Making bacon / curing meat.
Discussion
Anyone else cure meat?
Bought some bacon from a new butchers last week and I was disappointed with how much water and white crap that came out so decided to try and make my own. I didn't want to spend a fortune on rare breed organic pork in case I mess up so made a trip to Tesco and bought 2kg of belly pork for £12 and a big bag of salt. I ordered a 100g bag of sodium nitrate from ebay for £3 which stops it going gray and hopefully stops the small risk of botulism.
Salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrate (sorry for the crap photo)
All mixed up 500g salt 300g sugar and 2g sodium nitrate
Belly pork
All mixed up and rubbed into all the crevices.
Cleared out my Beer fridge and tilted to let it drain
After 3 hours
After a day it's starting to look like Bacon. I drained about half a pint of fluid out of the box.
It cures for 5 days turning every day then it gets washed dried and hung in a cool place for three days to neutralise. More photos to follow next week and hopefully some bacon rolls next weekend.
Bought some bacon from a new butchers last week and I was disappointed with how much water and white crap that came out so decided to try and make my own. I didn't want to spend a fortune on rare breed organic pork in case I mess up so made a trip to Tesco and bought 2kg of belly pork for £12 and a big bag of salt. I ordered a 100g bag of sodium nitrate from ebay for £3 which stops it going gray and hopefully stops the small risk of botulism.
Salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrate (sorry for the crap photo)
All mixed up 500g salt 300g sugar and 2g sodium nitrate
Belly pork
All mixed up and rubbed into all the crevices.
Cleared out my Beer fridge and tilted to let it drain
After 3 hours
After a day it's starting to look like Bacon. I drained about half a pint of fluid out of the box.
It cures for 5 days turning every day then it gets washed dried and hung in a cool place for three days to neutralise. More photos to follow next week and hopefully some bacon rolls next weekend.
Also watching with interest.
This is slightly different to how I do mine (I have a 2kg pork loin curing at the moment)
The curing mix I use is salt & brown sugar (50/50 mix), some cloves, some bruised juniper berries. No nitrites.
I then use a tenth of the cure each day rather than all up front. So each day drain, clean and dry the container and apply another tenth of the cure mix. After 10 days clean the meat with vinegar and water and then hang for another week or two. Sound a bit of a faff but it only takes 5 minutes or less each day.
This is slightly different to how I do mine (I have a 2kg pork loin curing at the moment)
The curing mix I use is salt & brown sugar (50/50 mix), some cloves, some bruised juniper berries. No nitrites.
I then use a tenth of the cure each day rather than all up front. So each day drain, clean and dry the container and apply another tenth of the cure mix. After 10 days clean the meat with vinegar and water and then hang for another week or two. Sound a bit of a faff but it only takes 5 minutes or less each day.
Jer_1974 said:
Anyone else cure meat?
Looks like it, 
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Done it a couple of times myself, decent success and will do some this winter again all being well. Did back with a fairly plain cure and it was lovely, although it was from a rare bread pig from a private farm (purchased a side of pork) so there was a huge amount of fat but not massive amounts of actual meat but it was very nice indeed.
Last effort was in January with Salami but unfortunately it failed - case hardening ruined 6 weeks of work.
The 'River Cottage Pig In A Day' video is a good one and there are a load of good facebook groups to join.
Last effort was in January with Salami but unfortunately it failed - case hardening ruined 6 weeks of work.
The 'River Cottage Pig In A Day' video is a good one and there are a load of good facebook groups to join.
Mr MXT said:
Following with interest....but sodium NITRATE or sodium NITRITE?
It's sodium NITRATE but I think you can use both.sas62 said:
Also watching with interest.
This is slightly different to how I do mine (I have a 2kg pork loin curing at the moment)
The curing mix I use is salt & brown sugar (50/50 mix), some cloves, some bruised juniper berries. No nitrites.
I then use a tenth of the cure each day rather than all up front. So each day drain, clean and dry the container and apply another tenth of the cure mix. After 10 days clean the meat with vinegar and water and then hang for another week or two. Sound a bit of a faff but it only takes 5 minutes or less each day.
Didn't think it would get so wet so quickly. I am in two minds to mix more and wash all the wet stuff off and follow what you do. If so should I include more nitrate? Any photo's of yours does it go grey.This is slightly different to how I do mine (I have a 2kg pork loin curing at the moment)
The curing mix I use is salt & brown sugar (50/50 mix), some cloves, some bruised juniper berries. No nitrites.
