# Montreal Steak Seasoning Cured Belly Bacon - with  Qview & CUREview



## twinfallsid (Aug 20, 2013)

For presents last Christmas I made 45 pounds of belly bacon using Montreal Steak Seasoning (MSS) as the primary flavor component.  Everyone who got some really enjoyed it; some said it was the best bacon they ever had.  The thread for that smoke is here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/132119/45-lbs-is-5-bellies

Today I brought home another box of bellies to make the MSS recipe again.  There were five bellies in the box again, so I decided to freeze two of them for the next Christmas smoke of 7 bellies in November, and start curing the other three bellies tonight.

Last time I estimated that MSS was one-half salt.  Instead of guessing again I decided to figure out the salt content of MSS from available information.

The mass ratios of Sodium and Chlorine in table salt is 39.3% Sodium, and 60.7% Chlorine.

Per the package nutrition panel, Montreal Steak Seasoning (MSS) has 170 mg of sodium per 800 mg serving.

At the mass ratio for the two elements in salt, 170 mg of sodium is bound to 262.57 mg of Chlorine, making 432.57 mg of salt, in one 800 mg serving of MSS.

*Thus MSS is 54.07% salt.*

To add 100 grams of table salt to a cure mix, you would add 185 grams of MSS.

To add 250 grams of table salt to a cure mix, you would add 463 grams of MSS.

To add 500 grams of table salt to a cure mix, you would add 925 grams of MSS.

So my previous guess of 50% was not far off the mark.

I'm using pink curing salt again this time.  It is 6.25% sodium nitrate.  The directions say to use 4 oz. with 100 pounds of meat.  I will use this Dry Cure Bacon calculator: http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/calculator/dry_cure_bacon/

to determine the amount of table salt (contained in the MSS) to add to each slab of belly.  I'm going to shoot for 2.25% salt content in the bacon.

OK, so much for the intro.  Now I'm off to weight each slab and calculate the cure mix for each piece.  More to be posted soon.


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## smoking b (Aug 20, 2013)

I'm in for this one


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## fwismoker (Aug 20, 2013)

My head hurts now!   Lol... I'm in


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## webowabo (Aug 20, 2013)

Im a ready as well... I really want to do some bacon for the first time as soon as the weather cools off here.... 

Good read so far.. Keep it up please :)

Mike


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## chef jimmyj (Aug 20, 2013)

I double checked your Calculator and it is accurate. It's a nice program thanks...JJ


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## disco (Aug 20, 2013)

I love the calculator and I am looking forward to the bacon!

Disco


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## pc farmer (Aug 20, 2013)

FWIsmoker said:


> My head hurts now! Lol... I'm in


Yea no kidding.

I am watching too.


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## twinfallsid (Aug 20, 2013)

I used a hanging fish scale to weigh the belly slabs. 

I decided to go with 2.15% salt in the finished bacon, I think that will be closer to what I had before. 

Here are the cure calcs for each slab:

3.530 kg Slab:

Min. Pink:  6.78 gr.

Sub-mean: *7.91 gr.* [Edit for 140 ppm]

Mean:  9.04 gr.

Max Pink:  11.3 gr.

_Salt:   65.3 gr_.

*MSS:  120.8 gr.*

Total Cure Weight: *128.7 gr.* [Edit]

3.671 kg Slab:

Min. Pink:  7.1 gr.

Sub-mean: *8.25 gr.* [Edit for 140 ppm]

Mean:  9.4 gr.

Max Pink:  11.75 gr.

_Salt:   67.91 gr_.

*MSS:  125.6 gr.*

Total Cure Weight: *133.9 gr.* [Edit]

4.231 kg Slab:

Min. Pink:  8.12 gr.

Sub-mean:* 9.46 gr.* [Edit for 140 ppm]

Mean:  10.8 gr.

Max Pink:  13.54 gr.

_Salt:   78.27 gr_.

