Makin bacon

Hello, first time poster from northern Europe. I always wanted to try some American bacon. I only ate Lithuanian salo so far, but last summer I was in Germany and in hotel there was a bacon that looked like the bacon you all know I am talking about. I tried it and it tasted even better that I expected. I wanted to make some by myself ever since. Yesterday I butchered one of my pigs (I am a farmer by the way) and I think I have part I need for bacon (pic related). I have found some recipes on the internet, but is there Veeky Forums approved way of bacon making? Any recipes and tips are welcome.

Other urls found in this thread:

localfoodheroes.co.uk/calculator/dry_cure_bacon/.
youtube.com/watch?v=tR-OwH9iBvg
nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_cure.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

Just slice that shit thin, cure it and fry it up.

You could smoke it and then cut it in thin strips.

Have you ever cured any meat before?

Ignore this. Cure before smoking. Smoking extends the keeping time, but significantly changes the flavours. I would recommend keeping half cured and not smoked, and then comparing the flavour later.

Curing salt (sodium nitrite) in not necessary but will improve the keeping time, and imparts the flavour usually associated with 'bacon' as opposed to salo, which is usually just salt cured.

tl;dr: Any curing directions that include sodium nitrite are likely to result in a reasonable bacon.

Hard to tell from the picture, is that a cut from the middle of the back, or from the side of the belly?

You're honestly better off following specific recipes to get the result you want. Curing bacon isn't massively difficult, but there are lots of steps to take to ensure you get the desired product at the end.

The biggest tip I can give you is to be fastidious in how you do it, make sure you are preparing/draining/washing the meat often and correctly, it's easy to let steps slip, but that's how you end up with something inedible or potentially dangerous.

Northern europe is code for finland

Just buy some Ameriikan Pekoni and save the poor piggys life

>I think I have part I need for bacon (pic related)
Piggy is clearly already dead.

A website I use for salt, sugar and sodium nitrite amounts is localfoodheroes.co.uk/calculator/dry_cure_bacon/. It's a calculator where you plug in your weight and it displays the amount of each to use. You could add other spices if you wish. I typically cure in the refrigerator for 12-14 days and cold smoke for 8 hours.

Thanks for replies. While waiting for answers I watched some Youtube videos about curing bacon and I am starting to understand what to do.

The parts in the picture are belly itself. On the bottom piece you can even see one of the left nipples and one of the right nipples.

Piggy was fully grown up and had to be put down. While alive it weighted about 250kgs

:)
I'm sure you will do fine.
Piggy will taste delicious, give it the love it deserves.

youtube.com/watch?v=tR-OwH9iBvg
this looks simple enough. you can use celery salt if you want it to be nitrite cured.

Some sausage made moments ago from the same piggy

Looks good, not like a giant curly shit at all.
Would devour with beer/10

If you were selling it to 'natural food' proponents, celery salt would be the way to go, but sodium nitrite is a better curing agent if you're just planning to eat it yourself (or sell it to normal people). Celery salt contains large amounts of nitrates, which degrade into nitrites over time. Unless you are going for a very long cure (multiple weeks) you would be better using pure nitrite salts (prague #1). If you are doing a long cure, you'd still be better using prague #2 rather than using celery salt.

If you are going to buy curing salt, prague #1 is probably the curing salt you should use, and you would make a mix of 10:5:1 of plain salt, sugar and prague #1.

If you haven't cut off the skin already, do so with some of that fat. They can be used to make pork scratchings (pork rinds).

Next, well if you want classic american bacon, you wanna cut like very thin strips of mostly fat. Like, 2 by 10 by 0.1 inches.

I prefer European style streaky which essentially all you're left with cut thinly.

Other anons have stated cure then smoke. This is true, smoked is better anyway.

here ya go.
nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_cure.html

Do a standard cure with about 5% curing salt, and the rest a mix of salt and brown sugar. Once the cure is done, rinse it well and let it air dry a while- this helps the smoke 'stick'. Cold smoke over fruitwood, then slicd fairly thin into strips.

>5% cure #1

That seems a bit high. The maximum allowed by US regulation per kg of skin off belly is 3.2 grams. Skin on is even less at 2.88 grams.

definitely remove the skin before curing

He might not be talking about prague #1, which is 6.25% sodium nitrite. Charcuterie curing salt is 0.6% nitrites, for example, so there, 5% would be very low.

This the the first time Veeky Forums has given reasonable answers to a question here. Of course it's got to do something with bacon.....

that meat looks amazing, bet that bacon will be tasty