Hi, I'm sorta new on here but had some great results following the advice of the guru's on here (Pop, Danny et al)
I'm from the UK, and if you want to make traditional 'back bacon' you have to use the loin joint.
I suggest you use Pop's dry brine rub. I cant find a direct link so will post his reply to me from a couple of months ago. I've been using his cures and have had fantastic results....ill never buy bacon or ham again!!!!
I suggest you cure your loin skin off.
regarding smoking, its down to personal taste if you cold smoke it or leave it green, personally, I always cold smoke
Hope this helps....all credit to Pops
Russ, good morning...... Pork belly as recommended by the USDA/FDA...... Bear with me on this.... I think everyone should know how to calculate ingoing additives to meats when curing... so I run through a tutorial to at least give them some idea on the way the government mandates stuff when curing meats.... Notice there is no nitrate in the calculations... In the US, nitrate is not allowed in bacon and hams and a few other products if you are a commercial manufacturer......
The simple addition of cure #1 is 1 level tsp. per 5#'s of meat... most folks use that when making sausage... 156 Ppm nitrite allowed.... folks use it for bacon, ham and all sorts of curing.... fortunately, being home made foods, you have the option of how to prepare your table fare and whether or not you subscribe to government regulations...
Skinless... 120 Ppm nitrite
Skin on... 108 Ppm nitrite
When using a brine/sugar/water curing solution
Using a dry rub mix....
200 Ppm skinless
180 Ppm skin off
Those numbers have been generated, because the USDA/FDA determines the skin does not absorb nitrite ..... therefore the meat would have too much nitrite for their maximums allowable nitrite ingoing to the meat.....
How to calculate ingoing nitrite....
1000 grams of meat and water/salt/sugar at 120 Ppm nitrite...... 1000 x 0.000120 (Ppm) = 0.12 grams nitrite / 0.0625 (6.25% nitrite in salt Prague Powder #1) = 1.92 grams Prague Powder in 1000 grams of meat and water/salt/sugar.... or 0.19% of the total weight of meat/salt/sugar/water....
1000 grams of meat at 200 Ppm dry rub... 1000 x 0.000200 (200 Ppm) = 0.200 grams nitrite/ 0.0625 = 3.2 grams Prague Powder #1... or 0.32% of the weight of meat/salt/sugar.....
More examples to un muddy the numbers..... hopefully.....
Brining... 2000 grams meat + 2.5% salt + 1.5% sugar + 0.19% cure +1000 grams water......
3000 grams x 0.0.025 = 75 grams salt
3000 grams x 0.015 = 45 grams sugar
3000 grams x 0.0019 = 5.7 grams Prague Powder
Dissolve the salt/sugar/cure in the water and soak the belly for 15+ days in the refer... turning and massaging every couple days at 38 deg. F. +/-.....
Dry rub skinless.... 2000 grams meat + 2.5% salt + 1.5% sugar + 0.32% Cure...
2000 grams meat x 0.025 = 50 grams salt...
2000 grams meat x 0.015 = 30 grams sugar....
2000 grams meat x 0.0032 = 6.4 grams cure....
There you have it.... bacon made many ways according the USDA/FDA..... I do my best to follow those regs... especially because I feed it to my grandkids....