How do I know my bacon cure is done?

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Monte Cristo

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First new thread for me and first bacon cure so go easy please. Looking to know how do I know my bacon cure is done.

Here's what I did:

5lb pork belly
1/2 cup kosher salt
4 tsp pink salt
1 cup brown sugar
4 TSB cracked peppercorns
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
Maple syrup

Trimmed up the pork belly a little, lightly coated with maple syrup, then rubbed the mixture all over the pork belly.

Double bagged in 2 gallon zip locs and put it in the fridge last Tuesday 8/16/16. I have been flipping it nightly.

Please give me some feedback on the recipe and how I know when it's done.

Thanks a lot.
 
I can't tell you, but I thought it was always about 10 days.

I have my first Buckboard in the fridge since last Wednesday and will be rinsing it off on Friday and smoking on Saturday. 10 days between going into the cure and rinsing off, according to the instructions.
 
When you say pink salt are you talking about tender quick?
 
8 days is probably enough assuming the skin on the belly has been removed. If it still has skin, then the cure diffuses in on only the unskinned side. There some rules of thumb relating to meat thickness that can be used. I think IAmMadMan has posted them in the past. Sorry I don't have a link handy.

Assuming that is an equilibrium cure, however, there is no harm in waiting another few days if you like. Once the cure liquid and the belly have reached equilibrium (equal) concentration, nothing more happens. That's the reason people like equilibrium cures; the cure time becomes kind of a non-issue.
 
STOP THE PRESS!!!
If you're referring to regular pink salt Prague Powder a.k.a. Cure #1, that is WAY too much, approximately four times what you should have used for 5# of meat. That is an unsafe high amount of nitrite that can make people sick.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it needs to be said. By weight, you use one-fourth of one percent of the meat weight. 5# meat x 455g/# = 2275g x .0025 = 5.69grams of cure #1 (appx 1 tsp). By plain old measurements, the rule of thumb is 1tsp per 5# of meat.
 
Last edited:
Norm said:
When you say pink salt are you talking about tender quick?
Click to expand...


Copy/Paste from site I bought it...

Also Known As Pink Salt / InstaCure #1 / Prague Powder #1 / DC Curing Salt #1 / Sodium Nitrite. 4 Oz. Bag
 
MisterChrister said:
STOP THE PRESS!!!
If you're referring to regular pink salt Prague Powder a.k.a. Cure #1, that is WAY too much, approximately four times what you should have used for 5# of meat. That is an unsafe high amount of nitrate that can make people sick.
Click to expand...

Ok, thank you. I have seen % based recipes after doing this recipe that I will have to do.

Thanks again.
 
I'm REALLY sorry to say it, but it needs repeated. If you used 4 tsp on 5# of meat, the meat needs to go in the garbage. It's not like regular salt, you can't soak it out to reverse what's been done. I'm so sorry, really.
 
MisterChrister said:
I'm REALLY sorry to say it, but it needs repeated. If you used 4 tsp on 5# of meat, the meat needs to go in the garbage. It's not like regular salt, you can't soak it out to reverse what's been done. I'm so sorry, really.
Click to expand...

No problem, that's why I asked. Lesson learned.
 
That's why I asked what kind of cure you used, we all make mistakes. :)
 
You have me worried now. I bought roughly 5lbs of pork belly, and followed Amazingribs.com recipe. He calls for 1/2 tsp per pound so I used 2.5 tsp for 5 lbs. is that to much?

2) Maple Bacon (my favorite)
Ingredients
1 pound of unsliced pork belly
1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon Prague powder #1
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
 
chrischandler71 said:
You have me worried now. I bought roughly 5lbs of pork belly, and followed Amazingribs.com recipe. He calls for 1/2 tsp per pound so I used 2.5 tsp for 5 lbs. is that to much?

2) Maple Bacon (my favorite)
Ingredients
1 pound of unsliced pork belly
1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon Prague powder #1
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
Click to expand...

As respectfully as I can say it, I'm not a fan of Meathead in curing and cold-smoking. I think that's still to
too much nitrite, but many people use his bacon cure and live lol.

USDA FSIS recommends 156ppm and up to a max of 200ppm. The appx 1tsp per 5# rule is really close to 156ppm. 200ppm is roughly 1.3tsp per 5#.

In a dry rub scenario, you have nearly 100% nitrite retention which is GREAT for perfectly balanced and measured cures, but not forgiving for approximates and hip shooting.

