Bacon

[Jonty]

My local Booths supermarket had some unusually cheap pork loin on sale the other day.  I bought a kilo to make some back bacon.  It’s a really simple process, just three ingredients into the cure (salt, sugar & cure#1/prague powder#1).  You do have to be accurate with your weights of ingredients to make sure you use the cure#1 in a safe manner but it’s not difficult.  Cure was rubbed into the meat and then vac packed and into,the fridge for a week or so.  We rinsed it last night and after slicing it this morning, my boy and I had a go at making tastier versions of  McMuffins complete with round sausage patties and the questionable perfectly round fried/steamed egg.

If you want to have a go at home curing, bacon is so simple, it’s definitely worth a try.

Edited March 10 by Jonty

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I bet that tasted lovely.   

[JKD]

Can't beat a proper bit of bacon and that looks proper 😃

[ditchman]

you clever ******.........what a superb idea....

[Wilts#Dave]

Looks absolutely banging!! 

[bruno22rf]

Brilliant work, but is it appreciably better than, say, Aldi thick cut smoked back? When you take into account the time spent and ingredients?

[jall25]

That looks Mint !

[Jonty]

13 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

Brilliant work, but is it appreciably better than, say, Aldi thick cut smoked back? When you take into account the time spent and ingredients?

I can’t answer that for you - but for me… of course it is. I’ve made it myself, dictated the sweetness/saltiness ratio, know exactly what’s gone into it, and then had a real laugh with my boy at the end - it’s just good fun and immensely satisfying.

Edited March 11 by Jonty

[Dave53]

Home cured bacon is relatively easy and tastes great, no water when cooking. But go one better and cold smoke it. You can't beat it

[ditchman]

3 hours ago, Jonty said:

My local Booths supermarket had some unusually cheap pork loin on sale the other day.  I bought a kilo to make some back bacon.  It’s a really simple process, just three ingredients into the cure (salt, sugar & cure#1/prague powder#1).  You do have to be accurate with your weights of ingredients to make sure you use the cure#1 in a safe manner but it’s not difficult.  Cure was rubbed into the meat and then vac packed and into,the fridge for a week or so.  We rinsed it last night and after slicing it this morning, my boy and I had a go at making tastier versions of  McMuffins complete with round sausage patties and the questionable perfectly round fried/steamed egg.

If you want to have a go at home curing, bacon is so simple, it’s definitely worth a try.

if you havnt a vacupack machine ..can you use clingfilm tightly wrapped

[Jonty]

2 minutes ago, Dave53 said:

Home cured bacon is relatively easy and tastes great, no water when cooking. But go one better and cold smoke it. You can't beat it

Dave, I do quite a lot of smoking, but I honestly prefer unsmoked bacon - I absolutely know where you’re coming from though mate!

[Dave53]

👍

[Jonty]

4 minutes ago, ditchman said:

if you havnt a vacupack machine ..can you use clingfilm tightly wrapped

Absolutely, in fact, just a ziplock bag would work better. The idea is to keep all the salt (irrespective of whether it is still salt or now brine from the meat juices) in contact with the meat. Cling film leaches the liquid and a plaggy bag works better 

2 hours ago, ditchman said:

you clever ******.........what a superb idea....

It honestly isn’t difficult- but thank you. Once you have mixed the cure , it literally is a case of weighing the meat and rubbing in the appropriate amount of salt mix

[old'un]

Hi Jonty, I am interested in having a go at this, you say, you have to be accurate with your weights of ingredients so what's the weight of each ingredient for the 1 kilo cure? And where the best place to buy the prague powder#1

 

thanks

[Jonty]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

Hi Jonty, I am interested in having a go at this, you say, you have to be accurate with your weights of ingredients so what's the weight of each ingredient for the 1 kilo cure? And where the best place to buy the prague powder#1

 

thanks

Hi Dave

I would gladly make you a batch an put it in the post if you like.  But if you wanted to make it yourself, it's very easy.  The method I use is called equilibrium curing - you use a set percentage weight of salt etc per the weight of the meat which means that you cannot over cure/over salt the bacon.  Basically the chemistry of the salt means it wants to be equal on both the inside and outside of the meat, so the meat will absorb the salt until there's the same amount inside the meat as on the outside.  If you just whacked a load of salt on the meat, it would keep absorbing it and you end up with overly salty bacon, this method avoids that completely.  I use nitrite which is the Prague powder#1/cure#1 and that's the bit that you really need to be accurate with.  It will be on the package but typically you use it at 2.5g per kg of meat, in order to make weighing things out I usually make a batch of cure for up to 10kg of meant and then use the appropriate proportion depending on the weight of the pork I am using. 

