Bacon and Musings

I recently posted a bacon tutorial that I wrote for the sausage making forum. The recipe used was an amalgamation of a few already posted by myself and others, as such it was a compromise in that, whilst it makes very nice bacon, it is a little sweet for some people. The recipe I use most regularly differs in that it's slightly more salty and has less sugar. The method and other instructions are exactly the same as in the bacon and dry curing tutorial.

For 1kg of meat use:

22gm Salt
8gm Sugar
2.5gm Cure #1
0.5gm Sodium ascorbate (optional)

Use the cure pro rata for other weights of meat adding whatever herbs and spices you like.

To aid calculation you can use this cure calculator:

Plans and the NHS

There's been a paucity of posts around here for a while; the reason is that I have not been too well of late - nothing serious, but some digestive problems followed by a lousy cold have meant that I've hardly been in the kitchen for a while.

I've got quite a bit of meat in the freezer so will be making either hot dogs or some form of luncheon meat shortly; hot dogs if the weathers fine enough for me to be in the garden to smoke them: luncheon meat otherwise. My neighbour's kindly made me a new box to house the controls for my drying fridge so I'll also be writing about that, when I finally go to merchants for the electrical bits that I need.

What did catch my eye recently is that Nottingham's City Hospital and Queens Medical Centre have started sourcing much of their food from the local area; they're not only getting better produce but are saving £2.50 per patient a day, some 6 million pounds a year. If other hospital trusts did the same it would save the NHS some 400 million pounds a year, and not only that, it would also bring much needed jobs and income to their local area. As the kids say, "It's a no brainer!".

There are eight comments

Hi Phil,
The first results for the Bacon i have just finished dry curing as to this mixture has turned out magnificent. Not to salty or too sweet. Thanks Phil for your help. Dave

Dave, (Email ) - 05-12-’10 21:19

I’m pleased that you like it.

Phil

Phil, (Email ) (URL) - 07-12-’10 17:02

Hi Phil,

In your bacon receipe you use sodium ascorbate, if I can’t find it, can I use vitamin C powder, or is it the same thing anway?
cheers Rod

rod, - 12-11-’11 11:21

There are online suppliers of sodium ascorbate such as:
http://www.jgsupplements.com/products/so..

However, you can use vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid). I believe that the usage rate is slightly different – use a maximum of 0.45gm per kg meat (less than 450mg/kg).

Phil, (Email ) (URL) - 12-11-’11 21:21

Thanks Phil, will use your link to purchase the sodium ascorbate,
Cheers
Rod

Rod, - 13-11-’11 17:24

Hi Phil. Just completed this bacon cure on a bit of pork loin. Only a small bit, 700grm. Followed the recipe to the letter apart from the sodium adsorbate. Left it for 5 days, and 1 day to dry in fridge. Cant say the bacon flavour was very developed. It was also very grey coloured on the first few slices? Any clues? Should I experiment with longer cure times , more salt, more cure no 1? Any help gratefully received. Regards Gary.

Gary, - 03-10-’12 18:00

Hi Gary

That’s an odd one! It’s not a strongly salted bacon at 2.2%, but it should taste of bacon! I can’t understand the grey colour, sometimes the outside isn’t a red colour, but it’s usually just the surface. Did you rub the cure into all parts of the meat? I usually do loins for 7 days followed by 3 or 4 days (or more) drying in the fridge – but I don’t think that the difference in time-scale is the problem here. See how you go on your next bit and if the problem persists it may be worth asking at forum.sausagemaking.org to see if anyone else has had the same problems (although no-one’s raised it as an issue to my knowledge). Many of them use this (or a similar) recipe as the tutorial on the forum is similar (I know ‘cos I wrote it!).
I’m sorry that I don’t have a simple answer to your problem – if you want it more salty, increase the salt or reduce the sugar. However, don’t mess with the cure #1 – that’s at the correct level, I can guarantee that.
I hope this at least helps a little.

Phil, - 04-10-’12 18:20

Thanks Phil, As I sliced further in it was a nice bacon colour. I also grilled the first slices, not the same in my opinion as frying. Frying seams to give move of the flavour. As for the grey coloured first slices???? Maybe some slight oxidising. It was just a piece of loin from morrisons, and having being a meat manager there my self some years ago, all the boneless loins come in vac-pac. So freshness was maybe an issue. Great blog Phil!!!

Gary, - 06-10-’12 10:39