Dry or Wet Brine

[ricko54]

Going to pick-up a skin off pork belly for bacon.
Was wondering how you folks felt in regards to success rate and to finished taste. Do you prefer to wet or dry brine your bellies?

 

[chilerelleno]

Depends on how I'm gonna cook it,.
Do I have time to air dry it after a wet brine?
Skin-on or off?
Do I want any of it crispy or just super tender, melt in my mouth?

I've done both, dry brined the skin, and then injected with brine.
Made a fantastic cracklin belly.

 

[ricko54]

This pork belly was going to be skin off for hickory smoked bacon.

 

[mneeley490]

I'd say it depends on your skill and confidence level. If you are new to smoking bacon, I'd go with Pop's wet brine, as it's a fool-proof method. Once you're comfortable with that, then you could start experimenting with dry brine recipes. Diggingdog's calculator is still my go-to for the basic measurements.
You can find both methods by using the search tab.

 

[sharpstick]

I did my first crack at smoking bacon during the Xmas holidays. I used a dry brine and skinless belly.
I was really impressed with the results, will be doing it again.

 

[nlife]

I've done a dry brine a few times times now. It's surprisingly easy to make bacon. I haven't tried a wet brine so when I was looking into them it came down to space for me. I don't have enough space in my fridge for the wet brine method (tub,water, slab). It's easy enough to find room for a slab in a vac pack bag though.

 

[thirdeye]

I like dry curing mainly because of the flavor and texture. But, it takes up less room in my fridge and overhauling is very easy.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Dry rub bellies and inject hocks or hams. I don’t use cover brines.

 

[DougE]

Dry brine. Simple easy, and with repeatable results.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I've only cured bacon, both belly and buckboard, one time and it was a dry brine. It was so easy that even I couldn't mess it up, but I did get a lot of advice and help from SmokinEdge , DougE , and Fueling Around among others. I'll very soon be doing it again...

OK, It's My Turn...

...to try my hand at BBB. It's something I've been saying I was going to do for a LONG time, but just kept putting it off. Now, with all of these recent posts and Boston Butts 99¢/lb., the time has come. Well that and the fact that I think I've finally got a scale I can trust...:emoji_laughing...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[Hijack73]

Dry. I could see bacon being wet and not losing any big flavors (it's just salt, cure, and a bit of sugar for me) but I'll never wet brine beef again. Wet brined is good, compared to store bought, but dry is phenomenal - compared to wet. Nothing tastes "washed out"

 

[slavikborisov]

Dry brine

 

[ricko54]

Thanks for all your comments, dry brine it is. I'm at a premium space in my meat fridge also.

 

[DougE]

Thanks for all your comments, dry brine it is. I'm at a premium space in my meat fridge also.

Pack each piece in its own bag. It is fine to stack them to save space. Just rotate them bottom to top every day or so.