Steve_A (Tatoosh)
TVWBB Super Fan
I am pretty happy with the bacon we have been curing and smoking. I use my own rub that Martin helped me work out. The cure is basically maple sugar, salt, and pink salt #1. We add some flavorings when curing but often just do a straight cure and a hickory smoke. But I am curious about changing up a few things:
1) Sweet Bacon - usually honey cured. When I do this, I end up with a bacon that burns easily, particularly the edges where the honey is heaviest. Is there a better approach to honey cured or sweet bacon? Should I be shifting to a brine for this?
2) Which leads me to the idea of a combination cure. I like the dry cure approach, but if flavoring such as honey or a spicy cayenne bacon is the target, maybe some sort of "stitch injection" would be a good way to to get that flavor through out the belly. While I can figure a dry cure by weight or a brine by weight - I'm a bit baffled if I combine the approach. With dry I simply use the green weight of the belly. If I do a brine, I have to figure the total weight including water.
For a combined method - maybe use the dry weight for my amounts - but mix one third of it into a solution that is equally injected through the belly, then the other two thirds used as a rub? The amount of cure won't exceed the correct amount but may be diluted a bit by the water? However easy to do a spicy bacon by adding a hot sauce or cayenne pepper to the injection and rub. For a sweeter bacon - some warmed honey to be included in the injection. Does this sound like a feasible approach?
3) Last Q is for pepper bacon. I want to get a nice cracked pepper exterior that adheres to the bacon prior to slicing. I coat it prior to smoking but much of it seems to come off. So is there a coating I can use to keep that pepper sticking to the exterior? Maybe the infamous "meat glue"? I wonder if that will keep it from picking up the smoky flavor? Not the pepper so much as the meat glue?
Anyone with ideas, experience, or just the need to talk about bacon is welcome to add their two cents worth here.
1) Sweet Bacon - usually honey cured. When I do this, I end up with a bacon that burns easily, particularly the edges where the honey is heaviest. Is there a better approach to honey cured or sweet bacon? Should I be shifting to a brine for this?
2) Which leads me to the idea of a combination cure. I like the dry cure approach, but if flavoring such as honey or a spicy cayenne bacon is the target, maybe some sort of "stitch injection" would be a good way to to get that flavor through out the belly. While I can figure a dry cure by weight or a brine by weight - I'm a bit baffled if I combine the approach. With dry I simply use the green weight of the belly. If I do a brine, I have to figure the total weight including water.
For a combined method - maybe use the dry weight for my amounts - but mix one third of it into a solution that is equally injected through the belly, then the other two thirds used as a rub? The amount of cure won't exceed the correct amount but may be diluted a bit by the water? However easy to do a spicy bacon by adding a hot sauce or cayenne pepper to the injection and rub. For a sweeter bacon - some warmed honey to be included in the injection. Does this sound like a feasible approach?
3) Last Q is for pepper bacon. I want to get a nice cracked pepper exterior that adheres to the bacon prior to slicing. I coat it prior to smoking but much of it seems to come off. So is there a coating I can use to keep that pepper sticking to the exterior? Maybe the infamous "meat glue"? I wonder if that will keep it from picking up the smoky flavor? Not the pepper so much as the meat glue?
Anyone with ideas, experience, or just the need to talk about bacon is welcome to add their two cents worth here.