Help with dry curing bacon without smoking

[hatfieldnate]

Hello to all,

I'm new to this site and had a question. After watching THE SECRET LIFE OF SALT on FoodTV (and if there was ever a show dedicated to me, that was it  :) ) I've decided to try creating a little homemade bacon. I called a great local butcher shop and I'll be getting an 8-10lbs pork belly in today. I'll be using half of it myself, and my father will be curing/smoking the other half. But since I live in an apt. I don't really have any smoking avenues available to me, and I like doing things strictly by hand rather than using pre-made cures. And for my first experiments I want to try using a strictly dry rub in the fridge, rather than any brining. I know some of the flavors I'm shooting for and I have in my mind pretty well what I should do. I'm going to be using a large plastic container in the fridge, keeping the 3 or 4 slabs I intend to turn my half into separate with racks or parchment paper, liberally coated with the cure. But I have a couple of questions, and after searching the internet and the threads here I'm still not sure I've come up with the answers. So, if somebody has the time....  :)

1. Do I NEED to use a brine or wet cure at all, or will my bacon be ok with a dry rub, the excess moisture drained daily, and the finished product rinsed after before packaging?

2. Most info I've come across seems to suggest 7 days is the proper amount of time to dry cure, but they then go right into the smoking stage. Like I said, I don't have that option available to me. Is 7 days still an appropriate dry cure time for a good flavor and a decent shelf life?

3. What is the best way to store the bacon, and how long can I expect it to survive in the fridge or freezer? And do I need to worry about it turning rancid in the freezer, with the heavy salt of the dry cure?

4. Since I want to do a strictly dry cure, I'm a little concerned about excess saltiness. One thing I thought of was using sea salt instead of kosher salt in the dry cure. It's got less of a strong salty flavor. Anyone else tried this or have any recommendations?

I think that's about all for now.  Thanks in advance for any advice! :)

Nate

[manxman]

Hi hatfieldnate, welcome to the forum.

Maybe others will chip in but I will answer your queries to the best of my ability.

1. I dry cure all my bacon, no wet curing at all. I tip away any liquid every second day and rinse the finished product well in cold water. Some people soak in a couple of changes of cold water for an hour or two, I may do this with my current batch of bacon as the last batch was slightly over salty.

2. Curing period really depends on thickness rather than absolute size but there are quotes ranging from 7 - 21 days here on the forum although the latter was for wet curing rather than dry. For dry curing I use one day per half inch thickness plus 2 days , stored at 2-4degC (36-40F) and turn every 2 days. I take the rind off prior to curing. Typically that will equate to 7-10 days curing.

3. I currently have bacon in the fridge that has been there for 8 weeks, admittedly cured and smoked. I would have thought dry cured unsmoked would be good for at least 4 weeks. Never frozen any bacon I have made before so not sure how well it would freeze but would imagine it would freeze fine.

4. Can't offer any advice on this, don't know.

This is quite a useful website which gives some advice about dry curing bacon. However I don't vacuum seal when curing mine:

www.sausagemaking.org

I plan to keep some of the current batch I am doing unsmoked although the majority will be smoked, however other than smoking I plan to treat both types the same in every other respect.

Note I am talking about pork loin (back bacon), someone may have some advice specific to pork belly.

Hope this was of some help.

[hatfieldnate]

Excellent, thank you very much for the advice :)

But you made me think of one more question. Exactly what is the rind, and how will I know it when I see it? I assume it isn't the skin... I've done a fair share of butchering and I never remembered seeing a piece with the skin still attached.

[manxman]

Hi hatfieldnate

The rind is the skin, traditionally pork loin comes skin on where I live. The presence or absence of the rind significantly affects the curing process, it is not worth putting much cure on the side with the skin as it has a job penetrating the it.

Most back bacon is cured rind on but I prefer to take it off.

[jaeger]

[quote author=hatfieldnate
you made me think of one more question. Exactly what is the rind, and how will I know it when I see it? I assume it isn't the skin... I've done a fair share of butchering and I never remembered seeing a piece with the skin still attached.
/quote]

More than likely, the rind will not be on your bellie. The rind is the skin. If you were butchering, the only way you would have left the rind on is if you  were scalding and scraping off the hide/fur. Most butchering done on the farm involves "skinning the carcass" thus removing the rind.
Info regarding dry curing bacon:
I would use a premixed cure for your dry cure project. A lot of people here use high mountain buckboard bacon mix with good results. I use a brown sugar cure. You mentioned sea salt, IMHO don't mix your own cure for this type of project.
7 days should be long enough for your cure to work if the bellies are coated with cure.
I would also rinse well and I would recommend soaking with fresh water for at least 1-2 hours.
I really don't think you need to rotate or drain off the "purge" accumulating during the cure.
I am in no way trying to contradict manxman at all! He is a great sausage maker and very experienced. This is just how I have cured bellies in the past. Between this and our buddie across the pond you should be well on your way. Let us know if we missed something and for sure, let us know how it turns out!!!

[manxman]

I am in no way trying to contradict manxman at all!

Just glad you stepped in jaegar, as I said I have no experience of pork belly although my butcher did offer me a complete side of bacon when I got my most recent pork loan, to include the pork belly.

Typically three types of bacon this side of the pond, back bacon which is pork loin, middle bacon which is the bit between the loin and the belly then streaky bacon, which is the pork belly and that is probably also their order of popularity.

I would agree on buying a ready made cure rather than mixing your own, particularly if using something like sodium nitrite when the quantities must be pretty accurate from a safety point of view.

To date I have only done back bacon.

It would be a very boring world if we all did things the same way! ;)