Uncured pork belly smoking question

[Cookin_Grillin_Smokin]

Hey everyone! So I have decided I want to make my first attempt at smoking a pork belly for bacon. I am sensitive to salt, and even the uncured bacon at the store has a lot of salt to me.

Can I smoke a pork belly without curing it? I am planning on adding some salt, but just a minimal amount. I want to taste the meat and smoke more than the salt. I am planning on hot smoking it, then possibly freezing the rest and cooking it when needed. I only eat bacon once or twice a month so it would last me a while.

Your thoughts and tips are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Brokenhandle]

Without curing the belly it's not gonna have the same taste as bacon. Also without cure you'll need to get it from 40 to 140 degrees in 4 hours...doesn't leave much time for achieving much smoke flavor.

Ryan

 

[smokerjim]

As ryan said it won't taste like bacon without the cure. Check out pops low salt brine.

 

[617Smoker]

I don't know what would happen if you used curing salt, which has salt of course plus nitrite, but no added salt to the cure. It would lower the salt but maybe still give you the bacon flavor you're looking for. I wouldn't do this without first knowing whether meat could safely cure without the added salt -- i don't know the answer to that. My understanding of "uncured" bacon is that it doesn't have artificial nitrite added, but will in fact be cured by natural nitrites extracted from celery or some other food. And, of course, cured with the addition of salt.

 

[SmokinEdge]

My understanding of "uncured" bacon is that it doesn't have artificial nitrite added, but will in fact be cured by natural nitrites extracted from celery or some other food. And, of course, cured with the addition of salt.

These contain Nitrates, not nitrites. Not a good idea in bacon.

 

[thirdeye]

Hey everyone! So I have decided I want to make my first attempt at smoking a pork belly for bacon. I am sensitive to salt, and even the uncured bacon at the store has a lot of salt to me.

Can I smoke a pork belly without curing it? I am planning on adding some salt, but just a minimal amount. I want to taste the meat and smoke more than the salt. I am planning on hot smoking it, then possibly freezing the rest and cooking it when needed. I only eat bacon once or twice a month so it would last me a while.

Your thoughts and tips are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I don't know what would happen if you used curing salt, which has salt of course plus nitrite, but no added salt to the cure. It would lower the salt but maybe still give you the bacon flavor you're looking for. I wouldn't do this without first knowing whether meat could safely cure without the added salt -- i don't know the answer to that. My understanding of "uncured" bacon is that it doesn't have artificial nitrite added, but will in fact be cured by natural nitrites extracted from celery or some other food. And, of course, cured with the addition of salt.

Yes, curing bacon is possible with Cure #1 only, it would be easier in a wet curing brine for even distribution. A dry cure is not out of the question, but it would be incredibly difficult to spread the tiny amount of Cure #1 needed. The downside is I'm afraid the flavor would suffer. How about using Cure #1 with a greatly reduced salt and sugar? Check out this Greg Blonder article, because he does just that.

dry brined quick pastrami recipe

I tried this and for me it was a total gong. The pastrami was fully cured, and had the right color but the flavor was not there for me, and normally I use somewhat low salt and sugar percentages when I cure meats.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Low Sodium Bacon Recipe

I'm looking for a dry cure brine recipe for low salt content.

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[rexster314]

Low Sodium Bacon Recipe

I'm looking for a dry cure brine recipe for low salt content.

www.smokingmeatforums.com

This has been around forever, but I use it every month. Use it to adjust salt and sugar the way you prefer your bacon. Don't change the value for the cure however.
www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

 

[SmokinEdge]

This has been around forever, but I use it every month. Use it to adjust salt and sugar the way you prefer your bacon. Don't change the value for the cure however.
www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

Yup. Nifty little calculator. Trouble is, when playing with low salt, it doesn’t tell you what is safe and what is not. Do you know?

