# Change of plans -bacon cure time question



## mike1ranger (Nov 22, 2018)

I made a mistake when I ordered my hog this yr and told the butcher side pork and ended up with sliced pork belly, about 1/4" thick slices. I wanted pork belly for making bacon. No big deal, Ill make it work. 

One of the salads we want for thanksgiving dinner requires bacon so I grabbed a pkg of side pork slices a few days back and thawed it out. Mixed up a half batch of pops brine and we're now on 36 hours. Original plan was to hot smoke since I wasn't totally sure on the curing time but I'm having a change of heart as i'ver done hot smoked bacon and would prefer to dry the slices out and cold smoke for a bout 6 hours. I could get a few more hours if I took them out of the brine now, which would have given them about 36 hours of curing time. 

Question is, think 36 hours of cure time is sufficient for my 1/4" slices of side pork?

For the record, the bacon would be chopped up anyway so I don't care that it'll be super thick slices of bacon.


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## smokerjim (Nov 22, 2018)

I would you would be ok as long as the slices were separated in the brine, maybe some of the pros will be around


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## daveomak (Nov 22, 2018)

36 hours will be fine....  No problem...   Curing from both / all sides of the belly slices works out to about 1/4" per day  ...


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## chef jimmyj (Nov 22, 2018)

Yep, that bacon was cured in 12 hours. If you are adventurous, fresh pork belly is the preferred pork in many, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean Dishes. You like Burnt Ends? Check out this Chinese Pork Belly version...JJ 

https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/sticky-chinese-pork-belly/


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