sliced side pork question

[brownie31]

Opened up two 4 lb pack's of side pork today and it is sliced(damn), my plan was to use a dry cure.Now I'm thinkin I will tie it up (while it still frozen) with butchers string and make a wet cure for it, will this still work? This is the recipie I plan on useing from habanero smoker

I have wet cured bacon. The texture is more like the commercial bacon you buy in the store.

This is the brine I used at the time:

4 quarts Water; divided
1 cup pickling salt (10 ounces)
1/4 cup brown sugar; packed
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 ounces Pink Salt (aka InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1; Modern Cure #1; T.C.M.)

To this you can add bay leaves, garlic, whole peppercorns ect.

In a 3 - 4 quart non-reactive sauce pan add 2 quarts of water. Add all ingredients except the cure. Bring to a boil and simmer; stirring constantly until all the salt and sugar is dissolved.

Add 2 quarts of ice water and allow to cool down. You can cool the brine faster by adding 2 pounds of ice instead of the ice water. After mixture has cooled, add the pink salt, and stir until it is fully dissolved. Before using the pickle, it has to be between 38 degrees F - 40 degrees F.

Follow the curing directions found in this recipe.
Makin' Bacon

[Habanero Smoker]

I've never seen fresh side pork (belly) come in this manner. I would test a piece by frying to make sure it was not cured with either a nitrite or just plain salt. If the test piece tastes salty I would not attempt to cure it.

I don't know what the final out come will be, there are too many variables. If you are sure that the side bacon is not already cured, after you tie it up you should wait until it thaws. Then cure it as regular bacon, the worst that can happen is that it cures faster then a solid piece of belly, and your bacon may be too salty.

[brownie31]

The pork is from our own pigs, we told the butcher that we didn't want bacon made, we wanted the side/belly packaged up. He said he usually slices it up for himself and just fries it in a pan(fried pork I guess), I'm sure we told him not to slice it but I can't be sure.I'm going to try the wet cure and see what happens.Thank's for the input Habs.

[Habanero Smoker]

Fresh belly is also good when braised or grilled (in whole pieces), but with all the fat it contains you can only eat small portions. Since you raise your own hogs you should experiment at least once by grilling or braising fresh pork belly.

Just google "fresh pork belly recipes" and you will get a lot of hits. I will occasionally grill some, but I've been seeing a lot of braised recipes that look interesting.

Here is one of the ways I smoke fresh belly:
Smoked Pork Belly
One change I have made is that I remove it from the smoker at around 145°F, and then finish on the grill or under a broiler to crisp it up a little.

[brownie31]

So I brined/cured for about 4 1/2 days and the pieces that were on the inside changed a nice red/pink color but the pieces on the outside didn't, they stayed the same color they were when I put them in the brine? I'm assuming they should be alright seeing as how they were submerged for the entire time.I'm going to smoke them tonight so we will see how it turned out.

[Habanero Smoker]

Yes. Whether you use a dry or wet cure the surface of the meat will not be red. Depending on the ingredients of the brine it could be grayish to a light brown.

[brownie31]

that's want I wanted to know, I'm feel better about this whole thing now.Might be a bit of a "cold" smoke tonight she's -30c(-22f) with a bit of breeze.CHILLY