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Hi from South Yorkshire


mark70

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Though I would join you guys as I have just order a CSG to use in my Kamado Joe  Looking forward to trying to smoke bacon and salmon.  I love hot smoked salmon on the Joe and hope i can do cold smoked just as well.

First question whats the easiest pre mixed cure for bacon for a beginner.  Is Supracure a good start?

Saw a post on smoked haddock going to have to try that too.

Thanks.

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Hi Mark. Supracure is OK but personally I wouldn't use it for bacon as it contains both Nitrite (0.6%) AND Nitrate (0.6%). The USA have banned the use of Nitrates in bacon because of the risk of nitrosamines when the bacon is fried. The EU also do not recommend the use of Nitrate in any foods that are to be heat treated however they have had to make some exceptions to accommodate traditional regional products. If you do use it (and a lot of people do) it is unlikely to do you any harm in the amounts that you are likely to eat but my thinking is that if you don't need to use it then why do it.

If you do decide to use Supracure then ignore the recommended usage rate of 5% as this will produce Nitrite levels of 300 mg/Kg, which is twice the permitted UK/EU levels, and the end product will be incredibly salty. Instead use it at 2.5% which will give you 2.5% salt and Nitrite at 150 mg/Kg, which most people consider as ideal. In addition the the weight of Supracure add half of its weight of sugar too as this helps to balance the salt flavour. You can use any sugar - the darker sugars will add more flavours.

If you are looking to cure more bacon in the future then I would suggest buying some Cure#1 as this only contains Nitrite (6.25%) in salt. Make sure that you buy it from a reputable source as the quality of it is important. I usually buy mine from Weschenfelder.

Weschenfelder Cure #1

Let us know how you get on :thumb1:

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