A good basic cure mix is:

250g salt (sea salt is better than table salt)

100g sugar (any will do but I like soft light demerara)

25g Cure#1

Please note that there is also a cure called Cure#2/Prague powder#2 - this is different to #1 and wont work as a substitute, its used for meats you don't cook such as salami and has nitrate in it which stays in the meat far longer before it dissipates.

mixed together the total weight is 375g and is enough for 10kg of meat.  So 1kg would need 37.5g of cure, 1.3kg would need 48.75g etc

When you weigh out your amount of cure - it will look like not nearly enough but don't be tempted to use more, the key is using it at this ratio will make sure you are only applying the nitrite at that 2.5g/kg and that's the main aim from a food safety perspective.  At this rate, the nitrite will dissipate into nothing whilst the meat cures.

Rub the cure mix all over the meat, and either vac pack or put in a zip lock bag and squeeze the air out.  Give it 1 x day for every 1/2 inch of thickness of the meat plus 2 x days for good luck.  If you don't leave it long enough, you may have a 'silver dollar' of uncured pork in he middle of your rashers, but it doesn't matter if you leave it for longer - there is no way it can get over salty / over cured.

Once the time is up, rinse it quickly under the cold tap and leave exposed in the fridge for an hour or two to dry out.  if you put it in the freezer for an hour before slicing, it is easier to slice thin rashers, and if you use belly pork, I roll it up and wrap it tightly in cling film - that makes it far easier to slice.

If you want to add more flavourings such as pepper/mace/bay/treacle etc, you can add those to the rub or bag - just make sure you add them after you've weighed out the appropriate amount of cure mix.

You can also play around with the salt and sugar content if you find the starter cure mix above doesn't suit your palate.  you can go as salty or less/more sugar as you like, but you wouldn't want to go for less than 180g salt per 10kg as it doesn't really make bacon.

Weschenfelders is a great online supplier, but if you like, I can always make you some up and would be very glad to do so.

[old'un]

PM inbound

[Dave53]

👍 Check out pokel salz, from weshenfelder, it has different cures on the packet. I've used it a lot and it makes good bacon. Loin or belly. 

[Jonty]

6 hours ago, Dave53 said:

👍 Check out pokel salz, from weshenfelder, it has different cures on the packet. I've used it a lot and it makes good bacon. Loin or belly. 

👍

[Sussexboy]

On 10/03/2024 at 18:58, bruno22rf said:

Brilliant work, but is it appreciably better than, say, Aldi thick cut smoked back? When you take into account the time spent and ingredients?

As Jonty has said, it depends on what you are looking for from it. I find shop bacon to be too salty (usually) unless you spend a lot more. The home cure is a lot less salty and does not fill the pan with white residue. We generally buy a whole pork loin or two from the local market, cut some into slices for huge loin steaks, and then cure the rest. I use a Weschenfelder smoked cure as a base and then add other flavours as the fancy takes me. Juniper berries and brown sugar is a favourite. The whole lot is then sliced into rashers and frozen in batches. Is it cheaper than cheap bacon from a supermarket of your choice….probably not. It is cheaper than upmarket brands, and a whole lot better. It is immensely satisfying, and I have control of my salt intake. Indeed if I grill rather than fry then most of the fat renders out. It becomes low fat and low salt, bacon health food!

[bruno22rf]

10 hours ago, Sussexboy said:

As Jonty has said, it depends on what you are looking for from it. I find shop bacon to be too salty (usually) unless you spend a lot more. The home cure is a lot less salty and does not fill the pan with white residue. We generally buy a whole pork loin or two from the local market, cut some into slices for huge loin steaks, and then cure the rest. I use a Weschenfelder smoked cure as a base and then add other flavours as the fancy takes me. Juniper berries and brown sugar is a favourite. The whole lot is then sliced into rashers and frozen in batches. Is it cheaper than cheap bacon from a supermarket of your choice….probably not. It is cheaper than upmarket brands, and a whole lot better. It is immensely satisfying, and I have control of my salt intake. Indeed if I grill rather than fry then most of the fat renders out. It becomes low fat and low salt, bacon health food!

You could Air Fry it maybe? How do you slice it, just a sharp knife?

[Sussexboy]

30 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

You could Air Fry it maybe? How do you slice it, just a sharp knife?

I have an old electric meat slicer that I inherited from the MIL. I tried slicing by hand, but I can get more rashers using the machine.

[bruno22rf]

10 hours ago, Sussexboy said:

I have an old electric meat slicer that I inherited from the MIL. I tried slicing by hand, but I can get more rashers using the machine.

That's me out then, any more gadgets in the kitchen and the other half will kill me.

[amateur]

45 minutes ago, bruno22rf said:

That's me out then, any more gadgets in the kitchen and the other half will kill me.

You need to build a bigger kitchen or get a more understanding better half, whichever option is cheaper. 🤣

[Jonty]

3 hours ago, bruno22rf said:

That's me out then, any more gadgets in the kitchen and the other half will kill me.

if you roll belly bacon and wrap in cling film then part freeze you can slice it pretty well

[rimfire4969]

I keep my own pigs and always cure some loin and belly when I get the meat back from when they go to slaughter. 

Nothing better that a English breakfast with bacon and sausage from my own pigs and eggs from my chickens, even better in the summer with my own tomatoes as well.