Pops6927's Wet Curing Brine

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​I just put 3lbs of belly into Pop's brine.  In two weeks I'll hot smoke it to 145 per Pops recommendation.  Can't wait to see how it turns out. This will be my first try and doing bacon.
 
 
​I just put 3lbs of belly into Pop's brine.  In two weeks I'll hot smoke it to 145 per Pops recommendation.  Can't wait to see how it turns out. This will be my first try and doing bacon.
I suspect you will love it. I have never gone wrong following Pops recipes.

Disco
 
HI 

Thanks

where can l get Pink Salt?

I have MES gas an a 40 electric smoker

what is the Temp you smoke your bacon at

thanks  frank68
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Pops6927,

I'm posting this, not only to give your thread another bump, but because I think it is something newcomers like myself, can benefit from & use.

Now my personal questions:  (I think I may have asked some of these in another thread, but can't find it right now.)

1.  Will this brine work on "any" whole meat?  beef, lamb, pork, fish, poultry?  (I understand cure will make pork and poultry hammy tasting)  Yes

2.  Will it work for drying meats like jerky, and dried beef hunks?   Wife loves SOS, but I hate all the salt, from the jarred stuff she buys.  See my sig line for dried beef; you can reduce the salt if you are salt-sensitive to as low as ¼ cup per gallon of brine vs. 2 cups.  Make sure you smoke to about 175° to get firmness in the meat for slicing thin.

This next question is very important to me!

3.  Do I have this right?  As long as the curing brine is made with 1 TBSP per gal of water, and then, as long as meat is fully covered, it will work.   Say, I mix a gal of your recipe, but only use a pint of it, in a small Ziplock bag with some jerky strips.  The jerky will still brined safe and sound, the same as if I had used the whole gal? Yes, the whole thing is concentration within a given volume; once concocted, changing the volume does not change the concentration.

4.  Is that TBSP a "Heaping tbsp." or level tbsp?   You mentioned that a heaping tbsp. equals about an ounce, but your recipe only said a tbsp.  Yes, a level tablespoon (tbsp) measures out to .85 oz. on my scale; a "heaping" tbsp measures out to 1 oz approx.  The maximum concentration is achieved at 3.84 oz. per gallon, so you can see that I use far less; only enough to do the job.   You soak a little longer with a milder brine and the meat is more tender and less tinny taste.

5.  I see that your recipe says "up to" 3 + tbsp. is safe for one gal water.   If I wanted a more shelf stable, or longer product, then I should use more than I tbsp?  And if it was something to be consume rather quickly within a couple of weeks, then only one?  All brined meats should require refrigeration at a minimum, and freezing if longer than 14 days.  Dry cured and long-smoked meats can be kept longer at room temp for more shelf stability, but this is an entirely different process - the long smoking times add preservatives to the meat itself from the smoke, drying and preserving it (the smoke ring effect).

6.  I know you put a few times in your original post, of times, but wondered if you could expand on the time to brine various meats to be safe a bit more?

7.  I have heard a tiny bit about you, and your Dad's store.  I love and respect family history's, and love seeing how things were done in the past.  I also love old photo's of the same.  When you have time, could you please PM me and send some links & photo's, of your past with your dad, that I could enjoy?   I'd appreciate that immensely Pops!

Thank you so much for your time, and contributions to the site, to benefit others.

Humbly your student,
My dad at the meat block:


Our Store:


Sign on the side of the building:


Hams and bacons hanging in the cooler:

 
hi Pops love your posts, ive made pastrami based on your cure recipe and it was good , but i had access to only pure sodium nitrate (later corrected that it was nitrite) and made an error in my concentration.  it was only a little over half strength. meat was still great just nice red colour didnt penetrate. Before smoking, there should be no red color, but after smoking and cooking, the meat should be pink inside, not gray.  If it's still gray, then it didn't get properly cured.

just wondering about curing larger cuts, at what thickness do you need to inject meat to attain proper penetration of cure?  3 - 4 inches thick or with internal bone structure

I dont plan on doing anything large any time soon, just doing a lot of research on curing meats for future projects. this site is a huge help and there are many great books out there.

Happy Smoke!!
 