*MSS:  144.8 gr.*

Total Cure Weight: *154.3 gr.* [Edit]

The cure calculator I used gives a minimum an maximum weight for the nitrate curing salt, I will use the mean between those two (add the two numbers, then divide by 2).  [Edit] DigginDogFarm - Martin - recommends less pink salt, so I edited the calcs above to use a Sub-mean, which is the mean between the minimum pink salt and the previously calculated mean.  That will work out to 140 ppm of nitrate.

I got the weight of the MSS using the 100 gram rule in my first post.  100 is 100, whether its grams or percents.

The 3.530 kg slab needs 65.3 grams of salt.  That is 65.3% of the 100 gram rule.  So we multiply 185 grams of MSS by .653 (a percentage) to get the 120.8 grams of Montreal Steak Seasoning we need, which will add 65.3 grams of salt to the cure.


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## disco (Aug 20, 2013)

I grant you the Doctorate of Cure!







Disco


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## diggingdogfarm (Aug 20, 2013)

I would use 120ppm to 156ppm nitrite.
I don't recommend using that calculator.
It's calculating the the maximum at 200ppm and the minimum at 120ppm, so the mean would be 160ppm.



~Martin


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## twinfallsid (Aug 20, 2013)

DiggingDogFarm said:


> I would use 120ppm to 156ppm nitrite.
> I don't recommend using that calculator.
> It's calculating the the maximum at 200ppm and the minimum at 120ppm, so the mean would be 160ppm.
> 
> ...


Martin - So you would recommend the mean between the minimum and the original mean?  We will call that the Sub-mean, which would be 140 ppm..

3.530 kg slab would need 7.9 gr. of pink salt, for a total cure weight of 128.7 gr.

3.671 kg slab would need 8.25 gr. of pink salt, for a total cure weight of 133.9 gr.

4.231 kg slab would need 9.46 gr. of pink salt, for a total cure weight of 154.3 gr.

Thank you for the recommendation.


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## diggingdogfarm (Aug 20, 2013)

Well...the mean in the first result is a little high.
If you've already applied it I wouldn't worry about it, but if not, it's easier to just use my calculator.
http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html



~Martin


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## twinfallsid (Aug 21, 2013)

I opened up the packages that the three slab bellies came in and decided to re-weigh each slab and recalculate the cure:

Slab 3.545 kg - MSS = 122g and 7.9g pink salt

Slab 3.610 kg - MSS = 123.5g and 8.1g pink salt

Slab 4.173 kg - MSS = 143g and 9.3g pink salt.

I used the fish scale to weigh each slab:













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The scale can be switched from Lbs/oz to Kg/gr:













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The platform scale and the coffee grinder are essential.  The scale is accurate to about 1/2 gram for getting the pink salt right, and the grinder is re-purposed as a spice grinder.  Since MSS has several aromatic spices it is a good idea to finely grind the MSS and pink salt to mix, and better release the flavors.  Be careful not to grind the mix too fine.  Slightly smaller than table salt is about right.  If too fine, the mix will gum up on your hands as you rub it onto the belly.













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Here the mix is poured into a bowl so it is easier to spoon onto the belly so it can be rubbed.













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A fine looking belly:













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Fat side rubbed:













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Meat side rubbed:













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All four edges rubbed:













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Bagged into a tall kitchen trash bag:













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Stacked into the refrigerator:













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The thickest part was just at 2 inches, so that works out to a minimum of 6 days, flipping the stack daily so the juices can get all around.  I will probably let this stack cure for about 10 days.


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## themule69 (Aug 21, 2013)

It should be good. I have some bacon in brine now.

Happy smoken.

David


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## humdinger (Aug 21, 2013)

Looking good so far. Love the tutorial. Ear marking this for the day I finally take a stab at bacin' makin'!


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## dirtsailor2003 (Aug 22, 2013)

Nice looking Belly slabs. I really do need to get a new digital scale so I can do some more dry rubbed cures!


