Making bacon...

[npsmama]

I want to have a go at this...
If there are any experienced bacon-makers out there I'd love to hear some tips please!

tia!

[Luath]

This is the way I do mine:

Get a nice piece of pork loin from your butcher - ask him to bone and skin it for you. Have ready a polythene ice cream tub or similar, with a good fitting lid, into which your bacon will fit. Wipe the bacon over, and place in the box. Make up a brine solution with 1oz salt to 1 pint of water. Add a pinch of saltpetre if you have it - this will keep the bacon pinker, but it's not necessary, your bacon will just be browny/grey in colour, but still taste goo.d. Pour the brine over, put on the lid and leave in a cool place for 3 - 5 days. Take out, rinse and dry, then slice and freeze, or eat.

You can use this brining method for streaky bacon.
The other method is dry curing, but we have found that too salty. I would like another go, using different things in the cure, but I use the brine method for now.

Hope this helps.

[npsmama]

when you say a cool place would the veggie box in the fridge be OK?

I'm a tad worried about the meat going off.

[Luath]

You can do it in the fridge if you have room, but anywhere cool is fine. The meat will only go off if a0you don't have sufficient salt to water b) it is left too long int he solution, like weeks c0 teh brine doesn't cover the meat, so it is fully submersed.
Hope this helps.

[npsmama]

Just to report back: it looks good!
I'm now drying it and then have to work out how to cold smoke it...

[debbie]

If you want to dry cure for breakfast bacon or streaky that isn't too salty make up a cure of 1kg fine sea salt, 250g soft brown sugar and 250G demorera sugar with a teaspoon of saltpeter(optional) mix cure together and run in 150g of cure to each 1kg of pork belly/loin. Store in bag or airtight container in fridge and pout off result liquid every 24 hours. Do not add more cure. Do this for three days for belly and add an extra day for each additional inch of meat - so loin for back bacon would take around 5 days. Rinse dry hand for 24hours and use. I promise you won't find it salty.

[npsmama]

Debbie,
I wish I had come across your recipe earlier....I tasted my bacon this morning and it is so salty I can barely eat it!!!

[Luath]

Which method did you use?
The only time my bacon was too salty was when I tried a dry cure, so I use the brining method now.

[debbie]

if your wet cured bacon is too salty soak it in cold water in the fridge over night - change the water every so often if you can....the wet cure is exactly what you would normally use for gammon and that often needs soaking. The addition of a little sugar to your wet cure by the way will lead to a softer bacon as salt on its own can lead to a very hard/dry meat.

I hope this helps