Discussion
Pferdestarke said:
I've had mixed results curing salmon.
Sweetened 80% brine for 3-4 hours depending on weight, then dry without rinsing to a sticky salt pelicle (24 hours) Smoke over seasoned hardwood at 20 centigrade for 12-24 hours depending on how strong you like it. Rest for a couple of days before slicing.I have tried all sorts of dry cures and to be honest none have been a patch on wet brining.
Pferdestarke said:
Forgot to ask - how do you store it once you've done the curing and smoking process? Where and what in?
I cure it rind on, then slice it and freeze it. The water content is so low it freezes perfectly without going soft when it thaws. Wrap it in cling film in batches you will use at a sitting then in foil unless you want your freezer to stink of smoke.ETA: at the risk of hijacking the OPs thread I have a spreadsheet that calculates the bacon cure from weight that I can distribute if you are interested.
Edited by Tanguero on Tuesday 5th March 10:37
Bill said:
I've used a HFW recipe that doesn't involve either.
Then you have got away with it on that occasion.In the absence of nitrite ions, CB is free to grow from the spores that are almost certainly present. It doesn't not mean that they will, but just that they can. Given the potential leathality of botulism (around 150 people a year die from it) it is gross stupidity to take the risk. With the greatest of respect HFW is not a microbiologist.
You can kill the spores by cooking at 121 centigrade for 30 minutes however that will not destroy the toxin if the spores have already grown (so you would need to cook the pork before curing), or you can use the appropriate amount of nitrites to guarantee that it never develops. Or of course you can take the risk of very serious illness and death.
Tanguero said:
ETA: at the risk of hijacking the OPs thread I have a spreadsheet that calculates the bacon cure from weight that I can distribute if you are interested.
Hijacking is welcome. I started the thread to see who else was up for this sort of thing and see whether we could share methods for the PH food gang.I’ve got my dinner on the go just now, but will be getting started on my bacon (and maybe scratchings) later on.
BTW, I’ve never used Prague powder in my dry cures. I do use saltpetre.
Tanguero said:
t is gross stupidity to take the risk.
I'll settle for ignorance, but either way it's far from the daftest thing I've done. 
Just reading around the subject the risks of CB in cured meat is barely mentioned, unlike home-canning, preserving garlic in oil and even sous-vide. The common link being that the toxin is formed anaerobically.
Bill said:
I'll settle for ignorance, but either way it's far from the daftest thing I've done.
Just reading around the subject the risks of CB in cured meat is barely mentioned, unlike home-canning, preserving garlic in oil and even sous-vide. The common link being that the toxin is formed anaerobically.
The "stupidity" comment wasn't aimed at you personally, I am sorry if it came across that way. It was not my intent. Just reading around the subject the risks of CB in cured meat is barely mentioned, unlike home-canning, preserving garlic in oil and even sous-vide. The common link being that the toxin is formed anaerobically.
Botulisim takes its name from the latin for sausage (botulus) because that is where it was most commonly found. Generaly any cure that takes over a week has potential and the inside of a piece of pork is fairly anerobic. Granted, its not a massively high risk in bacon certainly compared to salami where the meat is minced then cured at ambient temperature for a long period, but why take the chance when the consequences can be so serious?
The nitrite, whether from Prague powder or saltpetre does have another benefit in that it stops the meat from going grey so considerably improves the appearance of the finished bacon.
http://www.tvr-cerbera.co.uk/files/Bacon_cure_calc... for those that are interested
I got distracted last night and didn’t make a start on the bacon yet. I did make pork scratchings though—and for a first attempt they were pretty successful!
I dried the pigskin out in my fridge for a couple of days, then cut it into short, thin strips.
I rubbed Maldon salt into the fatty side, then brushed it over with cider vinegar and left that to stand for a while.
Then it went in the oven at around 230º for 15 minutes (over a water bath to minimise smokiness in the kitchen). It came out like this:
Definitely progress!
Then I transferred it all into a deep fat fryer on maximum heat (which was outside on the balcony, again to avoid stinking up my flat) for about five or six minutes.
I dried the scratchings off on some kitchen roll, then shook them in a ground up mix of Maldon salt, cooking salt, paprika and Chinese five spice. They were bloody fantastic with a decent beer, and especially nice when still slightly warm.
Dead easy, and fast too. I’ll definitely be making a batch next time I have the guys round for a pint or two.
I dried the pigskin out in my fridge for a couple of days, then cut it into short, thin strips.
I rubbed Maldon salt into the fatty side, then brushed it over with cider vinegar and left that to stand for a while.
Then it went in the oven at around 230º for 15 minutes (over a water bath to minimise smokiness in the kitchen). It came out like this:
Definitely progress!
Then I transferred it all into a deep fat fryer on maximum heat (which was outside on the balcony, again to avoid stinking up my flat) for about five or six minutes.
I dried the scratchings off on some kitchen roll, then shook them in a ground up mix of Maldon salt, cooking salt, paprika and Chinese five spice. They were bloody fantastic with a decent beer, and especially nice when still slightly warm.
Dead easy, and fast too. I’ll definitely be making a batch next time I have the guys round for a pint or two.
d! It's not even 10am and I'm drooling and hungry.
Probably time I got around to posting this, eh? My bacon curing isn’t anything fancy, so hopefully demonstrates that it’s dead easy for anyone to have a go at.
