bacon cure questions

2Fategghead wrote:

I want to cure a pork belly . . .

Have him take two aspirin and call me in the morning. :laugh:

Sorry Tim, I couldn't resist.


Blair

 

Tim,it is my understanding that pink salt or prauge powder is pure.Tenderquick has sugar and other stuff premixed in.If I were gonna do it,I would find a recipe that calls for one or the other and stick with it.I'm sure with more research you will be able to comprise your own concoction but I would take baby steps until I learned more of the do's and don'ts.JMO You may send stike an email.I am sure either he or thirdeye can you much helpful guidance.

Tim, I used the hi mnt. cure.

well. i foudn the older one, when the sugar cure (what they called tenderquick) contained salt petre. no good.

tenderquick advises using 1 tablespoon per pound of meat.

pink salt is used at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per pound of meat (it is much higher in nitrite concentration).

for ten pound of bacon, you would end up with ten tablespoons of Tenderquick.

for ten pounds of ruhlman's bacon, you'd have 8 table spoons salt PLUS four teaspoons pink salts, that's NINE and a third tablespoons an equal measure of tenderquick is very very close to an equal measure of ruhlman's salt and Pink salts.

kosher salt plus pink salts are what are called a basic cure. anything else is up to you. the meat will be cured by this, it's just whether you want sugar and other flavors added.

keep in mind, some of the tenderquick is sugar.

based on what i can tell, you can essentially swap tenderquick for the same amount of pink-salts-PLUS-kosher salt. that does NOT mean the same amount of pink salt alone. pink salts must be cut even further with kosher salt. (2 ounces kosher salt to 2 teaspoons pink salts).

THEN you add sugars, and other flavor ingredients.

double check my math. i don't want tyo be wrong here.

but keep in mind that both ruhlman and morton are working their recipes to essentially give you the same amount of nitrite per pound of meat, so it shoul make sense that the basic cure (salt plus pink salts in the correct ratio) equals tenderquick in the same amount

got it?

so.

that matches my math....

sugar is almost irrelevant. you can very the sugar widely, so i would say "forge on"!

have fun.

TQ is a good universal basic cure, but it is amazing how little info there is for its use.

Careful with your kosher salt, I have found that Diamond Crystal weighs quite a bit less when measured by volume than Mortons kosher.

Here we go-
7 days in TQ cure with brown sugar and maple syrup added

Maple wood smoke, 3hrs 15mins at 200-215 deg to internal of 150 deg.

Color, smell and taste all very pleasing!


Breakfast is served!



Second bellie had to wait till today for cooking as the weather was perfect yesterday for 9 holes of golf. Sleet, rain and snow this morning.
Just pulled the second one cooked over applewood at a little lower temp and a litle longer time. Can't wait to try this one.