Hi Folks,
I want to try my hand at making some bacon and ran into a snag. I have the 2 lb. containers of Sausagemakers Maple ham cure and Country brown sugar w/ cure. The only directions on it read use 2lbs. per 2 gallons of water for a 25 lb. ham. I am only going to smoke 2x 3-4lb. pieces of pork belly. Do I still have to use the whole container, half the container or less? For how long do I let it sit in the cure solution for and is that all I need to use in the cure?
Thanks for your help. Just a simple question from a dense brain.
I use Sausage Makers maple ham cure frequently, and it's a great cure. The directions call for 2 lbs. of cure for 2.5 gallons (10 quarts) of water. What I do is measure out how much brine I will need, and it's a simply matter of doing the math. You need the following amounts of cure: 3.2 oz for 1 quart; 9.6 oz for 3 quarts; 1 pound for 5 quarts. If your scale give fraction for ounces, instead of tenths, you can round up to the closest fraction.
If you don't know how to determine how much brine you need. Place the meat you are going to cure in the nonreactive container you are going to use. Add enough water to cover the meat. Then remove the meat and measure the amount of water left in the container. That is how much brine you need, but to make it simple I always use full quart measures.
I've never used Country brown or made bacon, so you should follow the curing directions on the package. There are many who have made bacon, who can give you a definite answer for the length of time you should cure for. For Sausage Makers brands of cure, they recommend 5-7 days.
Habs comments are good. Do not mess with the brine concentration, just do not cure your bacon for 30 days like a ham might need (depending on recipe). Adjust the time in brine, not concentration of brine.
Thanks for your help with the cure. See, I didn't know if you could break the measurements down or if you had to keep the measurement whole due to the mixing of the (powder)cure. I hope that made sense. Like some medicines, some you can halve and others you can't. Guess I made things more complicated then I should have, but rather be safe than sorry. Thanks again.
Mike
It's always better to be safe than sorry. Your questions were good ones. When I first started curing, I was very nervous, and took me a while of using Morton's Tender Quick to move on to other cure mixtures. The commercial cures are well mixed, and all ingredients are the same size, so when mixed they stay blended and do not separate.