Home cured bacon too salty

J-dubya

I've been curing bacon for a couple months, while some bellies have come out ok, Overall, it's been very, very salty. 

    I'm using the dry cure recipe found in the book, "Bacon 24/ Seven," for a 5lb belly:

-2 cups kosher salt
-1 cup brown sugar 
-1 teaspoon pink salt 
- 1 tablespoon pepper

I most recently reduced the salt to 1.5 cups

    I rub the belly with the cure and the place in ziplock for 7 days, flipping each day. I then rinse them very,we'll. I even let the last one soak in water for like 20 mins. I then smoke to an IT of 150 and fry as needed. 

Any suggestions? Bacon tastes great just too salty (and I like salt)! Can I keep cutting the salt back or will It affect safety?

Thanks!!!


[IMG]http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w305/massdiver/null_96.jpg[/IMG]

U_tarded

Soak it longer after the cure.  I usually change out the water about 4 times over a couple of hours.  

J-dubya

U_tarded said:

Soak it longer after the cure.  I usually change out the water about 4 times over a couple of hours.  

Thanks will do. 

Darby_Crenshaw

try a saltbox method, instead of making up the cure by weight.

mix up a straight cure containing no sugars or any flavorants, just the active curing ingredients (i.e. salt, pink salts), in a handy amount (i fill half to two thirds of a large ziploc bag).  some large amount that you will use for cures later on (more than you need, i mean).

then, place more than you need from this stockpile into a literal box (or large ziploc, or glass baking dish, etc.).  then shake the meat or dredge it in the cure, covering all sides, rubbing it on, and then lifting it out and shaking off he excess.

that's all the cure you need.  whatever sticks is what you need, the excess goes back into the salt box.

then add your sugars and flavorants to the bag with the meat to be cured.

this method is how curing was done in large batches.  a perpetual half-filled 'salt box' into which meat was tossed, rolled around, taken out, and the excess shaken off.

this will reduce salt generally, and is an accepted manner for getting the 'correct' amount of cure on/into the meat.

that said.  if it is too salty, you can soak it as whole meat (the whole belly, after trying a piece).  or you can blanch the bacon in simmering water before frying.

frankly though, dry cured bacon IS saltier, it IS drier.

another thing...  you like store bought bacon right? not too salty? well.  it isn't dry cured.  it is wet cured, injected with cure ( a pickle) and cures on the way to the store.

you might try curing your pork belly this way, just as you would a ham.

it will gain weight (water) instead of losing it, and thereby likely be less salty.

last...  sugar mitigates the harshness of slat. it;s why we can eat a slice of american country ham, but we eat prosciutto in thin-as-possible slices.  they are both cured only with salt.  but the american country ham retains water by using sugar (sugar is hygroscopic), and the sugar itself cuts the harshness of the salt as well, on the tongue

blind99

Instead of reducing the amount proportion of salt in the cure, you may want to look at the proportion of cure to meat. I use Ruhlmanns recipe and if I remember right he recommends using 5% of the weight of the meat. 

Longer  water soak will help too

tarheelmatt

Looks like you don't need that much salt even at 1.5 cups. 

tarheelmatt

Roughly 1.5 teaspoons per 1lb is needed. 

J-dubya

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the comments! Very helpful 

I think I'm just so paranoid about not getting enough pink salt on the meat that I have been putting a really, really thick coat of my dry cure on - literally caking it on to make sure the tiny amount of pink salt all made it on the belly.  

milesvdustin

Last time i made ruhlman recipe it tasted like ham. Looking for something better

Canugghead

@Darby_Crenshaw ... I heard about the saltbox method but was hesitant for two reasons, 

• should I leave the meat wet or pat dry before dipping? I'm thinking more cure mix would stick if wet
• a pork loin could be double the thickness of belly, but not double the surface area

I know I'm overthinking this, help 

Darby_Crenshaw

@J-dubyaDo NOT double up on pink salt or "be safe" bu adding more than is called for.  It's a toxin technically. It's colored pink so that you don't accidentally use it instead of real salt (or think it may be sugar).

pork loin is typically brine cured, but italian curing (for one) does dry cure it

look, don't reinvent things or overthink. Why second guess a thousand plus years of tradition and practice?  

@Canugghead ...just not soaking wet and not patted bone dry. Come on people.  THINK!

the salt will stick. Just do it.  

