Bacon cures

[markie_q]

Is there anywhere I can find a list of different home cure recipes?

[Smokin Monkey]

9 hours ago, markie_q said:

Is there anywhere I can find a list of different home cure recipes?

I would be very surprised if their was a list of home cures.

The only place I could think of, would be Forums like these, but you would have to search through the Forums to find them.

[Wade]

As Steve says the forums are a good place to look however beware as many (especially the American forums) will be giving you recipes for immersion cured bacon rather than for dry cured.

For ideas for flavours for dry cure bacon the easiest way is to walk around your local supermarket and look at what flavours they have there and then recreate them. The recipes all use the same base cure which has the desired flavour added.

Base cure - 2.5% salt, 1.25% sugar and 150 mg/Kg Sodium Nitrite.

For most flavourings (e.g. lemon pepper) use at a rate of 10 g of flavour to each Kg of meat. Some stronger flavours (e.g szechuan pepper or cloves) reduce this to 5 g per Kg meat
If you are using a sweet flavouring (e.g. Molasses) then use this in place of the sugar and the flavouring. The more you add though the sweeter it will be - but sweetness may be one of the things you are looking for in the end bacon.

A couple of examples using this rule of thumb:

Basic cure flavours (e.g. black pepper or herbs/spices)  can be done all at once but some will need a two stage process.

Basic Lemon Pepper
I Kg pork
2.4 g Cure#1
28 g Salt
15 g White Sugar
10 g Lemon Pepper

To add a slightly rounder flavour to the above cure substitute dark brown Muscovado sugar for the White sugar.

If you want to make a "sweet cure" version then double the amount of sugar.

Molasses or Honey cured bacon

I Kg pork
2.4 g Cure#1
28 g Salt
15 g White Sugar
25 g Molasses - added after the initial cure

Cure the bacon in the usual way without the molasses or honey. Rinse the surface and pat dry and then rub the molasses/honey and wrap again and leave for a further 3-4 days

Jalapeno

I Kg pork
2.4 g Cure#1
28 g Salt
15 g White Sugar
1 g ground black pepper
4 pickled Jalapeno peppers - these are milder than the raw peppers
4 cloves of garlic, crushed

Cure the bacon in the usual way without the flavourings*. Rinse the surface and pat dry. Blend the black pepper, jalapeno peppers and garlic to a paste then rub over the surface of the bacon. Wrap again and leave for a further 3-4 days.

* the Jalapeno peppers will be quite acidic and so must not come into direct contact with the Cure#1 or the Nitrite will break down before it can do its job.

[Jacqui]

Hi Wade, i've got a whole belly cut in to 3 pcs curing at the moment using your calculator.  I'd like to try the Molasses cure above but have a question.  Do I rinse the joint after leaving it in Molasses before smoking or do I smoke with the molasses still on?

[Wade]

Cure it using the molasses in place of all or part of the sugar but then rinse it before smoking. The molasses it there to impart flavour into the meat and after the meat has been cured it has done its job. The rinsing will also remove the residual salt too, which you don't need.

[Jacqui]

super, thanks Wade