Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Food Related => Topic started by: Bentley on February 18, 2018, 06:27:14 PM
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Here we go again!
An 8.8lb. Belly, and a lousy one at that from a thickness standpoint. Cut in half, one side 2037 gram, the other 1995 grams. Both Wet and Rub Cure Calculation were based on 2000 grams.
(https://i.imgur.com/m0EZSPOh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/XFSrDs5h.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/a3WJgJIh.jpg)
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Rub cure is 5g Cure# 1, 55g of salt and 20g of sugar, about 1/3 of rub on fat side, 2/3 on meat side, in bag and will turn every 2 days.
Wet cure is 1/4 cup Cure#1, 1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 gallon water. Will also turn every 2 days.
(https://i.imgur.com/GUxmxrZh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RwsqoUvh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/AsEZjCWh.jpg)
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Will cure for 7 days and if I can be rigorously honest...We will see if have a preference!
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yorkdude did you get my PM?
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No unfortunately. I have no clue what I am doing wrong? This go is dry but I REALLY want to try a wet cure.
I will go back this weekend to grab another belly and give this a go. I should have tried a bit of this wet, it truly is gorgeous looking . A little nervous about tenderness because it was gigantic but it is really firming nicely and the moisture is drawing out really good. I just somehow struggle with saltiness as I have said before.
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I have no idea why you can send and receive to Kristin, but not me. I will check my settings...
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I have no idea why you can send and receive to Kristin, but not me. I will check my settings...
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.â€
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None of those 3 apply to me, so...
If my 2nd Belly is like the 1st one, this will be my next attempt! Pancetta!
(https://i.imgur.com/ESRDe99h.jpg)
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Bentley, I suggest you go longer on the dry cure. Meat absorbs salt at a faster rate than sugar. Give it a minimum of 10-12 days.
How do you plan on smoking, Cold or hot smoke? Looking forward to your review.
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Wow the guide said 5, so I figured 7 was enough. I always figure 10 and sometimes go 14 on my wet. So Will go 10!
I usually cold and warm smoke them, so will probably do that with both of these!
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Well now you got my ears up. Have 19# in dry rub now, started it Saturday. I have never wet cured but have made lots and lots of dry an have only gone 10 days a few times. 7 days lots, never had a problem but maybe just been lucky? I never use sugar we don’t like sweet bacon. Salt, pink salt #1 and pepper
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Most of the tables I have seen show cure penetration of 1/4" a day, so a 2" thick piece would take 4 days. also have read that one can under cure but not over cure unless they use the wrong amount of cure.
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Yeah, this one just asked for thickness of belly, I just guess at 2 inch and it spit out the amounts of cure, salt, sugar and time...I always though that you could not over cure too, so 10 day works for me. I probably should leave the sugar out to, just habit I guess!
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I got me a 8 pound belly in my fridge, I need to get some cure on it either tonight or tomorrow night....
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Glad you posted, I guess I need to go turn!
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Will you guys that are doing these pork bellies move the threads to the recipe section when you are finished or create a separate recipe thread later. I would like to come back to a few of these different approaches at some point this Spring. My travel schedule for work is about to get stupid again which may prevent me from doing this as I may not be home long enough to complete the process.
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We will see how it comes out 1st! No problem...
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Looking good, Bentley! I will be very interested to hear your take on how they are different and how they are the same when they are both cured and smoked. I've got a 12# belly in the fridge I hopefully will start curing this weekend. I gave away almost all of what I cured last week to my boss and co-workers.
Most of the tables I have seen show cure penetration of 1/4" a day, so a 2" thick piece would take 4 days. also have read that one can under cure but not over cure unless they use the wrong amount of cure.
That's what I have read, too, as well as been told to from others' experiences. The cure can go long within reason, just never short.
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Day 8. I guess I will go slice off a piece or each, fry up and see if I need 2 more days!
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Day 8. I guess I will go slice off a piece or each, fry up and see if I need 2 more days!
How do you tell if it is cured enough by slicing/cooking slice from the out side? Do you slice chunk down the middle then cut off a strip to make sure the center is cured? Just asking because the last time I made it I went 10 -12 days and it was very salty.
Mudflap
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I guess as I now think about the question, it is curing from top, bottom, and sides, so it seems to me that the cure at 8 days should be close to the same, 1/4 inch in, or 8 inches in...And yes, they are done, and then some!
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I guess as I now think about the question, it is curing from top, bottom, and sides, so it seems to me that the cure at 8 days should be close to the same, 1/4 inch in, or 8 inches in...And yes, they are done, and then some!
I may not understand this. I was thinking that at ¼-inch penetration per day, 8 days would be two inches from the top and two inches from the bottom. So a four-inch thick slice would be completely penetrated.
Am I doing this wrong?
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Wet on right, rub on left in all photos.
It has been so long since I did a rub cure, I did not understand yorkdudes statements about the firmness, but now understand it. I also believe that mowin (I think) in another thread spoke that he did not like wet cures for belly because they leave the belly soft for lack of a better word. It just never mattered to me as the end product was all I cared about. Now seeing both methods I understand what both are referring to!