@milesvdustin if you want something more like store bought bacon, you are barking up the wrong tree. Homemade bacon is a dry cure and removes water. Store bought bacon adds water 

flavor of the meat is not determined by the curing agents (salt/nitrite) though (sugars and flavorants do, yes). Salt and nitrite do the same thing flavor wise whether it is belly or ham. 

So if your bacon is hammy, it's a result of the flavors added. The texture though is definitely drier, and that may be the issue. 

Commercial bacon is an injected wet cure. You could try pickling it instead of dry curing (as was mentioned above)

milesvdustin

Ill give a wet cure a shot and see how it goes. Worst case scenario, more pork! 

Note: I liked the bacon, wife did not. 

bgebrent

@Darby_Crenshaw knows his stuff.  With your cure, you needed to soak the belly for an hour in water before smoking to remove some sodium.  Keep trying.

cazzy

Soak it longer or listen to @Darby_Crenshaw. I soaked this batch for four hours yesterday and it came out perfect.

Legume

I've got a batch that I under soaked, way too salty but I already smoked it.  It's in the freezer, not sliced.  Any chance I could thaw and soak now to try to save some of it?  Maybe back in the egg after for a little bit to tighten it back up?  

cazzy

Legume said:

I've got a batch that I under soaked, way too salty but I already smoked it.  It's in the freezer, not sliced.  Any chance I could thaw and soak now to try to save some of it?  Maybe back in the egg after for a little bit to tighten it back up?  

Just do what darby said and blanch it before you fry it.  Unsure about soaking it again....  

Darby_Crenshaw

WALL OF TEXT WARNING:

The salt box method has always worked for me, and never needed to soak (though i fully admit we may simply be salt-heads). It uses less overall cure, and yet typically ends up nicely cured, and we've never complained about too much salt. It's a traditional method of metering the proper amount of cure, and perfectly safe

as far as safety goes, we aren't doing this for safety anyway. We refrigerate everything all the way thru the process. You could leave out the salt, the nitrite, or both if you really wanted. You just wouldn't have the flavor, texture, and sharpness/piquancy. 

Remember that much curing is done without nitrite. It is a safety requirement for aged/dried sausages, and meat that is being ground or chopped and cured outside of refrigeration. But for whole muscle meat which i's continually refrigerated, it is not necessary for safety

it IS req'd if you want the piquancy, firmness, snapping/crystalline texture, and fixed color that you associate with bacon

and the salt as well: for flavor, texture, firmness. But safety? Not unless you are hanging it at room temp

let's back way up to regain some footing. And let's get a little stupid for argument's sake for a moment.

Four pork bellies:

Take the first one and put it in your fridge for a week week with nothing on it. A week later take it out and slice it up. Cook it. You have pork belly cut into bacon shaped strips, but we wouldn't call it bacon.

Take your second pork belly. lay it in salt and bury it under more salt. Overnight. AT ROOM TEMP! take it out, shake it off, hang from your rear view mirror for a week. Or for forever. Literally.  After a week, or forever, slice and cut up. Not bacon. But you could call it a form of pancetta if you really wanted to. To placate the wife, next time you do this, put it in the fridge when curing. But the ancient secret is that you don't have to. This is the basic form of curing for most cultures, and for at least a few thousand years

now. Third belly. Follow simple recipes and trusted sources. Don't improvise. Don't make it up as you go. Use recommended amounts of salt and nitrite. This removes water, firms it, makes it piquant and salty.  Mitigate that with sugars and other flavors. You now have what we conventionally refer to as 'bacon'. That's it.

Fourth slab: See a photo of homemade bacon on an internet forum. Lose your mind. Get excited and buy twenty pounds of belly. Read fifty random internet recipes. Overthink them while not actually thinking about them. Read yet another recipe notice slight differences in amounts and cure time. Get confused. Panic. To be safe, double cure amounts. Cure in the fridge. Go longer "just to be safe". Then correct the too salty meat by removing salt (notice anything weird there? Yes? Well ignore that and just keep using more salt than you need and then adding the extra step of removing it later).  Then, slice and vacuum bag and freeze, because you are afraid it will go bad. 

 Yeah. Blah blah blah, man. 

But seriously, CALM DOWN. 