HI 

Thanks

where can l get Pink Salt?  I use Butcher Packer or Sausagemaker, but any site that sells Cure #1 or by other names (Prague Powder, InstaCure, etc.).  The Cure #1 is for short curing times up to 30 - 45 days.  There is also Cure #2.  This contains nitrates as well as nitrites and is for longer curing times and/or added to long cure meats, along with other ingredients to promote a culturing product that takes many months to cure properly as a drying cure to remove moisture, not a brining cure that adds moisture.

I have MES gas an a 40 electric smoker

what is the Temp you smoke your bacon at  Normal temp of 225° - 250°  and to internal of 146° fully cooked.

thanks  frank68
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Bacon is done.  2 weeks in Pop's cure, then 16 hours in the smoker.  I did steal a few pieces to fry up and taste, the rest is wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge. I'll be slicing that up tonight most likely.  This has to be the best bacon I've ever had.  It tastes nothing like the stuff you get in the grocery.   The only issues I had are

1. Has just a tad too much salt in it.  Next batch I'll cut back to 3/4 and see what happens.

2. I used about 8.5oz of Pure Maple Syrup in the cure thinking it would give a hint of the maple flavor to the bacon.  Nope, didn't work.   Anyone have a suggestion on the amount to use or when to use it to get that good flavor?


And of course the pics....

3 lbs of belly before going into the cure.


After 16 hours in the smoker.  I kept my MES tempreature below 170 and took the Bacon to 150 internal. Was trying for 160 but by 2 AM I was just wanting to sleep.  I used the MAVERICK ET-732 to keep track of the temps as my MES is terrible about showing the real temp inside the smoker.  I have to set the temp to around 145 to keep the temp at 165.  I also used the A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER (both the pellet smoker and the Maverick were purchased from Todd) The pellet smoker was a gift from God.  Loaded it up and got it going and other than tweaking the temp to find what worked to keep the smoker under 170, I didn't have to worry about smoke until 11 hours in when I refilled with pellets and fired it up again. 


Cut myself a few slices to taste test.  So good!
 


It was so good, had to slice off a few more pieces.  Just to make sure ya know...
 


With a pretty successful first attempt at bacon (thanks to the advice of everyone who posts here) I'm off to find more than just a 3 pound belly.  Need more Bacon!
 
Hi,

How much salt did you actually use?  With Pops brine the salt can be varied a lot?

Your bacon looks great.

I am getting ready to do some myself.

Cheers,

Jan.
 

I used the one cup that Pop's calls for.  Now I just took the bacon back to my butcher for slicing and he said he didn't taste too salty to him. I guess everyone has different tastes.
 
Frank68,

Your bacon looks mighty good, I am jealous. I will be using a bit less salt as I am looking to decrease my salt intake.

Thank you for posting your photo's

Cheers,

Jan.
 
hello everyone, newbie here, I have a question, do you use the QT curing salt along with the simple brine that pops posted? Or is one or the other?

Thank you

Eddie
 
Hi Eddie

Pop's brine calls for cure #1, which is different than Morton's TQ, they are not interchangeable.

There are recipes here for dry curing using TQ which are very good, also:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/108099/bacon-extra-smoky

You can order cure #1 online from plenty of places, check out Meat Processing Products (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/meatprocessingproducts, they're a sponsor here, or do a google search for 'The Sausage Maker' (I thought they were a sponsor, too, but I don't see them on the page anymore)
 
I am sorry I meant to type in DQ curing salt, is that the same as cure #1, and thank you for repling, there is a lot to learn, I came to the right place.

Thank you
 
Okay, new to this... so whats the worst case senario if my fresh ham only sits in a brine for 5 or 6 days?
 
Okay, new to this... so whats the worst case senario if my fresh ham only sits in a brine for 5 or 6 days?

curing is something that home folks cannot speed up for safety reasons..... And recipes should be followed exactly.....
The parameters set in recipes are there to eliminate safety/health issues.... Improper curing coupled with smoking of meats is a recipe for growing botulism....
The worst case scenario is a healthy dose of botulism..... if not for you, maybe a loved one... The survival rate is something you may want to consider....
 
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