Need help please

[gearhead]

    I am new to curing meat. I ordered two pork belly's and intended on making bacon. I used the recipe out of the Charcuterie book for basic dry cure 1 lb of Kosher salt, 8oz of sugar and 8 teaspoons of # 1 cure. I dredged the pork belly's in this mixture and then placed in a 2 1/2 gallon bag with the remainder of the mix. The belly's where in the fridge for about 40 hours before I re-read the instructions and realized that about 1/4 cup is all that is needed. I removed the belly's from the bags and rinsed off each in 5 gallons of fresh water and then towel dried for 30 min. Then I placed 1/4 cup of the mix in the bags along with 1/8 cup of water since I threw out all the juices and excess mixture. Each belly ended up being 6lb+ and my question is should I just throw it out since the mix was 4X what is should be? I removed and rinsed as I said and this is the 7th day now after the redo.

   I don't want to take any chances with this so I need you honest opinions. Is the bacon safe or should I just toss it and count it as a lesson learned. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[timberjet]

Better safe than sorry I would say. That might be enough cure to be toxic and it is in there. Just my 2 cents. I am sure someone will be along that knows more than I do.

 

[gearhead]

That is where I was leaning; just wanted more experienced advise before I threw out 24 lbs of meat. Thank you for your reply!

 

[chef jimmyj]

There is no way to tell how much cure is or isn't in the pork at this point. I am usually the last person around here to tell a member to throw out meat, but this is a situation where I would say, toss it. Next time use this very user friendly Universal Cure Calculator ant then there is no guessing if there is too much or too little...JJ

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/124590/universal-cure-calculator

 

[gearhead]

Thank you chef JimmyJ. I'll toss it and start over won't make that mistake again; lesson learned. Thanks again.