nicko

This is what I love about this site and @Wade advice in particular. It has taken curing from a black art and turned it into an exact science. It's brilliant 👍👍👍

Hi wade, Thank you for taking the time to reply and for giving such excellent advice, I really appreciate it. I have just ordered a vacuum sealer, so once it and the cure arrives I should be good to go for another attempt, only this time done properly. We have only eaten enough of the last batch for a couple of bacon butties so hopefully we won't have done too much harm. Thanks again and I will post some photos of my next attempt. Nick

Thanks Wade, unfortunately I got the recipe and method from a friend and I didn't find this forum until I was already half way through the curing process. I made the cure at 8g of saltpeter to 1kg of salt and used 120g in total on the belly pork. This was a ratio of 75g per kg of meat. I did the "drain the water and top up" method for 5 days and then soaked for 2 hours, did a water change and soaked for another hour. I realise now that this is probably the worst method I could have used, but it got me started and I have since learnt the error of my ways. 😀 I followed your advice on how to smoke using my weber 57cm master touch and the pro q smoke generator. I used oak and smoked it for 9 hours. It is not quite as pink as in the photos but the indoor lighting through the colour off a bit. As for the finished results, the outside couple off rashers was a little salty but the rest has been fine and the flavour is absolutely delicious. Even my wife who is not a bacon fan said it took her back to her childhood when we used to have proper bacon. I have since ordered some cure no 1 and have read all the advice on this site, so hopefully the next batch will be perfect. Nick

Thank you and you are so right. The first time I cooked that bacon it took me back to my childhood. Its been that long since I had proper bacon, I will never buy supermarket bacon ever again.

Thank you for having me. You might not believe this, but at the ripe old age of 45 I bought my very first bbq just 4 weeks ago, a shiny new weber MT. In the past 4 weeks I have done burgers, sausages, chicken, pulled pork, ribs and pork belly burnt ends. Some turned out better than others, but hey, I am still learning. But I think my best achievement and with the help of this forum, is my very first attempt at dry cured, smoked bacon. I am now totally hooked and I just know that I am going to end up spending a fortune on meat. Lol. Here is a picture of my first attempt at bacon. P.s. I had forgotten just how good proper bacon tasted.