1st shot at making bacon

[huckaberry3]

Well I bought some brown sugar cure from who I thought was a reputable company.  When it came in there was no instructions.  So I called the company and they just told me to rub it down and let it sit in fridge for a few days should work just fine.  Now i know that experienced makers would of probably been comfortable with this but I am not.  I did measure out 1 cup and tried it on 5 lbs of bacon.  I do have to say that I will never order from MIDWEST out of wichita kansas again.  I did not feel that the customer service was there at all.  I may have saved a few dollars but next time I am going straight back to the sausage maker.  Everything that I order from them has instructions.

Well enough for the rant but I will keep posted and try to get some pictures as it goes.  Hopefully it will be edible.

Huck

[Habanero Smoker]

I cure quite a bit, and never felt comfortable without measuring. I can't see how reputable they can be when they can not give better instructions on how to use their cure.

Having said that, there is a method called dredging, for thin cuts such as bacon, tasso ham and other cuts. You just pour a fair amount of cure mixture into a pan, dredge the meat in it, making sure all sides are covered well, then lightly shake of the excess (throw away any remaining cure). But when people do this they know the level of nitrite in the cure.

[KyNola]

I'm with Habs on this one.  Without knowing what is in the cure mix and the amount of "cure" in the mixture I would not feel good about using it.

[viper125]

Is this what you have? This is what mid western say on line in their ad. Looks like 1.6 oz. per 5 lb of meat. for a dry rub.

   COUNTRY BROWN COMPLETE CURE-----5 LBS
Complete cure with brown sugar, made especially for hams.

Use 2 lbs. to each gallon of water for a 10% pump.

Ing: Salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrite .75%. less than 2% propylene glycol, and not more than 1% sodium carbonate added as a buffer.

Item:   4560400209
Description:   COUNTRY BROWN COMPLETE CURE-----50 LBS
Complete cure with brown sugar, made especially for hams.

Use: 2 lbs to 100lbs of meat or 2lbs per gallon.

Ing: Salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrite .75%. less than 2% propylene glycol, and not more than 1% sodium carbonate added as a buffer.

[Habanero Smoker]

Viper;

I'm glad you found that, but the instructions are for a pickle or a wet brine. The cure mixture for a wet cure is much greater than when you are dry curing.

With .75% sodium nitrite then the correct safe usage would be closer to 1/2 ounce per pound. It early so my calculations may be off a little.  :)


huckaberry3
The proper amount for five pounds of bacon would be closer to 2.5 ounces, so you have used too much. Do you have a scale that can weigh out that amount? I would remove the bacon from the cure, and rinse well.

I don't know what else I can advise until I know how long have you been curing the bacon.

[viper125]

But Hab, I said 1.6 oz. Thats less then 2.5 oz. It says  Use 1 pound of cure per 1 gallon of brine at 20% pump. For DRY RUB, use 1/2 pound per 25 pounds of meat. If used for cover pickling, use 2 pounds of cure per gallon. Thats 8 oz. cure divided by 1/5 the meat (5 lbs) = 8oz. divided by 5 = 1.6 oz.

[huckaberry3]

Viper that is the stuff they sent me.  When I called them they said "just rub some on and let it sit for a few days but not too long".  When I asked how much or how long they were very evasive and just kinda ended the conversation.  Like I said Their customer service sucks.

I used 1 cup cure as a dry rub and have had it sitting for about 24 hrs

Sounds like I just ruined a nice slab of pork.   Any suggestions for salvage would be appreciated.  My next time I am just using a recipe from scratch from here.

[Habanero Smoker]

huckaberry3,
If you took it out after 24 hours, and rinsed it. I would let it rest for another 24 hours and treat it as fresh pork belly. Or you can use Arnie's salt/sugar cure and finish curing without further nitrites. You can do a search and find his post.

Viper;
I said it was early in the morning. I thought you wrote 1.6 oz for 1 pound. I didn't see the dry cure amounts towards the bottom.

The second example you gave does work out to 1.6oz per 5 pound. That would be 32 oz/100lbs. Move the decimal over two to get .32oz x 5lbs. = 1.6oz./5lbs. 

huckaberry3;
Even still, I recalculated it, and I've come up with 2.75oz for 5 pounds and still be safe. Since it is very similar in the nitrite amount (1% vs .75%) of Morton's TQ and the Basic Dry Cure; if you don't have a scale you could use 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon per pound.

[huckaberry3]

wow if your measurements are correct I really used waay too much.  I am going to wash rinse and soak and start over with 2.75 oz


If it tastes good I will eat the heck out of it if not I will be giving free samples postage prepaid of course ;D

[Habanero Smoker]

At this stage, I would not reapply a cure, since it has already been curing with such a high amount of nitrites.

After rinsing it off you should either treat it as fresh pork or finish curing with just salt and sugar. I would not add any more nitrites.

[viper125]

I agree with hab.   I'd probably go 50/50 salt and brown sugar.

[huckaberry3]

uuuggghh     

looks great, smells great,  tastes horrible :'(

way too salty

time to try again.

huck