Home Curing Bacon? Anyone? page 2

[The Tall Tree]

My latest batch of bacon I smoked with apple and it was just freaking fabulous. I never use the pink salt to cure just good old sea salt, maple syrup and red pepper chilli flakes.

Nice one. That's what I like to hear. What cut do you use? Are you using a dry(-ish, I know it has the maple in it) rub, or a wet brine? Also, have you tried willow to smoke it, and how's the colour without the saltpetre?
Cheers bud
LC

[gregpoole]

It's a rub, depends on the size of the pork belly, my last batch was a 14 lb one.....1/2 cup sea salt, 1/2 cup maple syrup,2 tbl of red pepper chilli flakes.
Spread mixture over pork belly that was cut into pcs that fit in large ziplock freezer bags, get most of the air out of the bag place in the fridge, each day flip Yhe bags over and do this for a week. At this time the bacon is done, you can then rinse of the pcs under cold water then towel dry and place on racks in put in the fridge over night. The next day fire up the smoker and smoke with your choice of wood. Usually do mine in the smoker for about 6 to 7 hours.

No have not tried willow yet.

[The Tall Tree]

Thanks greg! The bags are a good idea. I did the whole belly in a wet brine. I'll try your rub next time, and portion it out.
I'll post how willow goes. I would have smoked for longer too, not because I know better, because I would have been guessing! I'll err on the side of caution.

[gregpoole]

I also forgot to mention that when I rinse off the bacon I slice off a couple of pcs then fry them to taste how much of a salty flavor there is if to salty I soak in clod water for 1 to 2 hours then retest of salty flavor.
They say you only have to smoke for 4 hours but I like a little more smokey flavor.
Yes I would like to know how the willow goes.

[The Tall Tree]

I also forgot to mention that when I rinse off the bacon I slice off a couple of pcs then fry them to taste how much of a salty flavor there is if to salty I soak in clod water for 1 to 2 hours then retest of salty flavor.
They say you only have to smoke for 4 hours but I like a little more smokey flavor.
Yes I would like to know how the willow goes.

Cool as. It seems a lot less fiddly than I've made this batch!
I'll let you know what the willow smoked bacon is like, for sure.

[KimInGA]

Has anyone successfully turned a 1-lb piece of pork belly into bacon? I've tried twice, just scaling down a recipe for a 10-lb block, and it has not worked very well. I added 3 tbsp salt and 3 tbsp maple syrup. The first time I let it go for a full week, and it was basically candied bacon. The second time I only let it go for 4.5 days, thinking that the issue was too much time. The flavor is slightly less overwhelming, but still WAY too salty (and the maple flavor is nowhere to be found). Agh! I have a half-hog that is due to be slaughtered this week, so I'm about to have 10-13 lbs pork belly. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong! For the love of bacon, help me!

[The Tall Tree]

Has anyone successfully turned a 1-lb piece of pork belly into bacon? I've tried twice, just scaling down a recipe for a 10-lb block, and it has not worked very well. I added 3 tbsp salt and 3 tbsp maple syrup. The first time I let it go for a full week, and it was basically candied bacon. The second time I only let it go for 4.5 days, thinking that the issue was too much time. The flavor is slightly less overwhelming, but still WAY too salty (and the maple flavor is nowhere to be found). Agh! I have a half-hog that is due to be slaughtered this week, so I'm about to have 10-13 lbs pork belly. I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong! For the love of bacon, help me!

I'm doing a 2kg (4lbs) piece now, in a wet brine. I just scaled back a brine recipe from John Seymour's 'Complete Book of Self Sufficiency'. Mssg me if you want it.
Greg says in an above post that you can rinse/soak some of the salt out if it is to salty. I think we are approaching bacon with to fiddly a mindset, and it is much more robust than we think. This is my first time, and I did it a bit different, but try Greg's directions above. He seems to know what he is doing, and has made it work!

[NZ primal Gwamma]

fantastic infomation everyone. This old Gwamma loves her bacon, and aint finding it easy to source preservative/sugar free in NZ. Soooooooo I shall try and make my own

[The Tall Tree]

Let us know how it goes.

[Noctiluca]

I haven't made PORK bacon but we did turn some of the BEEF belly into bacon last year. Did a salt brine and then smoked it. We tried a couple mixtures. We did a plain salt brine and one with maple syrup in it too and the we smoked them in a couple batches. One with Applewood and one with hickory. It's pretty good. It has a pretty different flavor from pork bacon but I like it.