BACON: List of curing , smoking times & temps...

mjdeez · November 21, 2010, 08:24:04 PM

Thanks for your help guys. I'm about midway through. I decided to go with a longer cure because I won't be ready to smoke the bacon until tomorrow, so it was about 15 days curing time. The bacon came out too salty after a quick rinse, so I'm doing two 30 minute soaks.

I'm curious if I should be concerned about some brown spots on the bacon (bottom right of the first pic). Not sure if it's ok, maybe it is from the garlic? I used a salt / sugar / cure#1 cure with peppercorn, bay leaves and garlic, so nothing really obvious that would cause that discoloring.

Some other pics of my adventure:

I started with a 13.5 lb belly. on the left here is about 3 lbs that we used for braised pork belly. On the right is a 3lb and a 1lb pc of bacon. The 1lb has cure only, the 3 lb piece has the cure + pepper / bay / garlic. There's two more 3lb pcs like it, not shown.

After the cure:

The saltiness test... tasty but salty:

More to come later over the next few days.

Habanero Smoker · November 22, 2010, 01:30:56 AM

I've never seen that pattern or that color in cured meat. It definitely looks like a pattern in which something was in contact with the meat. Looking at the color of the garlic in another photo, it seems you suspicions may be accurate, especially after 15 days. One thing for sure, it is definitely not sodium nitrite burn, which would be greenish in color.

There also seems to be some blotches of dark discoloration at the top of the piece on the right. Was the belly like that prior to curing? I wouldn't be concerned about it, but it looks like it was bruised during slaughtering.

mjdeez · November 22, 2010, 07:41:09 AM

The belly was a beautiful piece of meat, a perfect uniform pink color of the meat / white for the fat. I wish I had taken a pic of that but didn't think of it until I had already cut it up.

I'm thinking maybe it was part garlic (brown), part peppercorns (darker colors you point out). As I flipped the bags twice daily, I also gently worked some of the spices around and into the meat as well. I noticed this morning that the skin had some dark discolorations where peppercorns had left their circular indentations, so I feel better about that.

Habanero Smoker · November 22, 2010, 01:07:11 PM

I can't wait until I hear about how the flavor turned out.

wyoduke · November 30, 2010, 05:23:29 PM

you guys are great help and i needed it.I peppered it before smoke.

After smoke i had to try it.

Ifried it up and the family loves it and now i vac. sealed it up for 2 days of rest.

;D

mjdeez · December 05, 2010, 09:28:17 AM

Ok, sorry it took so long to report back on the results, but between football and the holidays it's been a little busy. Thanks again to all those who helped me out along the way.

The short version is that the bacon came out a little too salty, but otherwise delicious. To overcome the saltiness, I sliced the bacon into 1/8" slices and blanched them for a minute or so prior to frying. The down side is this probably removes a lot of the aromatic flavor (garlic, peppercorn, bay leaf) as well as the meat flavor. But next time will come soon.

The long version: To recap, I cured it for a little too long (15 days) so it was a little salty. I soaked it in water 4x 30 minutes and put it in the fridge to drain. I was too lazy to go to the garage to get the Bradley racks so I used forks:

I was going for the three day triple smoke, but changed it up a bit and did the three 3-hour smoke sessions every 12 hours instead of every 24. First and second were apple, third was hickory. The hickory overpowered the apple, so next time I'll just use apple.

About 10 lbs of belly bacon in the smoker. I have a semi-custom cold smoke rig going on here, if you're wondering about the light bulb. More on that in a separate post, hopefully soon.

Here's the finished product:

Sooo... tasty.

Next project: Pastrami!

Jukebox · January 16, 2011, 11:24:35 AM

My first attempt at bacon was an EWWWWWW! Too salty! trip too. My recipe called for salting the pork belly with kosher salt and keeping it in the fridge for 5 days. Each day you drained off the liquid and added a bit more salt. I soaked the belly for a couple of hours in cold water and air dried it for a few hours before smoking it. At the time I was using a regular bbq with charcoal briquettes and branches from our cherry and apple trees. The smoke was great but am having a hard time getting past the salt. Next time I'm going to only cure it for three days and rinse the belly before I put the new salt on. I'll let everyone know how that turns out.

By the way, I just took a Food Safe course at the U here and your fridge should be between 30-40 degrees (celcius that is). I bought a fridge therm and make sure it stays well within that range. No problems curing at 35 degrees or lower. I always wondered why food went bad in my fridge so fast! Turned down the temp and voila! No more spoilage. At 30 D the top shelf tended to freeze a little.