 

[thirdeye]

This has been around forever, but I use it every month. Use it to adjust salt and sugar the way you prefer your bacon. Don't change the value for the cure however.
www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

I think the cell that has the 6.25% is locked, you can't change it.

 

[olaf]

Just an observation but store bought bacon seems to me to be just under 2% salt 2% sugar I like to keep my salt at 1.85% it tastes pretty close to what you'd buy, at 1.6% it seems a little low on salt. I'm just throwing that out as a reference for you to consider. I have read a number of posts on here where people have gone to 1% salt. When I've cut the salt I've also cut the sugar, because the taste balanced out better.

 

[Fueling Around]

I will not eat meats labeled "uncured".
Search daveomak.fs and you will find an article fighting to correctly identify these meat products as processed with (quasi) natural NITRATES and not nitrites.
Good reply SmokinEdge

As Ryan Brokenhandle and others pointed out it will not be bacon. It will be smoked pork belly or as I've known it since my youth, side pork.

A lot of people love their pork belly burnt ends.
I do not due to the added sugars.

Pops tried a cure using only #1 a few months before he passed.
I didn't see a results post and searching doesn't work for me.

Yup. Nifty little calculator. Trouble is, when playing with low salt, it doesn’t tell you what is safe and what is not. Do you know?

I don't know the answer.

 

[daveomak]

Morning... Store bought has approx. 2-3% salt... + nitrite at approx. 115 Ppm....
Please add cure#1 to the pork belly, to prevent botulism poisoning, when you smoke it...
Cure#1 has salt, as sodium chloride, combined to sodium nitrite... To get the nitrite, to protect folks from botulism, add cure#1 at 0.18% (0.0018 X weight of the meat).... That will give you protection from botulism without over salting the bacon... The pork belly will have ~ 0.19% salt which is a lot better than the 2-3% from the store... 90% less than the store bought stuff...
To get some flavor in the belly, add whatever you like... Black pepper, Garlic powder, Onion powder etc...

 

[chef jimmyj]

Thanks Dave, you beat me to the answer. Just a reminder...40° to 140°F in 4 Hours...ONLY applies to Ground, Injected, BRT and heavily Punctured Meat, that has not been Cured with Nitrite...JJ

 

[Cookin_Grillin_Smokin]

Thank you everyone for your input. I didn’t realize there was so much technical information I needed to know to keep it safe to eat.
I purchased some cure #1 from Amazon and will use the low sodium recipe SmokinEdge posted.
When I put the pork belly in the bag for a week to cure, would it make sense to use a vacuum seal bag? Or do I need some air in the bag to help the cure?

 

[smokerjim]

You'll be fine either way, I would just flip it a couple times during the curing process. Not sure if it's absolutely necessary but most of us do it.

 

[thirdeye]

Thank you everyone for your input. I didn’t realize there was so much technical information I needed to know to keep it safe to eat.
I purchased some cure #1 from Amazon and will use the low sodium recipe SmokinEdge posted.
When I put the pork belly in the bag for a week to cure, would it make sense to use a vacuum seal bag? Or do I need some air in the bag to help the cure?

I used vacuum bags for curing for a few years but I never pulled a full vacuum. I wanted the meat to be relaxed, and the bag liquid to be able to flow without any restriction. I later switched to zipper Freezer Bags (which I also use for sous vide) and have not had any issues.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Ziploc bags here also

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yup ziploc type bags are perfect.

 

[Cookin_Grillin_Smokin]

Okay, so I got my curing salt today. I used the low sodium recipe, but I am using 2.5 lbs of pork belly which is slightly over 1 kg of meat which it states in the recipe. The meat weighed in at 1.13 kg

I adjusted up to 4g of curing salt instead of 3, and adjusted the salt to 20g instead of 19.2
Here is the recipe for reference: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/low-sodium-bacon-recipe.284429/

Does this seem okay? You guys have me worried about safety now so I’m paranoid lol.
Thanks again for all the insight!