Bacon Question... Curing concern..


 
Matthew

Matthew

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I wanna smoke my Bacon, and I know that if I do the cure myself, I would think it should be alot healthier and tastier than the store bought stuff.. Can you eat uncured bacon?

Nitrate and Nitrites. This is the issue.. I was told these are bad for you. But reading, they have this is the Morton Cure Salt. So what is the difference in health wise in store bought and home cured.. I am wanting to get away from processed and preserved foods.

Bonus question, how much of the Sat fat gets cooked out of bacon if you oven cook it..
 
Matthew, there are likely to be less ingredients total in homemade bacon and less emulsifiers/artificial preservatives.

According to Morton's web site, there are two products you might be talking about:

Morton's Tender Quick (part of Bob Correll's Bacon Made Easy recipe): contains salt, the main preserving agent; sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, curing agents that also contribute to development of color and flavor; and propylene glycol to keep the mixture uniform.

Morton's Sugar Cure: contains salt, sugar, propylene glycol, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, a blend of natural spices and dextrose (corn sugar).

So the questions are:
1. Do you need propylene glycol? NO. But that's in a ton of food. It's also in antifreeze, but that doesn't make it dangerous.
2. What are "natural spices?"
3. Do you need sodium nitrate? NO. That's mainly for dry cured items that are held for long periods of time. Morton's is a "cure-all" (hahaha!). This stuff is sold as Cure #2 and it has sodium nitrite mixed in.
4. Do you need sodium nitrite? In order to really have "cured" bacon, yes. Lots of uncured bacons in the supermarket have celery juice as an ingredient...Which is full of natural nitrates. So uncured bacon is cured. Sodium nitrite is sold as Cure #1.

Now, if you poke around for the Charcuterie recipe for bacon, it only has a few ingredients: Salt, sugar, sodium nitrite and whatever seasonings you want. Is it healthier? That's debatable. You're still eating salty pork belly. It doesn't have any anti-caking agents, dextrose or unlabeled spices. Plus you get finer control over the saltiness/flavor of the product.

I'd encourage you to read this article to learn a little more behind the "hype" of nitrates/nitrites. They're not as bad for you as you've been led to believe, and they're definitely not the worst thing for you in bacon.

One last interesting question: What's more dangerous? Pork belly that's been sitting in salt in the fridge for a week, or pork belly that's been sitting in salt and sodium nitrite in the fridge for a week? Here's a hint: We use sodium nitrite for a reason...
 
In 1973 sodium nitrite was banned in Norway. It was not legal to add the salt to food at all. We still had bacon products, and as far as I know, none died from botulism during the "ban" years.
So, if you're sure that your belly does not have been in contact with the bacteria, you do not need to use nitrite.
Later on, the studies proved to be wrong, or not statistically significant, so nitrite is allowed in certain foods in certain quantities.
But- The bacon will be grey, and not red/pink. The taste is a bit different. And it is less protected from bacteria.

So- why drop it, because some studies forty years ago indicated that it could be dangerous?
Most of the nitrites we digests comes from our own saliva, older persons have more nitrites in the saliva than younger. Most of the rest comes from vegetables.
So, listen to GregP. But it is possible to make bacon without nitrite. I can not think of a very good reason why.
Speaking of health, the best way to be a tad healthier when eating bacon, is to eat a slice less than you really want to.
 
You can get yourself a pork belly, smoke it and slice it. It won't be the same as bacon because the process of curing the pork belly changes it. Case in point, search pork loins on this site, there are tons of posts on them. They look and taste nothing like Canadian Bacon but they are the same cut, Canadian bacon is just cured.
 
Matthew said:
Thanks GreggP I will most likely do a Pork Side.. Wet or dry?
Click to expand...

I've done both the basic cure from Charcuterie and Saucisson Mac's bacon.

Charcuterie is EASY and good. It's a dry cure, just coat the belly and flip the bag daily. It takes a week.

Saucisson Mac is easy too, the only difference is that this is a brine. You have to cool it to fridge temp before you drop the belly in. It takes 3 days and I believe produces a superior product. I'm not a fan of the spices in his recipe though, so you may want to omit those.
 
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