Can you cure Bacon without using Nitrates/Nitrites

[Habanero Smoker]

I removed two posts referencing celery powder from this thread based on Hab's post.

Sorry Tassie.

Perhaps Habs can provide you info on curing without nitrites/nitrates.

There was nothing wrong with your posts, and I was not challenging anything you posted.

Sorry for any drama.

Habs, I think you misinterpreted my intent.  I deleted my posts because when it comes to curing I'll yield to your expertise.  You have much more education and experience in curing than me.  I didn't know if an organic nitrite would have the same allergic reaction as a chemically produced nitrite.  Now I do. Thanks for clearing that up.

I apologize, I did misinterpret it. Early hours and being in a hurry is not a good combination to try to communicate.

[KyNola]

No harm no foul Habs.  No need for apologies. ;)

[TassieSmoker]

Tassie, first welcome to the forums. Hope you become a regular.

Curing without the addition of nitrates/nitrites, including the "natural sources" (like celery powder) can be done. But, there are some caveats.  For home applications we don't have the benefit of analytical controls that the regulated processors use, so I feel it is best to keep it on the safe side.

First, to "fully cure" for preservation, as in ancient times, requires a salt level that is pretty unpalatable -- 15% sodium chloride (salt) in the free water of the meat.  Meats cured to that level of salt need to be well soaked to remove the salt before they are cooked and consumed.  That's generally not very practical in our modern world.

The more common alternative is to cure to 3.5 - 5 % salt content in the free water phase, then fully cook the product to a food safe temperature.  The cooking can be done immediately after the curing, as in smoking, or the cured product can be stored just as if it were fresh meat and cooked at a later date, as is done for what some here in the states commonly call "salt pork".  What's important to remember is that at the lower salt levels the meat needs to be treated just as if it were fresh meat as the salt levels are too low to afford adequate protection against pathogenic bacteria.

If you want to smoke meat that is free of nitrites/nitrates then it can be safely approached as hot smoking at a temperature of 180 °F and above.  Some will even push that lower temperature to 225 °F. Basically you're cooking it as if it were untreated raw meat, to an appropriate food safe temperature.  Afterwards it is then stored as cooked meat.

The Alton Brown scrap iron chef bacon is popular but personally causes me modest concern because of the cold smoking after a lower salt/sugar cure that probably doesn't reach full equilibrium.  When I worked through the math on that recipe I come out with an equilibrium salt concentration of about 4.8% salt (raw pork belly is about 40 % water). His simple immersion soak time of 3 days is probably insufficient to achieve equilibrium -- 7 days per inch, replacing the solution after 7 days, would make me comfortable. An alternative would be to pump the belly (inject) in an attempt to saturate it with the brine, then immerse it to reach equilibrium.  If done that way 5-7 days should be sufficient.  It is probably helped by the amount of sugar in the recipe (sugar, molasses and apple cider).  If I remember that episode correctly it was quite chilly, like under 40 °F, when he smoked it and his smoke was I believe quite cold by our general use of 90 °F as the upper limit for cold smoking. So long as the meat temp can be held to 40 °F or below during smoking, it should be okay.

One other option that I have seen used is to brine cure as in the scrap iron chef recipe and add liquid smoke to the brine at a rate of 1 tsp per pound of meat, then treat the meat as simple brine treated raw pork, cooking normally as for raw pork.

Hi BLSH....thanks for your input....gives me a bit to think about.

What I am thinking is this, to follow the Iron Chef recipe brine but as you suggest inject as much of the solution into the loin as I can and then immerse for 5-7 days, pat dry and air dry for an hour or so to let a pellicle form.
The decision now is to either cold or hot smoke, the general ambient temp where I am at this time of year (after conversion as I am used to metric :D) is 55-75°F so keeping the cold smoke temp down at 40°F or below will be quite difficult but below 90°F should be fine.....or would you recommend a hot smoke and have the internal temp at 150°F or above.

Great discussion guys and appreciate all the help.

cheers
Smokin Downunder

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Tassie,  others may differ with my view but, if it were me, without nitrite and I were smoking it, it would either be < 40 °F *4 C) or I would smoke it at 180 °F (82 C) or above to an IT of 150 °F (66C). If cold smoking I would also use pork that had been sufficiently frozen to kill parasites.

If you are going to inject then immerse, which is the method I prefer, you may want to adjust the salt a bit from the scrap iron recipe.  Pork belly without skin is abut 40 % water, pork loin with all separable fat trimmed off the surface is about 70 % water.  If you're using one of those impressive Aussie-type loin+side cuts you showed in those pics (I want some of that!), then a reasonable number might be an average of the two or about 55-60 % water.  The range for salt is 3-5 % for average cuts of meat.  If you're doing a trimmed loin you probably want to be on the lower side, but for fatty belly the higher side (the lower water in fat takes on less brine, meaning less salt overall).  

To calculate the amount of salt and brine for a pump + soak, here's the drill:
1. weigh the meat, then calculate the amount of water in the meat.  
2. add that weight (water in the meat) to the weight of makeup water you want to use in the brine (water = 1 kg/l)
3. calculate the salt to add as the desired percentage of total water (meat water + added water)
4. add sugar at the desired amount, but if using any liquid sugar alternatives (syrup, molasses, honey, etc.) adjust the water accordingly.

A good general guide is to add 2X the water that's in the meat for makeup, but you can use less so long as you have enough to keep everything completely covered.

Ex.  (I'll even do this in metric, which is actually easier)

2 kg of trimmed pork loin, 70 % water content, to cure at 4% salt (pronounced salt taste)

1.  2.0 * 0.7 = 1.4 kg water in pork
2.  2.8 kg water for brine makeup + 1.4 kg water from pork  = 4.2 kg water total in the system
3. 0.04 * 4.2 =0.168 g or 168 g salt to add.
4. general sugar range would be 0.5 (balanced) to 1.0 (slightly sweet) X the salt, but you can go higher if you wish.

Makeup the brine, chill it well (< 4 °C).  Put pork into a container for brining, then inject ~ every 4 cm (~ 1.5 in) - pump it up - then add all of the rest of the brine to cover, and let it soak for 6-7 days under refrigeration.

That's just how I would do it.  

[schneep]

OK, now that I am completely confused, I looked at the scrap iron recipe, and to me that does not seem long enough as to a brine.   Is there a recipe where I can brine for a longer time in the refrig to have an end result that is "normal" bacon?  No nitrate/nitrites.