Bacon curing using 2% Nitrites

  • I'm about to embark on my first foray into making my own bacon.

    I have a 2.8 kg, skin-off, belly in the fridge, and a recipe ready to go.

    However, I looked at my curing salts today to find it is 2% Nitrites, not the 6.25% Nitrites used in most online bacon recipes.

    Now, my maths is pretty strong, but wanted to run the numbers past some more experienced members.

    Maple Bacon
    --------------
    2.8 kg Pork Belly (skin off)
    49.5 gm Cooking Salt
    28 gm Dark Sugar
    21 gm Misty Gully Cure #1 (2% Nitrites) - should give 150 ppm Sodium Nitrite
    6 tsp Black Peppercorns - crushed
    1 cup Maple Syrup
    1 cup water

    Massage mixed ingredients into skin of pork, into vacuum sealer bag, and keep in fridge for 7 days, massaging and flipping daily.

    Smoke over charcoal & applewood to internal temp of 65 C.


    Does this all look good? I really like my family, and would prefer not to poison them through either nitrates or botulism... <X

    Kamado Joe Series III - Weber Genesis - Aldi/Hark smoker

  • I've started not using nitrates at all in bacon without any adverse effects. I'm not against using them except in the larger picture I don't want to use any unnecessary additives.

    Before going down this route I did a bit of research and came to the conclusion that in general curing whole muscle products doesn't require nitrates unless you're going to air dry.

    I've done hams this way too and have yet to poison anyone.

  • Yep those numbers are spot on for a 2% cure.
    Maybe back off on the sugar as 28g is the total sugar mass. Your adding another cup of maple syrup. However you can have a sweet bacon if desired. You will need to bare that in mind when you're cooking it as it will burn easily.
    USA standards for bacon cure says you can go as low as 16.8 g of your 2% cure for 2.8 kg of skinless belly.

  • I've started not using nitrates at all in bacon without any adverse effects. I'm not against using them except in the larger picture I don't want to use any unnecessary additives.

    Before going down this route I did a bit of research and came to the conclusion that in general curing whole muscle products doesn't require nitrates unless you're going to air dry.

    I've done hams this way too and have yet to poison anyone.

    I want to do some bacon and ham without the added nitrates as well. Can you give me a pointer as to how you did this?

    Chargriller Akorn Kamado | 57cm Weber MasterTouch | 47cm Weber Kettle (for camping) | Charbroil Grill2Go | Charbroil Offset Smoker

  • I just remove the nitrites, as I believe they are simply unnecessary when you use good product, hygiene, temperature control and storage. I threw away all my #1 cure a year ago and have never regretted it. Salt and time is all one needs to cure meat, the rest is flavouring.

    My current favourite cure is an Asian flavoured version from Zak Pelaccio.

    170g Szechuan peppercorns (toasted & ground)
    70g black peppercorns (toasted & ground)
    225g salt
    140g palm sugar

    total 605g but the important bit is the salt

    that's enough to do a 5-6kg belly in a vac bag.

    Leg is the same but with (much) more salt due to the thickness of the meat.

  • I want to do some bacon and ham without the added nitrates as well. Can you give me a pointer as to how you did this?

    I did a ham and lamb ham last Christmas without the nitrates. Both were great.

    Have a quick read through here. There are a few links to some articles as well. It's pretty easy to do really and the results are much better than the mass produced store ones.


    Christmas Ham - do your own?



    Traeger - Weber Family Q - Ziggy Twin Burner - Charcoal Grill - Akorn Kamado - Hark Tri Fire - Jumbuck Pizza Oven - Go Anywhere - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Hibachi Grill - Anova Sous Vide x 2

  • Hi

    As with much of the stuff I put on here I often preface it with the fact that I am not a precise person and these are "bush recipes".

    I haven't done it for a while, but I used to make bacon. I had a plastic container with a plastic "cake rack" inside it to keep the meat up out of the juice. Someone told me not to use metal containers and racks for this.

    I just used salt, celery salt and brown sugar. I used to rub it all over the meat. Each day I would empty out the brown juice that would come out of the meat and rub a little more sugar/salt/celery salt mixture on. I would repeat this each day for 5-7 days (depending how impatient I got) then wash it, leave it in the fridge overnight, then smoke it with whatever I had - generally in Grass Valley it was mallee root and jam wood. It was really nice. Like UG said, it was more grey than red due to only a small amount of nitrates from the celery.

    I used to freeze the extra due to the absence of kwikcurit. I have used kwikcurit to make lamb and goat ham, but not bacon.

    I think I am getting inspired to get back into it.

    TA

    Grant from Grass Valley

    Weber Magnum, Old Weber Kettle, Weber Kettle with gas fitting, Weber Q320, Weber Go Anywhere, Akorn, Giotto ECM[size=12]

  • Well, all cured for a week, then 2 and a bit hours of applewood smoke in the Weber, and she turned out like this

    Fried up a bit as a taster (still alive!) and all I can say is "Wow!" This is what bacon is meant to taste like...

    Kamado Joe Series III - Weber Genesis - Aldi/Hark smoker

  • This reminds me... I need to pick up some pork loin and cure me some bacon!

    Spudshed has pork loin on special at the moment. I picked one up to put in the freezer until I am ready to make bacon with it. If I remember correctly, it's boneless pork loin for $7.99/kg.

    Chargriller Akorn Kamado | 57cm Weber MasterTouch | 47cm Weber Kettle (for camping) | Charbroil Grill2Go | Charbroil Offset Smoker

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!