Homemade bacon

[biketestace]

Zapp,

Any chance of sharing this recipe, im hoping to get all the ingredients over the weekend, and start my first attempt during the week,

Thank you,

Bta

[Zapp]

I dont have it, the cure came ready mixed. I'd give Jonty a shout via pm, plus he put a very detailed thread on here at the time describing how it is done.

[hesstondriver]

ill chip in experience here and read in to it what you will,

 

I have tried several times, I have never failed but haven't perfected it yet

 

first time was a dry cured & smoked bacon , where I rubbed a pork belly with dry salt daily until I wasn't getting much liquid from the meat , I did this mid winter and did tit in a cool box in the garage to prevent it going off I used a couple of lbs of salt

 

after a week I put it in my home made cold smoker and smoked over oak for a couple of days

 

result was very nice smoky dry cure streaky bacon, it sliced very well, but it was just too salty, I'm still using it in cooking and is a fantastic addition to any game casserole.

 

second attempt was wet cure in a brine

 

I dissolved as much salt in to about a gallon of hot water as I could , to the point of when it cooled some salt dropped out of solution, I then added a good glug of black treacle and some pepper corns I placed the belly pork in the bucket (with lid) (I did have to weigh it down with a brick,

 

again I left it in a cold garage for a week or so

 

I left it to dry for few hours on the kitchen before slicing.

 

this was pretty good bacon, the only thing I would change would be a different cut of pork towards a back type bacon

 

hope this is of some use (even if its how not too do it !)

 

ATB Hesston

[colin lad]

ill chip in experience here and read in to it what you will,

 

I have tried several times, I have never failed but haven't perfected it yet

 

first time was a dry cured & smoked bacon , where I rubbed a pork belly with dry salt daily until I wasn't getting much liquid from the meat , I did this mid winter and did tit in a cool box in the garage to prevent it going off I used a couple of lbs of salt

 

after a week I put it in my home made cold smoker and smoked over oak for a couple of days

 

result was very nice smoky dry cure streaky bacon, it sliced very well, but it was just too salty, I'm still using it in cooking and is a fantastic addition to any game casserole.

 

second attempt was wet cure in a brine

 

I dissolved as much salt in to about a gallon of hot water as I could , to the point of when it cooled some salt dropped out of solution, I then added a good glug of black treacle and some pepper corns I placed the belly pork in the bucket (with lid) (I did have to weigh it down with a brick,

 

again I left it in a cold garage for a week or so

 

I left it to dry for few hours on the kitchen before slicing.

 

this was pretty good bacon, the only thing I would change would be a different cut of pork towards a back type bacon

 

hope this is of some use (even if its how not too do it !)

 

ATB Hesston

 

the problem doing it with large amounts of salt is it will be time critical if you cure in a salt box totally covered then it will over cure (get too salty) if left too long,

if you add just the correct amount of cure then it won't hurt if left too long,

 

colin

[hesstondriver]

Yep , I realised that , that's part of the fun trial and error , bid rather be closer to the salty side than the botulism side!

[loriusgarrulus]

Yep , I realised that , that's part of the fun trial and error , bid rather be closer to the salty side than the botulism side!

Botulism is an anaerobic bacteria so you have to exclude the air out to get it to grow. Salmonella is much easier to culture.

OH assures me botulism won't grow above 5% salt even if you do get all the air out. Make sure it's cured before VAC packing.

Edited November 24, 2014 by loriusgarrulus

[colin lad]

Yep , I realised that , that's part of the fun trial and error , bid rather be closer to the salty side than the botulism side!

if your just using salt that's fine but if your using a cure then don't as they have sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite and they are a whole lot more dangerous than food poisoning if you have too much of them

 

colin

[grrclark]

I am going to have to try this too. Have had fun recently making pork jerky and that turned out well, but home cured bacon is a different league.

 

I also plan to make myself a proper corned beef so if anybody has any good recipes.

[foxy bingo]

looks great mate I must have a go thanks

[AlistairB]

Just picked this beauty up to slice my bacon etc properly, found the cheaper domestic ones didn't slice well enough to satisfy my slight OCD!!

 

£10 off eBay and a couple of hours and some bits to rewire it, so it cost around £20 all in! Happy days.

 

Mind you, it needs 2 people to lift it in and out of the kitchen!

 

[biketestace]

Iv tried my first attempt of home made bacon and cooked it on Christmas day......

SCOFFED the lot !!

Huge thanks to Colin Lad,

Iv got a pork loin curing now !!!!!!

BTA

[Blunderbuss]

I've got into this recently too. Did my third batch of bacon a couple of days ago, how awesome does it taste! . Also sausage and salami. A few pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thunderbird]

That's looking cracking mate. Cough, ahem, so will there be any in May at all?

[Blunderbuss]

That's looking cracking mate. Cough, ahem, so will there be any in May at all?

 

[Thunderbird]

[the crowman]

That looks goooooood :)

[snow white]

We make our own bacon.get a kg of pork lion some dry smoke mix rub it all over put in tuper wear dish turn every day for seven days take out wash it of put it some where to air dry for a day slice and enjoy.there is no white **** coming out when you fry it.