I wonder if Meathead is overly concerned about botulism (he also strongly advises against cold smoking) due to direct liability to himself and or business. Don't get me wrong, the guy's wicked smart and talented, but many people agree that he steers WAY too clear in these regards.

Avoiding cold smoking never hurts (except hurting the flavor IMHO) or risks, but I'm not willing to consume copious amounts of nitrite to "play it safe". All that said, I wouldn't throw yours out, I just wouldn't do it again. The OP has almost double your nitrite level, so there's a big difference there.
 
Last edited:
That is very interesting information. I will try to cut the pink salt down some on next batch. Everything else should work fine if I use his recipe, but cut parague powder down to 1stp per 5lbs?
 
Monte Cristo, I also think you'll find your recipe way too salty. Here's some of my advice from a previous thread, copied and pasted here;

If you do a dry cure rub, do everything by weight for what's called an "equilibrium cure". If you measure correctly, you literally CAN'T over salt or under cure. It's the way to go, in my opinion. I've settled on:

2.5% of the meat weight in salt (flexible between 2%-3% to your taste)
1.25% of the meat weight in brown or raw sugar (flexible between (0.75%-1.5%)
0.25% of the meat weight in cure #1 a.k.a. Prague Powder, etc. This measurement is ABSOLUTELY inflexible. This is one-fourth of 1% of the meat weight. This gives you the recommended USDA/FSIS 156ppm concentration.

Anything that gets added needs to have the weight accounted for in the cure calculations. Sometimes I add 1/4c water just to help the dissolving action start, then I factor in the water weight and increase the cure accordingly.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of adding much during the curing stage; not much of the extras seem to truly penetrate the meat. I'll sometimes paint some maple syrup on towards the very end of the smoke, so as not to inhibit smoke absorption into the meat (or worse, messing with the curing process) this is also when I add coarse black pepper, right at the end.
 
MisterChrister said:
Monte Cristo, I also think you'll find your recipe way too salty. Here's some of my advice from a previous thread, copied and pasted here;

If you do a dry cure rub, do everything by weight for what's called an "equilibrium cure". If you measure correctly, you literally CAN'T over salt or under cure. It's the way to go, in my opinion. I've settled on:

2.5% of the meat weight in salt (flexible between 2%-3% to your taste)
1.25% of the meat weight in brown or raw sugar (flexible between (0.75%-1.5%)
0.25% of the meat weight in cure #1 a.k.a. Prague Powder, etc. This measurement is ABSOLUTELY inflexible. This is one-fourth of 1% of the meat weight. This gives you the recommended USDA/FSIS 156ppm concentration.

Anything that gets added needs to have the weight accounted for in the cure calculations. Sometimes I add 1/4c water just to help the dissolving action start, then I factor in the water weight and increase the cure accordingly.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of adding much during the curing stage; not much of the extras seem to truly penetrate the meat. I'll sometimes paint some maple syrup on towards the very end of the smoke, so as not to inhibit smoke absorption into the meat (or worse, messing with the curing process) this is also when I add coarse black pepper, right at the end.
Click to expand...

To add to this, I would get a scale and weigh all this out as opposed to trying multiply teaspoons and what not.
 
MisterChrister said:
Monte Cristo, I also think you'll find your recipe way too salty. Here's some of my advice from a previous thread, copied and pasted here;

If you do a dry cure rub, do everything by weight for what's called an "equilibrium cure". If you measure correctly, you literally CAN'T over salt or under cure. It's the way to go, in my opinion. I've settled on:

2.5% of the meat weight in salt (flexible between 2%-3% to your taste)
1.25% of the meat weight in brown or raw sugar (flexible between (0.75%-1.5%)
0.25% of the meat weight in cure #1 a.k.a. Prague Powder, etc. This measurement is ABSOLUTELY inflexible. This is one-fourth of 1% of the meat weight. This gives you the recommended USDA/FSIS 156ppm concentration.

Anything that gets added needs to have the weight accounted for in the cure calculations. Sometimes I add 1/4c water just to help the dissolving action start, then I factor in the water weight and increase the cure accordingly.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of adding much during the curing stage; not much of the extras seem to truly penetrate the meat. I'll sometimes paint some maple syrup on towards the very end of the smoke, so as not to inhibit smoke absorption into the meat (or worse, messing with the curing process) this is also when I add coarse black pepper, right at the end.
Click to expand...

Thanks again. I created an excel spreadsheet which will convert my meat weight into grams and then applies the above percentages and gives me the recipe in grams.


Stopping to get another pork belly after work today and get a new one going.
 
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