You can get a lot of different answers to this question. There are many ways to successfully cure meat, everyone believes their method is best. That said, get yourself a gram scale to weigh the salt, cure #1 and sugar along with the meat piece to be cured. The rest can be applied by eyeball but nothing more is really needed. If you are math challenged then use a cure calculator such as Digging Dog cure calculator. Insert the meat weight and salt percentage desired and it will give you the weights of cure #1 , salt and sugar I believe. (I do my own math).Okay I've got to give this buckboard bacon a try. It looks pretty darn good.
I have never done bacon of any kind as I'm afraid of messing it up. Can I ask the bacon pro's out there if they can share a recipe for dummies? I am really intimated when it comes to the curing percentages and calculations. Is there something easy to understand for a new guy like me? I'm sorry for asking but I'll never know if I don't.
Thanks in advance.
I like 1.5% salt
.5-.75% sugar
Cure #1 is default to .25%
Mix that up for your meat weight and apply the mix evenly to all sides as best you can, don’t get nervous just get all the mix on the meat piece.
Then put the meat in a zip bag or vac seal and refrigerate for 10-14 days. Meat is cured. Then smoke.