It won't go bad. It won't kill you.
back off cure amounts if it is too salty. Try the saltbox method of dredging. Or not

but have fun and pay attention

remember, and this is the root of it all: you can salt it all over, shake it off, and simply hang from your living room ceiling, and it will be safe to eat. Whether an hour later or a month later

which means everything else we do is for flavor, texture, visual appeal. 

J-dubya

@Darby_Crenshaw  thanks so much for replies, very helpful. I always read your posts on the forum, good stuff for sure.

      ill certainly take your advice, I'm sure I was just caking on too much cure and even at that my bacon has still very edible. I'll back off a bit and I'm sure it will improve.

thanks again! 

tarheelmatt

J-dubya said:

I've been curing bacon for a couple months, while some bellies have come out ok, Overall, it's been very, very salty. 

    I'm using the dry cure recipe found in the book, "Bacon 24/ Seven," for a 5lb belly:

-2 cups kosher salt
-1 cup brown sugar 
-1 teaspoon pink salt 
- 1 tablespoon pepper

I most recently reduced the salt to 1.5 cups

    I rub the belly with the cure and the place in ziplock for 7 days, flipping each day. I then rinse them very,we'll. I even let the last one soak in water for like 20 mins. I then smoke to an IT of 150 and fry as needed. 

Any suggestions? Bacon tastes great just too salty (and I like salt)! Can I keep cutting the salt back or will It affect safety?

Thanks!!!


[IMG]http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w305/massdiver/null_96.jpg[/IMG]

Didn't have time last night to post this, but here goes....

For you cure, you would need the following for 5lbs: 

Salt - 41.96 gm (1.4800954 oz/ 8.8805752715 teaspoons)
Sugar - 22.68 gm (0.80001346 oz / 4.80008231209 teaspoons)
Cure - 5.44 gm (0.1918904 oz / 1.15134277228 teaspoons)

cazzy

Darby_Crenshaw said:

WALL OF TEXT WARNING:

The salt box method has always worked for me, and never needed to soak (though i fully admit we may simply be salt-heads). It uses less overall cure, and yet typically ends up nicely cured, and we've never complained about too much salt. It's a traditional method of metering the proper amount of cure, and perfectly safe

as far as safety goes, we aren't doing this for safety anyway. We refrigerate everything all the way thru the process. You could leave out the salt, the nitrite, or both if you really wanted. You just wouldn't have the flavor, texture, and sharpness/piquancy. 

Remember that much curing is done without nitrite. It is a safety requirement for aged/dried sausages, and meat that is being ground or chopped and cured outside of refrigeration. But for whole muscle meat which i's continually refrigerated, it is not necessary for safety

it IS req'd if you want the piquancy, firmness, snapping/crystalline texture, and fixed color that you associate with bacon

and the salt as well: for flavor, texture, firmness. But safety? Not unless you are hanging it at room temp

let's back way up to regain some footing. And let's get a little stupid for argument's sake for a moment.

Four pork bellies:

Take the first one and put it in your fridge for a week week with nothing on it. A week later take it out and slice it up. Cook it. You have pork belly cut into bacon shaped strips, but we wouldn't call it bacon.

Take your second pork belly. lay it in salt and bury it under more salt. Overnight. AT ROOM TEMP! take it out, shake it off, hang from your rear view mirror for a week. Or for forever. Literally.  After a week, or forever, slice and cut up. Not bacon. But you could call it a form of pancetta if you really wanted to. To placate the wife, next time you do this, put it in the fridge when curing. But the ancient secret is that you don't have to. This is the basic form of curing for most cultures, and for at least a few thousand years

now. Third belly. Follow simple recipes and trusted sources. Don't improvise. Don't make it up as you go. Use recommended amounts of salt and nitrite. This removes water, firms it, makes it piquant and salty.  Mitigate that with sugars and other flavors. You now have what we conventionally refer to as 'bacon'. That's it.

Fourth slab: See a photo of homemade bacon on an internet forum. Lose your mind. Get excited and buy twenty pounds of belly. Read fifty random internet recipes. Overthink them while not actually thinking about them. Read yet another recipe notice slight differences in amounts and cure time. Get confused. Panic. To be safe, double cure amounts. Cure in the fridge. Go longer "just to be safe". Then correct the too salty meat by removing salt (notice anything weird there? Yes? Well ignore that and just keep using more salt than you need and then adding the extra step of removing it later).  Then, slice and vacuum bag and freeze, because you are afraid it will go bad. 