I then use a tenth of the cure each day rather than all up front. So each day drain, clean and dry the container and apply another tenth of the cure mix. After 10 days clean the meat with vinegar and water and then hang for another week or two. Sound a bit of a faff but it only takes 5 minutes or less each day.
Jer_1974 said:
Didn't think it would get so wet so quickly. I am in two minds to mix more and wash all the wet stuff off and follow what you do. If so should I include more nitrate? Any photo's of yours does it go grey.
Not sure about the nitrate I'm afraid as I don't add any. Part of my reasoning for doing this was to get some bacon without added nitrites. I'll put up a picture tomorrow - I'm not sure I'd call it grey but it definitely loses it's pinkness. sas62 said:
Not sure about the nitrate I'm afraid as I don't add any. Part of my reasoning for doing this was to get some bacon without added nitrites. I'll put up a picture tomorrow - I'm not sure I'd call it grey but it definitely loses it's pinkness.
Here is the sliced output from my last curing. Back bacon, streaky bacon and lardons. The current one will just be back bacon.
TheLurker said:
Always fancied having a go at this. What cut of pork do you need for 'back' bacon? I seem to recal it's part loin and part belly?
And how do you go about slicing it if you dont have a bacon slicer? Can it be done with a sharp knife?
Pork loin for back bacon, pork belly for streaky - I believe part loin and part belly gives you 'middle' bacon that you don't really see much nowadays. And how do you go about slicing it if you dont have a bacon slicer? Can it be done with a sharp knife?
Costco sell full loins but USA pork, if you order in advance you should get one from either your butcher or a farm shop.
Ref slicing, its hard without a slicer but can be done with a really sharp knife. if doing it this way its even more important to keep the bacon chilled almost even part frozen.
sas62 said:
Not sure about the nitrate I'm afraid as I don't add any. Part of my reasoning for doing this was to get some bacon without added nitrites. I'll put up a picture tomorrow - I'm not sure I'd call it grey but it definitely loses it's pinkness.
One more day of curing left then onto hanging stage.
At this time of year I might hang in the garage (probably in muslin).
Up until now I've hung it in a fridge in the garage. Put a half depth shelf in at the top, removed the shelves below and hung from the lip of the top shelf using this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weschenfelder-Bacon-Hook-...
As for duration - I think the minimum is 10 days up to a couple of months. This time around, due to holidays, it will be hanging for about a month and I'll slice it the week before Christmas.
Up until now I've hung it in a fridge in the garage. Put a half depth shelf in at the top, removed the shelves below and hung from the lip of the top shelf using this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weschenfelder-Bacon-Hook-...
As for duration - I think the minimum is 10 days up to a couple of months. This time around, due to holidays, it will be hanging for about a month and I'll slice it the week before Christmas.
Jer_1974 said:
Rinsed, dried and hung mine tonight. I make beer so have a fermentation fridge I can hang it in. I have set the fridge to 8.5 degrees but not sure what temp I should set it at, any advice?
Didn't have a meat hook so used a skewer and two cable ties.
Fridge and car shot
Just keep an eye on it. All the weight through a single skewer might cause an issue.Didn't have a meat hook so used a skewer and two cable ties.
Fridge and car shot
I'm quite into the whole smoking food thing... recently had a go at curing bacon as i've done a fair few pastrami's recently.
Curing the bacon is the easiest bit, i then cold smoke it for about 8-10 hours, before slicing, vac-sealing & freezing.
The longer you leave it after smoking, the better the smoke comes through.
I did 4KG's of belly last month, the hardest part is slicing it thin enough, I've given up trying to get a uniform thickness with my ultra-sharp slicing knives & i'm going to invest in a commercial slicer.
We use a lot of the rashers for maple bacon pancakes & it just doesn't crisp up too well unless you slice it thin enough.
Curing the bacon is the easiest bit, i then cold smoke it for about 8-10 hours, before slicing, vac-sealing & freezing.
The longer you leave it after smoking, the better the smoke comes through.
I did 4KG's of belly last month, the hardest part is slicing it thin enough, I've given up trying to get a uniform thickness with my ultra-sharp slicing knives & i'm going to invest in a commercial slicer.
We use a lot of the rashers for maple bacon pancakes & it just doesn't crisp up too well unless you slice it thin enough.
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