He he he....
Ok, some of you may remember a couple of weeks ago when I ordered a belly from my local butcher and it ended up that he got me a big ol' chunk of salt pork. Well, I cut it up and froze it for seasoning and began looking for another butcher since mine was still trying to convince me that salt pork WAS fresh!
I found another guy who said SURE! "I can get all you want!" Well, we discussed it and he ordered it for me. When it came in, the weight on the box said 71 lbs! (he thought it would be around half of that) Well, I went ahead and took it all home and have it curing in the fridge for maple bacon. I really hope it turns out or I'm gonna have a big mess! I have been turning it all each day and Wednesday should be the day for the big smoke....
Here is my question: The recipe calls for the bacon to cure for 7 days, let form pellicle overnight, then smoke on the 8th day. If I can't get around to smoking all of this on the eighth day, will it hurt to leave some of the bacon in the cure for an extra day?
Any tips or suggestions?
Thanks (always) for the help! You guys are the greatest!
Jeff
I would take it out of the cure on day 7 and add an extra day to dry instead of curing an extra day. That would probably result in saltier bacon.
I've had no problems with the belly staying in the cure for more than 7 days. I usually let it sit for 10 days so that the belly firms up.
You could have frozrn some of the belly also. My last score for belly was about the same weight and I froze about 3/4's of it. It freezes well.
If they are firm, I would take them out of the cure. After removing meat from a cure, I always let it rest an extra day anyway to allow the cure to distribute more equally.
With 71 pounds of it, you should try triple smoking some of it. It is best to use the thicker parts of the slabs for triple smoked.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?t=459