Makin bacon.....

JackBootedThug

JackBootedThug

MURDERATOR
out of the blue my neighbor came over with a gigantic pork belly and asked me if I wanted it. I said fuck yeah cracker! Anyway-I was actually going to try and do a porchetta but on advice of a bro I decided bacon instead. I had to split it into four sections to get them to fit in 1 gallon ziploc freezer bags. any way for my rub I used pink himalayan salt and table salt, brown sugar...1 cup each. then I added some black pepper, red pepper flakes and some instacure. The insta cure I just happened to have from where me and my son made deer sausage the other day. Don't really need it for how I'm making it. Any way I will let it cure for 2 weeks, flipping it every day. Then I'll smoke it and it will be ready. Anybody ever make bacon before? Hopefully it turns out good.
 
I have never made bacon but I do love hickory smoked cured bacon. I cook at least 2 lbs a week. I cook it rather slow on a skillet until it gets crispy. Like an hour. Then, when I cook eggs for breakfast, I have bacon ready to go. I'm not up on this Instacure stuff. Is it liquid? Are you making a brine or strictly rub? Send me a piece when it is done :D
 
10 day cure batch…..almost done….
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fuckin horrible boys. gatdam pink himalayan salt ruined it. I knew better but it was all I had at the time. The smoked one was better...slightly. It just had this odd taste and it was not that good. The second one I did in the oven. Extremely salty but with the overtones of that pink garbage. Lesson learned. I'm really only out of my time as that belly was given to me...BUT...I hate to waste food. And this was a waste. Never use Pink himalayan salt to cure. I knew better.
 
JackBootedThug said:
fuckin horrible boys. gatdam pink himalayan salt ruined it. I knew better but it was all I had at the time. The smoked one was better...slightly. It just had this odd taste and it was not that good. The second one I did in the oven. Extremely salty but with the overtones of that pink garbage. Lesson learned. I'm really only out of my time as that belly was given to me...BUT...I hate to waste food. And this was a waste. Never use Pink himalayan salt to cure. I knew better.
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Soak the belly for a while and change water few xs after brine and before smoking. Gets rid of excess salt. I also use Diamond Kosher which is less salty so to speak.
 
it just has this aftertaste that's present in that pink shit. horrible. I assumed salt is salt....nope. Not this shit anyway.
 
JackBootedThug said:
next time I'll try wet brining and liquid smoke. that's how the big corporations do it. Lord this is a bummer.
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No, don't do that. You just need kosher salt and pink Prague powder to cure. No liquid smoke garbage.
Commercial bacon is actually cold smoked so you need to cook before you eat. Hot smoke cooks it to safe temp while smoking.
 
Perhaps the legit sea salt would be better - the moist, grey stuff.

If it's not moist, the magnesium has been removed prior to packaging. It sucks moisture out of the air. This is typically done for the fine-ground stuff in order to facilitate easy dispensing. The coarse stuff, if moist-and-grey, is the real deal and contains all the minerals found in the ocean.

The Himalayan stuff has also had some if not all the magnesium removed due to many years of rain / water seepage.

Side note:
Pure NaCl in your mouth will make your tongue rough and knock out your taste buds. It's caustic to your cells and if allowed to build up sufficiently in your body, will cause oedema as the body's only option besides elimination is dilution. Elimination is tricky BTW 'cause of the size of the molecule - tears and runny nose being the primary avenues.

Full-spectrum sea salt, OTOH, won't make your tongue rough or knock out your taste buds. It'll help regulate blood pressure amongst other things. Tastes better too.

When it comes down to it, it's that old thing of when we isolate "active" ingredients, they tend to cause harm 'cause the benefits of the naturally-buffered original forms are lost.
 
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