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## twinfallsid (Aug 27, 2013)

The 3 slabs are about 1/2 way cured.  Here are some pics.  The slabs have lost their softness and are pretty hard.  When flipping them over and restacking, I put the one in the middle on the bottom, the one on top in the middle, and the one on the bottom on the top.  I reposition the extra bag material, wrapping it around the slab, to make sure the juice doesn't leak out.

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## twinfallsid (Aug 31, 2013)

This evening I took the slabs out of the bags and washed them off under running water.  I wiped them dry with paper towels and stacked them on cookie racks in the bottom of the refrigerator.  The air-space between each from the racks allows the pellicle to form as they finish drying over night.  I put the bacon hooks in the slabs so I don't have to handle them too much.

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Racked in the 'fridge for pellicle













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Washed meat side













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Washed fat side













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Unwashed meat side, straight from the bag.













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Unwashed fat side.













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In the morning around 3 AM, I'll get the smoker loaded and going with wet hickory chips in the electric smoke box.  It should be just below 60F outside around then.  Hopefully it will take two piles of chips smoking, before it gets up to 105F inside the smoker.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

Its 3am and the three slabs are just now in the smoker with a pile of soaked hickory chips in the chip box.  The starting temp of the smoker was 59F.  I disabled the two primary heaters at the bottom of the plenum, the sole source of heat for this run is the electric element in the chip box.

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Time to fire up the esspresso machine and wait to see how fast the temp rises compared to the amount of smoke generated.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

After a half hour the smoker got up to 85F; the 1st round of chips were 80% gone up in smoke.  I turned off the power for a half hour and let it coast down to 80F.  Thirty minutes later I opened the door to let it cool down.  The slabs showed a surface temp of 58F.  As soon as the laser surface thermometer shows that smoker has cooled inside below 65F, I'll close it up again and plug it back in for the 2nd smoke.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

Twenty minutes later the smoker temp is down to 61F.  I closed the door and powered it up again for the second smoke.  I'll let this one go until the smoker is 101 - 105F.  Towards the end I'll make sure the thermostat is adjusted to let it ride between 95-105F.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

By 5:10am it was all the way up to 102F.  I adjusted the thermostat to click off the element.  It should coast back down to 95F or so with the plenum fan circulating the smoke.  I'll let it cycle for several hours before putting more chips on for the 3rd smoke.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

At 7:15am I opened it up and added more wet hickory chips.  I think checking every two hours should do it for now.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 1, 2013)

I took the 3 slabs out after 18 hours running between 95-105F.  I kinda lost count, but I think it was 6 piles of hickory chips in the chip box.

I wrapped the slabs in plastic and they are resting in the fridge until tomorrow evening, when some BLTs will be made, using tomatos from the garden.

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Sealed in plastic wrap













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## pc farmer (Sep 1, 2013)

AWESOME  wish I could get full slabs here.


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## twinfallsid (Sep 2, 2013)

After letting it rest in the refrigerator for most of the day, I sliced off a hunk and tossed it in the freezer to chill for slicing. 

After slicing, here is the spread:













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Here is the test-fry:













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And the results:













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Its nice and smoky with a good spiced flavor.  I'll be making some BLTs in a couple hours.


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## smoking b (Sep 2, 2013)

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That's some fine looking bacon!  
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






   Job well done


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## mangledremainz (Sep 3, 2013)

Yum! Can't wait to try my first bacon smoking.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Sep 3, 2013)

Tasty Looking bacon, great job! Is it good enough to go into space?


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## twinfallsid (Sep 4, 2013)

dirtsailor2003 said:


> Tasty Looking bacon, great job! Is it good enough to go into space?


I think they would have trouble frying bacon in zero-gee.  Perhaps its an experiment worth suggesting to NASA. 

I think it would have to be pre-cooked on the ground, refrigerated, then nuked in orbit to heat it up to eat for breakfast.


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