Bacon - dry or wet cure


 
I'm in the process of making my first batch of bacon. I used a wet cure for 3 days and air drying in the fridge for 2. Plan on smoking them tomorrow. My next batch will be dry cured to compare.

I prefer dry curing for everything else but heard the wet cure was the way to go with bacon so it doesn't turn out too hammy post smoking.

I did take a slice off of one of the pieces and fried it. It tasted pretty darn good. Can't wait to see how the smoked version turns out.
 
Well im not an expert at all in doing bacon but i have on slab on the wsm right now.

I did a brine with pink salt for the first time. Dont think i can get that here in sweden but my friend Bob Corell sent me a bag from the US.

The fast 48 hour brine and 15h(to short) to dry it in the fridge(and another 1.5h at room temp under a fan to get it really dry)

The dry cure takes longer,but as i have read if you wanna add alot of extra flavour(spices) the dry one works the best.

But i still havent tryed the dry cure so i cant really give you an correct answer to this.

Jeff or Kevin know alot about the different techniques i guess they can help you sort things out.
 
I've only ever used dry cure for bacon. I've got 2 full bellies curing atm, one for panchetta and one cut into 3 slabs for regular bacon. I agree that with a dry cure you can add flavour pretty easily.Of the 3 slabs I'm making one slab plain, one with maple and brown sugar and one with a dry jerk seasoning. For the most part I've had good luck adding basic spices to a dry cure.
 
I think wet brines penetrate to the center more quickly for very thick pieces of meat. If I have a very thick belly, then I'm more inclined to use a wet cure; for standard or thinner than usual I prefer to use a dry brine.
 
As others have mentioned, they both have advantages. I've used both methods and can say that there is no decernable difference in the end product.

Wet curing is indeed faster (2-3 days depending on thickness of the belly) and somewhat more forgiving. Your solution has a small percent of salt in it and the belly will never be able to surpass that. An extra day or 3 really won't change the saltyness of the bacon once it reaches equilibrium.

Dry cures take longer and IMO need to be precisely measured. The only cure I don't like is the "pour on a cure, flip for a few days, rinse, soak, and hope for the best or maybe fry a piece first" method. I measure out a specific amount of cure by weight of the belly slab, and give it plenty of time to absorb it all. This is a much longer way to cure, but gives me better precision with the final saltyness.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
I measure out a specific amount of cure by weight of the belly slab, and give it plenty of time to absorb it all. This is a much longer way to cure, but gives me better precision with the final saltyness. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I like your style, Jeff.
 
I like to dry cure as well, because you can, as JB says, pretty much pinpoint how salt the belly's gonna be. The result is the same every time with the same percentage of salt added.
 

 

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