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Black Bacon.


Icefever

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I've got to take my last lot of bacon out from the curing bags this morning, rinse and let it dry until the weekend that's when I'm going to cold smoke maybe two of the three slabs.

For my next batch, I'm having a go at Suffolk Black bacon, this has intrigued me for a few years now, never had it, so not sure what to expect?.

Found this recipe below so we're off to town later so I'm going to get a small piece of belly pork and give it a try.

1 kg Pork belly
30g Celery Salt
3g (1 1/2 tsp) black peppercorns
5g (2 tsp) fennel seed
3g (1 tsp) coriander seed
3.5g (1/2tsp) Prague powder #1
2tbsp black treacle
150ml dark beer. Porter, Stout, Mild or something similar...( I'm going to use Guinness )

Roll your fennel seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns, just crush them up enough you don’t want to grind them too fine.

Take 2 tbsp of black treacle and smear it over the meat,  place in a bag and cover the pork with the spices, rub all over. (not sure how to attack this, the belly is going to be covered with treacle, getting that into a vac bag is going to be crazy. Do like I do now place belly in bag add treacle and toss the bag about??  then throw in the spices? watch this space)

Take your beer and pour it into the bag.

Then normal curing time, don't think I'll go for 14 days like with the loin I do.....more like a week?

 

Ice.

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Strange things happen at times,  makes one think.   🤔   I posted this thread around 0600 this morning, I'm on a facebook page for bacon curing and I just popped in and found this....https://www.facebook.com/groups/546778265661621/?fref=nf

Richard Anderson is doing almost the same recipe...posted 33 mins ago....even using Guinness.  I hope he lets me know how it goes on?? 😎

 

Ice.

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5 hours ago, Icefever said:

I've got to take my last lot of bacon out from the curing bags this morning, rinse and let it dry until the weekend that's when I'm going to cold smoke maybe two of the three slabs.

For my next batch, I'm having a go at Suffolk Black bacon, this has intrigued me for a few years now, never had it, so not sure what to expect?.

Found this recipe below so we're off to town later so I'm going to get a small piece of belly pork and give it a try.

1 kg Pork belly
30g Celery Salt
3g (1 1/2 tsp) black peppercorns
5g (2 tsp) fennel seed
3g (1 tsp) coriander seed
3.5g (1/2tsp) Prague powder #1
2tbsp black treacle
150ml dark beer. Porter, Stout, Mild or something similar...( I'm going to use Guinness )

Roll your fennel seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns, just crush them up enough you don’t want to grind them too fine.

Take 2 tbsp of black treacle and smear it over the meat,  place in a bag and cover the pork with the spices, rub all over. (not sure how to attack this, the belly is going to be covered with treacle, getting that into a vac bag is going to be crazy. Do like I do now place belly in bag add treacle and toss the bag about??  then throw in the spices? watch this space)

Take your beer and pour it into the bag.

Then normal curing time, don't think I'll go for 14 days like with the loin I do.....more like a week?

 

Ice.

Sounds fantastic

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well done mate, thanks, Not a fan of black bacon but I can appreciate the method.

 

If you do not mind some observations, at the start you showed salt and cure, when you applied it you called it spice. Was somethign missing when descirbing the ingreidients? at start?

technique demostrated very well, nice mate

music nice tune but a but a bit too dominant so ditch or tone down the volume a little?

Bag air desplacement, water discplacement method is simples and cheap and is more efficient if it is important?

Maybe some things to consider on next video,  really good all the same well done

 

 

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Thank you Justin...the salt & Prague #1 are added to the spices that are crused in the bag, that way it mix's in better.

Music is very low on my edit, I thought it would be ok. It's getting to know all the in's and out's of the video editor. I have used the water method, I would normally vac-pac but with that much beer it's a no go. When I watch any videos I don't like when there's long dead sections, I do like a gentle bit of music in the background.

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3 hours ago, Icefever said:

Just uploaded a short (4min) video of making the bacon, if you find the time take a look and let me know what you think...it's all new to me..😁

 

 

Ice.

Brilliant, can't wait for the next issue, I will definitely do this when I get through my last home made batch

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20 hours ago, Icefever said:

Just uploaded  part 2 of this cure......when we tasted the small bit we fried we were both blown away with it.  We're off to Booker this afternoon I want a pork loin for a 2nd go at Black bacon.

 

Ice.

 

Very good mate, nice video. good sound levels too on the headphones that I am using

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43 minutes ago, Icefever said:

Do you use any of the curing calculators that are about???

 

Ice.

Not made from scratch just from Wade's pre mixed packet, just add sugar and what ever flavour, I will find the spreadsheet Justin mentions

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It is so easy, weigh the joint that you're going to cure, pop it in the calculator and it will give you the amounts of the main ingredients. Prague #1,  salt (Koser or pink Himalayan ) whichever you prefer.
I think of anything else as 2nd ingredients, pepper, sugar, herbs, spice's etc etc...

ie..if the calculator says 28 grams of sugar but you want a little more or less it won't interfere with the curing method.

Link to Wade's calculator.....https://www.woodsmokeforum.uk/topic/887-nitrite-cure-calculator/?tab=comments#comment-6588

 

Ice.

 

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@Wade  I've been curing bacon for a couple of years now and feel confident in what I do, but a question has been running through my noggin and I would like to answer it.

I followed the recipe for black bacon, but..always a but....when one does a dry cure..(which is what I've always done) does adding a liquid, in this case, beer dilute the curing salts???.
The pork belly feels firm, as it should, I will have to look back at the recipe at the amount of #1 against the weight of the belly...then we come back to adding 130ml of beer does that reduce its ability to do its job?? or is it just in suspension and works just the same???.  m0902.gif

Ice.

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