Basic Hickory Smoked Bacon

[Habanero Smoker]

I'm not sure what recipe you used on your current bacon. If you followed the above advice from others you shouldn't be too far off from the correct amounts.

[BigJohnT]

Thanks,

Here is where I'm at so far.



I don't think I got the ratio correct with the salt and sugar, but I'll give it a go and see how it turns out. The next one will have the proper ratios and I'll compare how the SWAG one tastes to the one with the correct ratios.

This is the info I was needing.

Thanks
John

[Habanero Smoker]

You should be alright. If it doesn't fully cure then treat it as fresh belly - and you should have some bacon flavor.

For the formula you are planning to use the amount of sugar is important, but overall the sugar amount is not as important as the salt. The sugar acts to cut the taste of harshness of the salt, but too much sugar will make it sweet. You can cure without sugar if you wanted to. But the salt is important because you need enough to assists the curing procedure, by speeding up the osmosis process, which helps draw the nitrites into the meat.

[BigJohnT]

It came out good but tasted more like country ham than bacon. Was that because of not fully curing?

Can't wait to try again.

Thanks
John

[Habanero Smoker]

That is pretty much the flavor the basic cure will give you. With the basic cure you can begin to experiment with other ingredients such as additional sweeteners such brown sugar, maple syrup (if you want it sweeter), various herbs and seasonings if you want a more savory flavor, and/or a combination of both.

[BigJohnT]

I started another slab today using the Basic Dry Cure as Habs has show on here so we will see how that comes out. I did measure it carefully this time  ;D

Hopefully the monsoon rains will have stopped by the time it is ready to smoke.

John