GusRobin · January 16, 2011, 11:55:10 AM

Quote from: Jukebox on January 16, 2011, 11:24:35 AM

By the way, I just took a Food Safe course at the U here and your fridge should be between 30-40 degrees (celcius that is).

I think you mean 30-40 F not celcius. 30-40 C would be about 86-104F

mjdeez · January 16, 2011, 05:25:29 PM

QuoteNext time I'm going to only cure it for three days and rinse the belly before I put the new salt on.

Careful about going shorter on the cure. You're better off just keeping to the recipe but soaking for two hours.
From http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?312-BACON-List-of-Curing-Temperature-and-Times

QuoteAfter it has cured rinse the meat well and let soak for two hours. Let the meat stand at room temperature for 1 hr.
This is where some of us have screwed up. Rinse the meat WELL, when you think you are done, do it again. Unless you want really salty meat skip this and you probably won't want to make bacon again.

Next time, cut a piece off before smoking it, and fry it. If too salty, keep soaking.

QuoteThe smoke was great but am having a hard time getting past the salt.

Yup. My first attempt (documented in these last two pages on this thread) I cured it for about 2 wks instead of 7-10 days. One thing you can do is slice your finished smoked product and blanch in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes. Put all the slices in, let them boil, then take them out and put on a paper towel, then put them on the hot skillet to fry. This will cut down on the salt a bit.

cobra6223 · February 24, 2011, 06:01:42 PM

HI ALL
Well was just poking around the site and found this post on bacon and now I have questions , did I mention I was new at doing bacon ? Well I am and you guys make it sound sooooooooo GOOD I better try it . Now the questions ,
1) Does the pork loin turn out like Candian bacon ?

2) For the cure do you use like cure #1 ?
I know there has to be more things I should ask about but drawing a blank at this time , go figure never been at loss for words ;D, well folks any other thing you could think of for help would be greatly appreciated !! Thanks Tim

Shozzy · March 21, 2011, 08:03:36 AM

Hey everyone! Got 8.5 lbs of belly curing in the fridge and it will b hitting the smoker next week. Just curious if I should remove the skin from the belly before or after smoking! I'll have pics up when it's completed

Cheers!

Habanero Smoker · March 21, 2011, 01:06:08 PM

Quote from: cobra6223 on February 24, 2011, 06:01:42 PM
HI ALL
Well was just poking around the site and found this post on bacon and now I have questions , did I mention I was new at doing bacon ? Well I am and you guys make it sound sooooooooo GOOD I better try it . Now the questions ,
1) Does the pork loin turn out like Candian bacon ?

2) For the cure do you use like cure #1 ?
I know there has to be more things I should ask about but drawing a blank at this time , go figure never been at loss for words ;D, well folks any other thing you could think of for help would be greatly appreciated !! Thanks Tim

Canadian bacon (back bacon) is made for pork loin:
Canadian Bacon

Either Cure #1 or Morton's TQ can be used. If using cure #1 it may be easier to make a batch of the Basic Cure (you will find the link in the recipe), you can scale the recipe to make smaller amounts. If stored properly it will last indefinitely.

OU812 · March 21, 2011, 02:10:53 PM

Quote from: Shozzy on March 21, 2011, 08:03:36 AM
Hey everyone! Got 8.5 lbs of belly curing in the fridge and it will b hitting the smoker next week. Just curious if I should remove the skin from the belly before or after smoking! I'll have pics up when it's completed

Cheers!

It's much easer to pull the skin after smoking.

Shozzy · March 21, 2011, 02:24:38 PM

Thanks ou812. Of course as soon as I posted my question I found a topic asking my exact question! Waiting for the belly to cure is testing my patience!!! I WANT BACON!!!

Foodie · January 10, 2012, 07:57:21 AM

Oddly/coincidentally - I have this meat here now (it's called spare ribs for some strange reason - so Asian spare rib is this - and American spare rib is on the bone)) to me - this is just pork belly really?

This is cheap stuff from the "major" supermarket - to test in the smoker. That's the fat content we get, roughly. The pork from my butcher is quite different to this. It's leaner and no so "puffy" and slick looking. The rind is very different. I don't know how to describe it - but u would not recognise the difference between the two meats. Truly.

But - I would trade this for organic or wild pork anyday. This meat is tender and nice - but lacks flavour in a big way. It's mass produced and pretty yukk really (IMHO)