Pork Hock/Bacon Question

[Bugnut]

Looking for some advice for brining pork hocks. Also would like to smoke the bacon from this hog it was a young gilt that would not breed so because it was fed for breeding was not very fat. The bacon looks real nice but is not real thick. So the question is do I brine it like normal, or shorten the time due to the thickness? I'm whooped from the work out of making 85lbs of breakfast sausage and 40lbs of brats but need to get this into some brine today. Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom

[viper125]

I'd dry cure the bacon if it's not real thick. Then use the dry cure recipe for times. Look on the recipe site for times.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?180-Our-Time-Tested-and-Proven-Recipes&s=24fcd812d68528455223a95af8124ffc

[Habanero Smoker]

Not knowing how you brined them in the past, as a general rule if the bacon is thinner (and in your case also leaner) that usually requires less curing time.

That's a lot of sausage; especially for me. I generally will only make 5 - 15 pounds at a time.  :)

[ratherbboating]

I have made bacon twice, Maple Cured Bacon, by tenpoint 5 twice.  Turned out good both times.

[OU812]

What works for me is 7 days curing time to every inch of thickness.

[Bugnut]

The bacon is done and turned out good. I used a wet brine for 5 days on the bacon and 7 days for the pork hocks and will smoke them tonight. I rinsed the bacon several times and probably should have soaked it as its a bit salty but bad. Sorry no pics this time, I've been way to busy with all this meat making! I will post some pics next time as I'm sure we will be doing more bacon. Thanks for the replies.

Tom