My recipe says to cure for 8 days with equal parts brown sugar and salt. The next step says throw it in the Traeger. In my mind I wondered if they forgot to mention rinsing or at least wiping off the salt/sugar cure before smoking it. Do you guys leave the copious amounts of salt and sugar on it when you smoke it? Thanks
Noob question about curing pork belly
- Thread starter Ospy
- Start date
TentHunter
Moderator
You need some Cure #1 (which contains 6.25% sodium nitrite) to properly cure bacon, ESPECIALLY if you plan to cold smoke it!
In the "Searching for the Cure" section, you can follow the Ham Brining 101 tutorial (wet-cured bacon is the exact same process). The recipe there works just fine for a brown sugar cured ham or bacon.
I have a Cider Mill bacon recipe there as well, and there's also a tutorial for dry-rub curing with a link to a website that does the calculations for ingredients based on your pork belly weight.
Ham Brining 101 (and Bacon)
Apple-Smoked Cider Mill Bacon
In the "Searching for the Cure" section, you can follow the Ham Brining 101 tutorial (wet-cured bacon is the exact same process). The recipe there works just fine for a brown sugar cured ham or bacon.
I have a Cider Mill bacon recipe there as well, and there's also a tutorial for dry-rub curing with a link to a website that does the calculations for ingredients based on your pork belly weight.
Ham Brining 101 (and Bacon)
Apple-Smoked Cider Mill Bacon
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I brine my 5lb pork belly in a Ziploc bag for 7 days with a mixture of a half cup brown sugar, 2oz Kosher salt, 1 tsp curing salt, a half cup of maple syrup, and a half tsp black pepper. I flip the bellies over every day. On the 8th day, I rinse off the belly and let is soak in water for 2-3 hours, then dry it off and put on a cooling rack (uncovered) in the fridge for 24 hours. Then I smoke it for 4+ hours until IT of 150F. Let it cool, then vacuum seal for 24 hours then slice.
Silverback51
Member
I have an Excel spreadsheet I made up for my dry cure mixture. I just enter the weight of the pork bellies and it gives me the spice amounts.
If anyone wants a copy send me a PM with your email address and I will send it to you.
And needless to say, start with a small batch and then revise the ratios to fit what you like. In my case my wife likes it sweeter, so I use a little more sugar compared to the salt.
If anyone wants a copy send me a PM with your email address and I will send it to you.
And needless to say, start with a small batch and then revise the ratios to fit what you like. In my case my wife likes it sweeter, so I use a little more sugar compared to the salt.
TentHunter
Moderator
I have a similar spreadsheet I made for all of my sausages, as well as one for all my bacon, hams, etc. They're great!