak made on another bacon thread. He would weigh the pork belly and then mix up a dry cure with 2% of the weight of the meat as his measurement for salt and 1% by weight for sugar. Then you will need at least .25% weight of the meat in cure #1. I think DaveOmak said he uses around .32% by weight for bacon. After all that was measured out with a food scale I put the belly in a zip top bag with the cure and rubbed it all over. Squeeze all the air out that you can and into the fridge for a minimum of 7 days. I would flip the bags each day and kind of massage the bag to distribute things. I added cracked black pepper to one belly and garlic powder and black pepper on another. I kept one plain. My kids like it all. Good luck!
 
 
It was great. I have to admit that I got a little tired of weighing, measuring, and then trying to make sure I got every bit of the cure into the bag. It wasn't terrible but I can see why others use Morton's TenderQuick instead of measuring/weighing out pink salt, sugar, salt, etc. separately. I guess that is my lazy side talking. I was just thinking of trying a wet brine so I could mix up a solution a little easier and just drop the bellies in. 
I know a lot of people use TQ on here but be aware that is does also contain Nitrate - which is not recommended by the FDA for bacon.

The bacon looks great - Well done 
icon14.gif
 
I had read a ton of threads about how much salt, sugar, and instacure #1 to use. I ended up following something from a post DaveOmak made on another bacon thread. He would weigh the pork belly and then mix up a dry cure with 2% of the weight of the meat as his measurement for salt and 1% by weight for sugar. Then you will need at least .25% weight of the meat in cure #1. I think DaveOmak said he uses around .32% by weight for bacon. After all that was measured out with a food scale I put the belly in a zip top bag with the cure and rubbed it all over. Squeeze all the air out that you can and into the fridge for a minimum of 7 days. I would flip the bags each day and kind of massage the bag to distribute things. I added cracked black pepper to one belly and garlic powder and black pepper on another. I kept one plain. My kids like it all. Good luck!


Yep..... right on..... 0.25% cure #1 = 156 Ppm for sausage and stuff...... 0.32% cure #1 = 200 Ppm dry rubbed skin off bacon... 0.19% cure #1 = 120 Ppm brine/cure liquid for skin off bacon (weigh meat and liquid)
 
Need some help......only doing this a short time.....here is my problem.

As mentioned above by "TRX680" I also bought the sausage maker cures....wasted 10 lbs and $59.00 to make salt pork.   Then tried the dry cures listed here to do Canadian bacon....again too salty even after a 2 hour soaking....been using Pop's cure and it comes out great.....

What the heck am I doing wrong with the dry curing....I do the recipe exactly......only get salt pork!!
 
At then present time, I estimate that the bacon I made is over $125 a pound  (bought a WSM 22" and a 40" MES with all the thermometers and
AMND1-SPL-0008A-MAZE-N-DUST SPECIALTY - 1LB - Pecan      
AMNS6X6A-MAZE-N-SMOKER 6X6      
AMND4-SPL-0002A-MAZE-N-DUST SPECIALTY - 4LB - Apple  $  
smoke producers....

even went out and bought a garden cart to make them portable.....in fact, just bought  the Temperature Controller for Weber Smokey Mountain/ Akorn (SYL-1615SYS-W) 
= $166.12
    Blower Option 10 CFM
    Probe Option TC-K3MM-C for 900 °F
    Blower Adapter Option None

​This is the most expensive salt pork you can buy!!!
 
At then present time, I estimate that the bacon I made is over $125 a pound  (bought a WSM 22" and a 40" MES with all the thermometers and
AMND1-SPL-0008A-MAZE-N-DUST SPECIALTY - 1LB - Pecan   
AMNS6X6A-MAZE-N-SMOKER 6X6   
AMND4-SPL-0002A-MAZE-N-DUST SPECIALTY - 4LB - Apple $ 
smoke producers....

even went out and bought a garden cart to make them portable.....in fact, just bought  the Temperature Controller for Weber Smokey Mountain/ Akorn (SYL-1615SYS-W) 

= $166.12

    Blower Option 10 CFM

    Probe Option TC-K3MM-C for 900 °F

    Blower Adapter Option None

​This is the most expensive salt pork you can buy!!!


I built a 12 x 24 chicken run and coop.... bought 8 chickens... 2 died.... I'm getting about 2.5 eggs per day.... Bride and I do NOT discuss the cost of eggs or feed... we didn't discuss what the coop cost to build... what the feeders and auto heated watering system cost...
Some things are best left to waft into the breeze and go away....

However, we will discuss how great the garden is doing, with all the manure the chickens provide.... next summer..... :51:


...
 
I haven't used any of the premixed cures from SausageMaker or any where else so I can't comment there. Do they send some instructions along with the premixed cures? Since what you ended up with tasted like salt pork it makes me think that maybe their cure concentration is lower so you have to use more of it per pound of meat (don't know just spitballin here). How long are you letting your bellies cure?

I think what helped the most for me was having a good scale to weigh everything and converting everything to metric units. After that I just measured out cure, sugar, and salt with Dave's recommendations. I did one batch with 2% weight of the meat in sugar and salt and that one turned out a little too sweet for me. I like 2% salt and maybe 1-1.5% sugar. I haven't tried Pop's brine yet. That will be my next batch once I get some more pork bellies. I bought some food grade plastic buckets for wet curing pork bellies. Just need the bellies.
 
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