Hmm... Now What? Bacon, that is.


 
RichPB (richlife)

RichPB (richlife)

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Well, I've been doing a LOT of reading here and elsewhere about makin' bacon and think it seems relatively easy and straight forward.

But before I did all the reading, I had bought a 2.5 lb slab of pork belly and now recognize that I should probably have gotten a thicker slab. This one was about 18" long but only runs from just over 1" to about 1/2" thick. (I looks like it was slabbed through the thickness -- I got the skin side.) I'll know better next time, but for now I have a question.

Yesterday I removed the skin and cut the slab into two similar lengths -- thicker end and thinner end. I used a maple/salt cure on the thin end and a savory cure (w/ brown sugar) on the thicker. But most of the info says to cure for 7 up to 10 days. With these rather thin slabs I'm thinking I shouldn't cure as long. Would you folks agree? Maybe 5 days instead of 7? Or 6 days for the thicker?

I hope ya'll will have some experience on this -- this is only day 2 and will do the first flip this afternoon.

And next time, if this comes out as well as you folks have suggested, I'll probably get a whole half belly and certainly will ensure a thicker slab. (I should probably convince my dubious wife first.
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Rich
 
you're going to have much better results by erring on the too-long cure than on a too-short cure. It's tough to over-cure a piece of meat but certainly possible to under-cure one.
 
Not necessarily, if you do your curing by weight there's a finite amount of salt in the bag, so it's not possible to make your bacon too salty.
 
Well, I hope to graduate to "curing by weight", Dave. But I followed the "simple" instructions, made up some cure, and applied it to these undersize pieces of belly. So I expect that Mike is probably right for my current needs.

Once I end the cure, I'll rinse thouroughly, take a small slice away from the edge of each piece, fry it and taste. Depending on saltiness, I'll soak as needed and repeat. (Seems to me a "sneaky" way to get some advance bacon.
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That's about all I know to look for. Day 2 here.

Rich
 
Unless you plan on cold smoking for a long period of time, the shorter cure should be fine. If you've removed the skin and it's not terribly thick then that should be more than enough time to get even penetration. I've done as short as 5 days, especially when brine curing rather than dry curing.
 
That was my thinking to start. But I'm going to play it by ear (or touch or whatever). As of yesterday (Day 3) the bellies were getting a little firmer and, in one, the liquid is almost re-absorbed. That's the thinner and it is the firmer.

Rich
 
Well waddaya know? Homemade bacon is absolutely awesome! There is just no comparison at all with any of the supermarket bacon we've had. But I guess you guys are all saying "yeah, yeah, what's new?"
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Even my wife admitted it was really good (thankfully! -- the whole idea of making bacon didn't get much enthusiasm from her
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-- but now all is good
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These first attempts were a little too salty, but 30 min. in water seemed to take care of that. It's in the fridge now forming a pellicle (or at least, I think that's what it's doing). Tomorrow I'll smoke it and then do a nice meatloaf while I have the coals.

Rich
 
No need to wait -- now I know! Just fantastic! There will be no more hesitation from here on out.

As I said, after the taste test, I soaked in water then tried again. That test was from the center and seemed ok after the soaking, but the final bacon is still a little too salty (way too salty according to my wife). These samples were right from the open edge, so that may account for it. I'll be trying it again on Sunday for a family wild boar smoke (THAT'S another thread), and will try soaking some of the slices for a bit as well as getting the interior slices. All in all, I think that the thin belly portion I had may account more for the saltiness -- so that won't be a factor from now on either. This one bacon attempt has taught me a lot.

And best of all, it's still wonderful bacon. I don't know how they can call the supermarket stuff with the same name. I've never had anything like this anywhere -- even in a restaurant.

Rich
 
I am in the same process of testing. My first try was a wet brine and came out a bit salty but edible. I finished in a 200F oven until the bacon came to 152F. I soaked the sliced bacon for an hour and if you change the water once it will help. You can soak longer if necessary to get rid of the excess saltiness.

I am dry curing my second batch, which reportedly gives a saltier tasting bacon, so I know I will soak this one for a couple of hours and change the water out. I plan to smoke this for a couple of hours, ideally it should be at least six hours, but I don't have enough wood to smoke for that long.

One retail source I read suggested curing 2 days per pound for hams and 1 1/2 days per pound for bacon. They used more cure that most of my recipes call for and a whole lot of Morton Tender Quick if you do a wet cure, something on the order of 2 pounds per gallon. I will stick with Prague #1 for wet cures, but will try a dry cure with Morton Tender Quick in the near future as a friend is coming to the Philippines next month and has a 2 lb bag tucked in his luggage for me.

Great to read about your experiences. I love learning to make this stuff and hearing about what others are doing as well.
 
Originally posted by j biesinger:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Well, I hope to graduate to "curing by weight"
Click to expand...

hmm, curing by weight is by far the easiest and most mistake proof method. Not sure why you would try another way. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm out of MTQ, so I'll be mixing my own cure next time. I'm really looking forward to controlling the salt levels from the start.
 
j biesinger, I suspect RichPB is like many of us when trying something new and sticking very close to the recipe given. When I read "cure for 7 days" I never thought about curing it for 6 or 8 until I read a guide for time versus weight.

Jon Des, I have two pounds of Morton Tender Quick coming across the Pacific Ocean in a couple of weeks, but since it is not nearly as strong as Prague Powder #1, I will use it for dry curing only. I look forward to trying it since it has a lot of sugar and my wife likes a sweeter bacon.

I hope to find a good wet cure using Prague Powder/Instacure #1 that turns out a sweet bacon for the family and another one that does a spicy or peppery bacon for me.
 
It appears you get around, Tatoosh.
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I stumbled over some posts by you at pizzamaking.com yesterday as I continue my quest for MY ideal pizza crust.

In general, unless I know something about what I'm cooking, I do try to stay close to a recipe. That didn't help last evening though -- the pizza crust I made was my second worse.
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My efforts, not the recipe per se.

Rich
 
Heh heh, yeah I do haunt some of the forums. I am hoping to start hanging out over at cheesemakers.org next month again as well. The last of my cheese making gear should be here and I can start trying to learn to make mozzarella at home.

My Pizza Insert (top?) for Weber showed up and I will likely kill a couple of pizza crusts too. What sort of pizza crust did you make, RichPB?
 
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