My bacon cure arrived at last.

Well, the All Purpose Curing Salt arrived last Friday (with not much in the way of Info. apart that you use 15gms per kilo, 1.5% usage, contains salt, E251 (sodium nitrate), E250 (sodium nitrite) not alot of help there) and with the help of Kevin Kruger I was able to start curing my first two pieces of belly pork on Saturday. I have used two dry rub recipes, one sweet, and one savory.
Kevin gave me the two recipes and being known for my liking of ginger and honey (previous posts) I changed the sweet a little.
Sweet-
11gms of curing salt (15gms per kilo was recommended this trial piece was 735gms)
1 tbs minced ginger
1 ts dried ginger
2 ts ground black pepper
1 ts sage
1 tbs ginger syrup
2 tbs honey (wild thyme)
1 ts sea salt

Savory
13.5gms of curing salt (this piece was 900gms)
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs ground black pepper
2 ground bay leaves
1 ts minced juniper berries
1/2 ts nutmeg
1 ts thyme
1 tbs brown suger
1 ts sea salt

I took the skin off both pieces of belly (don't know if I will do this next time). Squared up both pieces of belly. Rubbed in cures well. Then vacuum packed (without taking out all air to allow for liquid) and put in fridge. Kevin advised me to try 7 days for the cure and then see how they firmed up. Hope to then cut up both pieces, half of each to use unsmoked (my wife wants to try this way before commiting herself to the smoked bacon), second halves to smoke next Sunday when I am smoking a butt. Will let you know how they turn out. Looking forward to trying the ginger/honey combo.

Mike,

Keep us postedo on how they taste. The recipe Kevin gave you for ginger bacon was just about (a few more ingrediants that I didn't think of) what I was thinking when I purposed ginger syrup and honey bacon. Looks like I have a new recipe to try

Do let us know.

Josh

Have almost finished the two halves that I just cured and tried without smoking. Both were very good. The savory was excellent with a good depth of flavor. The sweet cure was also very good, the ginger and honey worked well together, but I would use a little more of each next time to give better depth. Going up to 2 tbs of minced ginger, 3 tbs honey, and 1 1/2 tbs of ginger syrup. I have more belly pork on order and will try this new mix next time. I also smoked the other halves of both cures yesterday (used 1 piece oak, 2 small pieces orange, and 1 piece pecan), and we are going to try blt's for lunch. Will let you know how they turn out.

Both the sweet and savory pieces of belly pork smoked great. My wife (who is not a great smoked bacon fan) really enjoyed both and gave me permission to make more. Will try both recipes again with larger pieces of belly in the next week or so. Also going to try with a piece of pork loin to try to produce the cut of middle bacon we have in UK.