Bacon cure recipe

I need one too. Got half a belly thawed out.

I did 3 pound belly with 1/2 teaspoon curing salt # 1, 41/2 teaspoons kosher salt, 4/12 teaspoons black pepper, 6 tablespoons brown sugar. I cured for 6 days turning it everyday. Smoked it over pecan until 154, was shooting for 150. It turned out really good.

Doing one now with crushed pineapple and red pepper flakes.

I dont use curing salt. I prefer the ingredients above and a four day set in the fridge before cold smoking for six hours.

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Only down fall of this in So. Louisiana is I need to do in the winter. I normally buy bellies buy the case.

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Depending on what type of smoker you are running. Ive put frozen 2L in the bottom of mine to keep the temps down.

Once again...if you don’t use nitrite to cure, it’s not cured.

Salt doesn’t do what nitrite does.

Bacon is cured.

If you don’t cure it, you have salty smoked pork belly, not bacon.

Now, y’all can argue all you want, and defend your salt pork bellies, but facts are facts. Bacon is cured. I know there’s a guy in Tennessee or somewhere who doesn’t do it, but it’s not bacon, no matter what he says. Also, the new “uncured, no nitrites added” products in the grocery stores...well they use celery in place of nitrite. And celery converts to nitrite inside the meat. So nitrite is produced and cures the bacon. But they don’t add nitrite, therefore it’s not cured. And they can’t call it cured simply by adding salt.

Once again I give you the example of a pork roast vs a ham. A ham and a pork roast can be the exact same meat, cooked the same way. But the roast is white and the ham is pink/purple. Why? Because of nitrites curing the ham. Ham and pork roast do not taste the same.

Facts are facts. Bacon is cured. Salt does not cure. If you like smoked salt pork belly, then keep making it. Just know the fact that it’s NOT “bacon”.

The amount of ignorance in your post is typically reserved for the OT.

Nitrites & nitrates were introduced into the modern curing process to accelerate curing & preserve color.

That guy in Tennessee, Allan Benton, his family has been making hams & bacon since before you were shitting in your diaper & wiping it on your face.

"Uncured" bacon is just a marketing gimmick to distinguish mass produced bacon that is manufactured without nitrites/ nitrates.

Nitrites/ nitrates are used because they allow the mass produced bacon to hit the market faster & remain visually appealing to consumers. They do not define the curing process.

You put way too much effort in that post just to be wrong.

How many hours of cold smoke?

I do a dry rub of brown sugar, salt, molasses and garlic powder.

2% salt
.2% cure
1.5% sugar

I coat it with molasses then put the rub on. Let it hang out in the fridge on a rack, uncovered for 7 days. Smoke at 200 degrees until it hits 150.

I like the use of percentages so that you get the same product each time.

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Once again...if you don’t use nitrite to cure, it’s not cured.

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You can ALWAYS expect this guy to chime in on any bacon thread with the same post.

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Nitrite inhibits the growth of clostridium botulinum. It slows growth, doesn’t necessarily kill them.

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It keeps it from producing the toxin that causes botulism.

Regardless of how it works the reason its used is for preventing botulism.