To make back bacon you need to ask your butcher for a pork loin. I get a whole one (one side of the pig’s ‘back’) and have it split into the meat for baconing, the pork loin ‘steak’ (which is a huge amount of top-notch pork for cooking with), the skin (for the pork crackling you saw earlier in the thread) and the ribs, which I keep for soup making and for baking up as barbecue ribs.
Here’s one of the two pieces I end up with for bacon making.
I use a big airtight plastic box for dry-curing, and I start by mixing up my cure in the bottom of it. The basics are lots of table salt (there are plenty of guides and calculators online if you want to be precise with the amount, but I tend to go by eye) and a little bit of saltpetre. Saltpetre used to be difficult to buy, but you can easily get some via eBay nowadays, or ask your local butcher.
So: Lots of table salt, a little saltpetre, and a handful of dark brown sugar. Then you can also add other herbs/spices if you wish to play with the flavour. I added thyme, black pepper, coriander seeds and dried juniper berries. All crushed with a pestle and mortar.
Mix that lot up in the bottom of your big box. Mine looked like this:
Then you rub it all over your bacon-to-be. It’s vitally important that you get it well rubbed in to every nook and cranny of the meat.
Like this:
Then you stack the slabs of meat in your airtight box and put it in the fridge.
Go back to look at it the next morning and a LOT of liquid will have leached out of the meat. Like this:
Put the meat to one side and pour away the liquid. Then turn the meat slabs over and put them back in the box.
Every morning, you do the same. Pour away the liquid and rotate the meat (bottom slab on to the top each time). You’ll notice less and less liquid each day. You do this for about a week … you’ll notice when it starts to look like bacon instead of pork. There’s no hard and fast rule for when it’s ready—the longer you cure for the saltier your bacon will be.
This is where I’m at right now. I reckon I’ll be draining and turning the meat until Sunday/Monday.
The next steps are to wash the meat clean and then wrap in muslin to hang and air dry.
To make back bacon you need to ask your butcher for a pork loin. I get a whole one (one side of the pig’s ‘back’) and have it split into the meat for baconing, the pork loin ‘steak’ (which is a huge amount of top-notch pork for cooking with), the skin (for the pork crackling you saw earlier in the thread) and the ribs, which I keep for soup making and for baking up as barbecue ribs.
Here’s one of the two pieces I end up with for bacon making.
I use a big airtight plastic box for dry-curing, and I start by mixing up my cure in the bottom of it. The basics are lots of table salt (there are plenty of guides and calculators online if you want to be precise with the amount, but I tend to go by eye) and a little bit of saltpetre. Saltpetre used to be difficult to buy, but you can easily get some via eBay nowadays, or ask your local butcher.
So: Lots of table salt, a little saltpetre, and a handful of dark brown sugar. Then you can also add other herbs/spices if you wish to play with the flavour. I added thyme, black pepper, coriander seeds and dried juniper berries. All crushed with a pestle and mortar.
Mix that lot up in the bottom of your big box. Mine looked like this:
Then you rub it all over your bacon-to-be. It’s vitally important that you get it well rubbed in to every nook and cranny of the meat.
Like this:
Then you stack the slabs of meat in your airtight box and put it in the fridge.
Go back to look at it the next morning and a LOT of liquid will have leached out of the meat. Like this:
Put the meat to one side and pour away the liquid. Then turn the meat slabs over and put them back in the box.
Every morning, you do the same. Pour away the liquid and rotate the meat (bottom slab on to the top each time). You’ll notice less and less liquid each day. You do this for about a week … you’ll notice when it starts to look like bacon instead of pork. There’s no hard and fast rule for when it’s ready—the longer you cure for the saltier your bacon will be.
This is where I’m at right now. I reckon I’ll be draining and turning the meat until Sunday/Monday.
The next steps are to wash the meat clean and then wrap in muslin to hang and air dry.
Okay, so after about six days in the cure and a good soak (in cold water), then a wipe down and pat dry, it looked like this:
Then I wrapped each slab individually in muslin and instead of hanging I sat it on a drying rack on top of a kitchen cupboard. Turn it over every now and again, unwrap and rewrap from time to time (to help it dry out evenly) and job’s a good ’un.
After another week it looked like this:
A good sign that it’s ready is that what’s called the ‘pellicle’ starts to form. A very light dusting of white mould on the meat’s surface. It’s utterly harmless and you don’t even need to remove it. Think of it like the mould on the outside of a salami or something.
I took the slabs of cured and dried meat over to my friendly butcher, who sliced it for me. I got 150+ rashers of bacon and enough chunks from the ends of each slab to chop up and make a couple of good pasta sauces with (the end bits are saltier, so go well in a sauce).
This stuff was definitely a success. Probably the best I’ve made yet. The juniper berry & coriander seed cure is a real winner!
Then I wrapped each slab individually in muslin and instead of hanging I sat it on a drying rack on top of a kitchen cupboard. Turn it over every now and again, unwrap and rewrap from time to time (to help it dry out evenly) and job’s a good ’un.
After another week it looked like this:
A good sign that it’s ready is that what’s called the ‘pellicle’ starts to form. A very light dusting of white mould on the meat’s surface. It’s utterly harmless and you don’t even need to remove it. Think of it like the mould on the outside of a salami or something.
I took the slabs of cured and dried meat over to my friendly butcher, who sliced it for me. I got 150+ rashers of bacon and enough chunks from the ends of each slab to chop up and make a couple of good pasta sauces with (the end bits are saltier, so go well in a sauce).
This stuff was definitely a success. Probably the best I’ve made yet. The juniper berry & coriander seed cure is a real winner!
That looks f
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