Green tint on Smoked Back Bacon

[szejin]

Hello folks!

Good day to you. I've just gotten my hands on trying to make some Back Bacon with pork loin.

I cured the meat for ~ 10 days (I accidentally left it in for too long) in a 140mL solution (water + honey) that has approximately 1.3g of 5% curing salt - works out to be about 490ppm.

I followed this calculator: http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/curing_meats.html

Right now, after smoking the meat, I've tried frying up some and it tastes delicious - but the green tint is worrying, and I wouldn't be able to share it with my family without having a good explanation for that.

Did the green tint appear because it was over-cured? I've cured belly bacon as well and have seen the tint every now and then - which leads me to wonder if I'm doing things correctly at the moment.

Cheers and Thank you in advance!

 

[amy may]

How green is green? I have often seen a sort of greenish metallic tinge even on shop bought bacon.

 

[szejin]

How green is green? I have often seen a sort of greenish metallic tinge even on shop bought bacon.

IMG_20170925_143040.jpg

• szejin
• Sep 25, 2017

It is not too obvious through the picture (ignore the belly bacon!) but you can see some metallic/greenish tinge on the meat. Its a lot lesser through the picture, but very obvious when cooking it earlier. Nearly the entire slice was covered with the metallic tinge.

 

[amy may]

Did it disappear when it was cooked?

 

[szejin]

Did it disappear when it was cooked?

I didn't notice any tint before frying. It was very very obvious once it hit the pan for a bit, then became lesser, but still obvious after frying.

 

[amy may]

That is strange!! I hope someone a little more scientific than me can help! I have seen the green translucent tinge on uncooked bacon but when I fried it it just went a sort of opaque pink.

 

[szejin]

That is strange!! I hope someone a little more scientific than me can help! I have seen the green translucent tinge on uncooked bacon but when I fried it it just went a sort of opaque pink.

Cheers!

I came across this thread while searching for more information - I hope it'll be helpful to you!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/136367/metallic-green-tint-on-cured-meat

Anyways, I think for now I'm more curious to see if there is a way to avoid the metallic green tint.