 Yeah. Blah blah blah, man. 

But seriously, CALM DOWN. 

It won't go bad. It won't kill you.
back off cure amounts if it is too salty. Try the saltbox method of dredging. Or not

but have fun and pay attention

remember, and this is the root of it all: you can salt it all over, shake it off, and simply hang from your living room ceiling, and it will be safe to eat. Whether an hour later or a month later

which means everything else we do is for flavor, texture, visual appeal. 

Last time, I was able to pull everything exactly on schedule and after slicing and frying a test piece, I found it excessively salty.  However, most people do ssy the Ruhlman method is very salty.  Next time,I will try the salt box method you reference.  What ratio of salt to link salt are you adding to your stockpile?

NDG

@Darby_Crenshaw  enjoyed reading your posts here.  Makes sense.  Thank you.

Darby_Crenshaw

@cazzy, Ruhlman discusses the salt box method in his book as an alternative actually.  he doesn't mention the fact that it tends to be less salty, but that's what i have found.  also, sometimes people don't convert the recipes given the actual weight of their meat.  if a recipe calls for x-amount of cure for a 3 pound chunk of meat, and someone is holding a 2.5 pound piece, often they just forge ahead, and end up too salty (not saying you, just that it is human nature, especially if someone wants to be 'extra safe')

i make the basic cure of just salt and nitrite per his ratios and hold it in a half gallon ziploc.  i dredge in that, then toss the meat in a zip with the flavorants and sugar. 

cazzy

Darby_Crenshaw said:

@cazzy, Ruhlman discusses the salt box method in his book as an alternative actually.  he doesn't mention the fact that it tends to be less salty, but that's what i have found.  also, sometimes people don't convert the recipes given the actual weight of their meat.  if a recipe calls for x-amount of cure for a 3 pound chunk of meat, and someone is holding a 2.5 pound piece, often they just forge ahead, and end up too salty (not saying you, just that it is human nature, especially if someone wants to be 'extra safe')

i make the basic cure of just salt and nitrite per his ratios and hold it in a half gallon ziploc.  i dredge in that, then toss the meat in a zip with the flavorants and sugar. 

Perfect.  I have his book, so I'll read further into it. That makes sense....thanks again!!

Darby_Crenshaw

i just dug out my "salt box cure" and noticed that i include the white sugar too.  so, pink salts, salt, sugar. 

if i'm doing something with brown sugar, i mix up a new batch, but for the most part the basic cure covers most stuff.

MAKE SURE that you mark up your new container, because the pre-mixed salt-box cure will look like sugar.  you don't want anyone reaching for it in the pantry and using it

Darby_Crenshaw

Ruhlman's basic cure, plus the salt box method (read ALL of it please)

poster

any harm in trying a 2lb'er for a beginner? I see everyone talking about a full 5lber. Is there not enough mass in a small one? Also is there any restrictions on adding some extra spices like black pepper that may ruin the cure?

Darby_Crenshaw

Read the above. It's long. But all the answers are there. 

As mentioned in numerous posts here, by numerous peeps, you can add a shoe, a tire iron, 10-40 motor oil, and sawdust if you want to, let alone pepper. Those are flavorants (i.e. They add flavor). The salt and sugar and nitrite are the 'cure'. Sugars can be swapped out to an extent, but some amount is generally required to offset harshness (of salt) and retain some moisture.

Read a tried and true method and please don't improvise. If the recipe says 5#, use that amount. Otherwise you will have to correct everything on down the line and if it is your first time and you have any hesitation, you'll mess something up and declare the recipe at fault

two pounds is doable, but that's like being nervous about baking a cake so only doing half. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly. 

blind99

^^^ agree.  the cost to make a batch of cure is fixed and your time to do this is fixed.  the incremental cost of a few more pounds of belly is small.  do it all 'by the book' the first time.  by the time your 2 # belly loses some weight you'll end up with 1.5 lbs of bacon and you'll be sad you didn't get more for all the work you did.

if you go to your butcher and ask nicely, they might give you a small container of pink salt, especially if you order a pork belly from them.  (assuming your butcher does some curing)

J-dubya

       I made sure not to cake on tons of cure this time and gave it a very good rinse/soak. Came out wonderful! Thanks to everyone for the advice.  

blind99

Excellent! Your family and friends will start demanding homemade bacon all the time now