Nitrate free bacon


 
Matt H.

Matt H.

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I've been thinking of trying this recipe:

http://letsmakesomethingawesome.com/2011/03/home-cured-bacon-without-nitrates/

anyone done this? my wife is very against nitrates as we have two small children. Personally I'd rather have the nitrates and eliminate the chances of other problems, but my opinion isn't taken. :)

I figure if I slice and freeze it after it cools down after smoking it's highly unlikely i'll have any food safety problems.
 
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The risk is botulism. Sorry my friend. Sometimes the remedy is worse than the problem. Risk vs reward.
 
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I'm aware of the risk of botulism, but I doubt keeping it in your fridge for a week, smoking, and freezing it moves the needle much when it comes to the risk of botulism. Personally I think the concern over nitrates is horribly overblown, but happy wife / happy life and all.
 
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What exactly is your concern with nitrates?

MTQ contains nitrates a bit, but pink salt only contains nitrites.

Are you aware that the USDA prohibits the use of Nitrate in commercial bacon?

USDA further limits nitrite content in bacon to between 120 and 200 parts per million.

Did you know that by weight spinach and celery contain up to 1500 parts per million of sodium nitrate? Under 5% of USA sodium nitrate consumption comes from cured meats.

You should do some research, and show it to your wife.
 
Your salt-only bacon will taste like salt, pork and smoke. But it won't be pink, it will be brown. And the flavor will be different from what you are accustomed to with nitrite-cured meats.
 
Dave from Denver said:
What exactly is your concern with nitrates?

MTQ contains nitrates a bit, but pink salt only contains nitrites.

Are you aware that the USDA prohibits the use of Nitrate in commercial bacon?

USDA further limits nitrite content in bacon to between 120 and 200 parts per million.

Did you know that by weight spinach and celery contain up to 1500 parts per million of sodium nitrate? Under 5% of USA sodium nitrate consumption comes from cured meats.

You should do some research, and show it to your wife.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info. as stated I personally have no objections to nitrates.
 
Dave from Denver said:
Your salt-only bacon will taste like salt, pork and smoke. But it won't be pink, it will be brown. And the flavor will be different from what you are accustomed to with nitrite-cured meats.
Click to expand...

I don't really care about the color, but flavor I do care about. thanks
 
I agree with Dave. The scare over nitrites/nitrates is overblown. Do as he suggested, research and gather info to show your wife.
 
More nitrites in carrots, cabbage, celery, and spinach. Please advise your wife to be very careful of those when feeding her children. Making bacon should be done with Prague Powder #1 aka Instacure #1, Pink Salt #1 - NOT #2 which does contain nitrates and is intended for making air dried sausages and such.

While the risk of botulism is low, the results of getting it are so devastating that I won't risk it for myself or my family. So I use Prague Powder #1 for my bacon. You can minimize the amount by doing an EQ cure - takes longer but has a nice result provided you have the patience and space in the refrigerator - two to three weeks.

The concern about nitrites in bacon is when it is cooked. And it is not really so much cooked but rather over cooked or burned, and you can form nitrosamines that are though to be cancer causing. But so does stomach acid. So try not to burn the bacon. If you do, feed it to the neighbor's dog whose barking keeps you awake at night. Serve it with citric acid (orange juice, lemonade, whatever) and that helps prevent the formation of nitrosamines- or add a sprinkle of powdered citric acid to your bacon cure.

Research is finding that bacon actually can be healthy. And knowledge is a good thing. Check out the whole story on nitrites (and nitrates) ... I bet that your wife may likely take a kinder view of homemade bacon in the future!
 
Nitrites were banned in Norway from 1973, and for a long period. There might be a difference in the risks of botullism, since standards in food safety might be different, but as far as I know there was not a single case of botulism from "bacon" during the long period where the bacon was produced without it.

We have a tradition of making unsmoked salted belly; it's a variation on the smoked version. Still safe.

That being said, the taste is a bit different, and as already stated, the taste (and mostly the color) is different. I suggest you give it a try. Be sure to avoid any contact with soil or dirt.

You will find around 7 ppm of the stuff in the saliva of grownups, so if you are afraid of it, you should avoid swallowing your own spit. That might be a quite tricky thing to do..

Further on, studies show that the reported headaches and other symptoms of nitrite allergies are not within statistically significant numbers. It's simply not proven.
 
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