Another Bacon thread!


 
Wolgast

Wolgast

TVWBB Olympian
Well i did some bacon yesterday.
First time dealing with pink salt,it turned out good but not perfect. I think it was a little to salty to be perfect. I used the " Ordinary " recipe cut in half with some modification.

Brine:

2,5l water
235g salt
225g sugar
Only 2/3 teaspoon pink salt(followed the instrution on the pacage "LEM CURE")
8g black peppercorns
3 bayleafes
5g brown mustard seeds
1 diced clove of garlic

48 hours in the brine,15 hours drying in the fridge(still a bit wet) dryed it infront of a table fan for 2hours before smoking.

Apple wood for smoke
Temp/time: 170 first hour,180 second hour,190third hour then the temp started to sink so i added more unlit lump and took it up to 200 for another hour. Pulled at an internal temp of 150. 4 hours in total.

Here we go:

Skin on belly in the brine. Weight 3lb


After the fan drying ready for the smoker.


About 1.5 hours in


150 internal temp and done!


After it cooled down sliced it to portion size(and gave my father one piece)


My wife thought it was great and not to salty,but i think it was. Before i go out and buy alot of belly and fill my smoker up any tips on how to lower the saltyness by 5-10%.

Use less salt in the brine?
Shorter brine time?
Soak in water after the brine?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posted January 16, 2011 08:54 AM
My wife thought it was great and not to salty,but i think it was. Before i go out and buy alot of belly and fill my smoker up any tips on how to lower the saltyness by 5-10%.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Did you rinse it after taking it out of the brine?
That looks like a great chunk of bacon. Your lucky to be able to get small pieces of belly. The only place to get it near me sells the whole thing and won't split it up.
Well I'm going to make a bacon sandwich now have a nice day.
 
Hi Bob.

Well i thought about rinsing it after the brine but dident.(that would help ofc)

Well i almost cant find a bigger piece then this in the supermarket. Will have to talk to my butcher and compare the price.

Dont get me wrong it was a great bacon,but not PERFECT. And if im doing 20kg of belly i want it to be perfect.

Before i try that i will try out a dry cure on the same size of meat and se what resaults i get with that.

And btw i cant say i can taste any of the spices that went in to the cure. But it sure makes it look better
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">And btw i cant say i can taste any of the spices that went in to the cure. But it sure makes it look better </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I've found the same to be true; the spices add a very subtle flavor. I thought of dry-roasting them in a pan first.
If the bacon is too salty for you, I believe you can simmer it whole in a pot of water for 20 minutes, after its smoked (before sliced).
Beautiful hunk of belly, btw. Very meaty.
 
Great looking belly, W. I did my first bacon yesterday too. I used the "Maple Cured Bacon" recipe from Charcuterie.

I thought it was pretty good and not too salty. Like you, I thought it "wasn't perfect' though. It was more that it was missing something rather than too much of something. Now that I've done the recipe to the letter it's time to tweak.
 
It's quite easy to hit the right amount of salt for your taste if you dry brine. I use 3% salt. If that's too much for your taste, you can go down to 2,5%, be careful if you want the bacon even less salty, as you'll have to treat the meat the same way as fresh pork belly.
 
Great bacon, Daniel!

I just took my belly out of the freezer this morning and plan on getting it onto the brine on Tuesday night. I'm debating going with pink salt vs. "regular" salt. I'd like to try the nitrate/nitrite free version.
 
Looks really good Daniel!

I think if you rinse well before air drying it will take care of the saltiness.
Try cooking a small piece before drying/smoking to test.

I've tried adding spices too, but they (IMO) don't add much flavor, but I'm mainly after that rather heavy smoke flavor.


BTW, not sure of your pic size, but they took forever to load, maybe my computer though
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Well thanks everyone!

I will rinse before smoking next time.

Gary: the pan method and maby go thru coarse in a mortar will do the trick.

Bob: The pic size is 1024'768 You still use chrome? Try Firefox out i bet you will love it.

And im after the heavy smoke to and it was spot on.
 
It may take more than a rinse to reduce the salty taste, Wolgast. I've taken to soaking the bacon in cold water for an hour, changing the water twice during that time (every 20 min.). This helps quite a lot. My first time I just rinsed it and it was still very salty.
I've got some bacon just finishing the cure today so I'll be finishing it on Tuesday, but today after I take it out it will get a big rinse and then hour long soak before it goes into the fridge to form the pellicle.
 
Hmm, I've been using that recipe now because I find it's less salty than other methods. I've tried Geir's method and that works well, it takes a lot longer though. Like he said you can dial the saltyness in with it.

I would not shorten the brine time, it takes timeto get the cure to the center. I might consider reducing the percent salt and see if it's more to your liking. I wouldn't worry too much about safety since you aren't cold smoking.

I stopped using spices in my wet cures too. They just don't do much.
 
Try a few whole allspice berries next time. I added about 8 to my brine and initially the smell was somewhat powerful and I regretted adding them but the little bit of flavor they provided was awesome. Try using some brown sugar or molasses in place of some of the white sugar.

Definitely rinse the slab very well. You can also soak it in clean cold water for 30 minutes before you dry it but a good rinse should do the trick.
 
What's the general consensus on removing the fat cap / skin before smoking? I'd think it should be removed??
 
Stefan i thought about removing it before the smoke to get a more smokey final product.

But after looking around and reading a few different recipes i left it on. It was really easy to remove it from the warm bacon and it turned out with a great smokey flavour.

But since i smoked it on a really low temp i dont think it´s better to leave the skin on. Next time i will remove it before the smoking to compare.
 
I left the fat cap on during the smoke. Just peel it off when you're finished. You can use it for adding smoke flavor to other dishes.
 
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