Family came to visit early and will have to leave early. Wanted to make subject bacon but time to cure is 5-7 days.
Any way to accelerate that time-frame?
If I want to smoke sooner (like 3 days into cure) do I just smoke at a higher temp?
If I smoke at a higher temp (like 200 cabinet temp shooting for an IT of 160) does it cook to a point where you can't fry it like regular bacon?
Ed
Ed, Just my opinion but the simple answer is no, you can't accelerate the curing time. I wouldn't risk it. Folks more learned than me will be along to assist you in your dilemma.
KyNola
If you take it out of the cure early, the center of the meat will not be fully cured. This is more of taste issue than a food safety issue.
If you have to, I would just smoke it according to the recipe, knowing that the center of the bacon will taste less like bacon and more like uncured pork.
If you cook it to that high of an IT (160F) I would fear that the fat would start to render out. I'm not sure what the end product would be like.
Hi Ed;
You can accelerate the curing time, but not by using that recipe. If you wet cure you can cure the bacon in 3 - 4 days.
5 quarts water
1 cup pickling salt (10 ounce of salt)
*1/4 cup brown sugar
*1/4 cup maple sugar
3 oz. cure #1
Any additional flavoring you want to add
*You can adjust those ingredient to your particular taste.
Then follow the curing method used in the following recipe (I would suggest that you follow the cooking method in 10.5 or the methods in the following link):
Makn' Bacon (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?34-Makin-Bacon-from-3men.com)
In the recipe you will see the word overhaul, that is a generic term for redistributing the cure. In this recipe it means if you stacked the bellies, you need to need to reposition them from top to bottom, flip them over and stir the brine. If you only have one belly, just flip it over and stir the brine. It is recommended that you do this daily.
Smoking/cooking the bacon at 200°F you will render off a lot of fat, the surface may be a little crisp, and the smoke flavor will not be as strong, but you still should be able to pan fry it.
My thanks to all. Just to be safe I will stick to recipe and family will have to live with store bought. Advantage to that is I won't have to share...
Will definitely put the wet cure on my ToDo list.
Ed
The wet cure is perfectly safe, and just a different way of curing then the dry cure in the other recipe. I've made bacon both ways, but prefer dry cure (the texture seem better to me), and dry curing take up less room. Wet curing has the advantage of shorter cure times.
If the bacon is not fully cured, it will still be safe anyway. Since we are now living in the age of refrigeration. :) If you feel the bacon has not fully cured, just treat it as you would fresh meat.