As far as taste, well, they need to be dried, smoked, and then cooked again before I make final comments on taste. They are pretty close. To me, the Wet Cure is much saltier, but my brine/cure was 6.5% so guess what Mr. Nimrod...In the future that will be a 3%. The Rub Cure was a little less salty. But I used the Diggy Dog calculator and it gives amounts for all ingredients for the rub cure, I can't seem to find that for wet...sure it is out there.
Will see how they both taste after I finishes them completely, but I just do not see a huge taste difference at this time.
Kristin does not agree with this opinion I believe...
(https://i.imgur.com/ash2Nzdh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/A3oeGqrh.jpg)
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I think that math would be right...I am not the one to get the science end of this stuff, I am just a do it and see how it comes out guy...but I think both of these would probably have been done at 6 days!
I may not understand this. I was thinking that at ¼-inch penetration per day, 8 days would be two inches from the top and two inches from the bottom. So a four-inch thick slice would be completely penetrated.
Am I doing this wrong?
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Well how cool is thanks for the side by side. I very much want to try wet but it has never worked for me in the past. Your wet cure looks great, I never had such luck. I am all tuned in as to which you prefer.
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At this point, I do not see an advantage of one over the other for taste, so it would seem to be a...use what works best for ya...If space is an issue, the rub cure would probably be the way to go. An advantage of that is a lot less cure, and for that reason alone I will probably change for Belly at least!
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was there more shrinkage when you cooked them on the dry rub than the wet rub
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They seemed about the same eyeing it...I should have weighed them!
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Honestly, I've never wet cured... well, I have, but never with water. :)
I consider curing in a bag, with nothing but dry ingredients to be wet curing... the only water is that which is pulled out of the meat, but that moisture tends to be left hanging around on the meat... so it in a sense is wet cured.
I personally wrap my curing bellies in cellophane , I find it very easy to do ( the hardest part is yanking the hunk of cellophane off the roll/cutter and not getting it all waded up )... I wrap it as tightly as I can, so any moisture that gets pulled out of the meat has no place to go really, it just sits there... heck, I don't even 'flip' my belly while it cures anymore, because I'm so confident of how close the cure is held against the meat.
Taste in general... again, I've never done a immersion cure, so I can't directly comment to any taste difference there might be between the two methods Bentley has done.... However I can tell you that in general... It's very hard for me to tell the difference between bacon cured using white sugar, brown sugar, or maple sugar... My daughter and I have done several blind tastings, and my conclusion is that I absolutely can't tell the difference between the types of sugar. I think to make much of a difference in flavor , you'd have to really go excessive with things like sugar, or spices.... Now salt's a different matter... I'm certain I could tell the difference between bacon made with 3% salt, vs 2%... for me 2% is plenty of salt... 3% would be too much.. but I guess to some degree it depends on how much sugar you added...
I've cured 2" thick hunks of belly in as little as 5 days and haven't seen any signs that the cure didn't penetrate all the way into the belly... However, I normally go 7 to 10 days, and because I use 2% salt, there's virtually no chance of it becoming too salty , even if I were to go more like 14 days I don't think it would become too salty.
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I personally wrap my curing bellies in cellophane , I find it very easy to do ( the hardest part is yanking the hunk of cellophane off the roll/cutter and not getting it all waded up )... I wrap it as tightly as I can, so any moisture that gets pulled out of the meat has no place to go really, it just sits there... heck, I don't even 'flip' my belly while it cures anymore, because I'm so confident of how close the cure is held against the meat.
That's interesting. I'm going to have to try that.
Great looking bacon, Bentley! I'm interested to see if you can tell any difference once they're both smoked and cooked.
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(https://xzbnjw.ch.files.1drv.com/y4mvmPieiHWxQ_l3LYMvJRu55RQuRmU0PuyiMACuVd_35xrM59unmDyNMyO_aP2Ep1Oru5ele2YkBI8GAj8YQE6bUuyGr9XuQdWdkI5oWcGP8LsPIobog049JWChJrJBAYSatXxK6kB7mFbPi8Z3IIV14iX7H6H7xe7Y0qmW4xWpNPElPOQF98YreDQ5_MF6PDR5SaBT3wmpjdVQkW-m-4LvQ?width=256&height=175&cropmode=none)
Bentley, did you slice these with a knife?
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Yes.
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You have the hands of a surgeon.
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I have always tried to do a little thicker with the slicer then "regular" store bought, but not that much thicker. I am going to try and get these smoked tomorrow. Then I think I will go with that store bought Wrights type Thick slice. Maybe a 4-5 setting on my little Chef Choice...Those seem to make wonderful BLT type bacon slices!
I think for the 1st time in 11 years I am happy with my bacon!
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Do you have a preference on wet vs. dry
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I have not had time to get them in the smoke yet. 2 days of drying and tomorrow will be 3...That Pelican will be on them bellies now, huh! I hope to smoke tomorrow and fry a couple of pieces...other then salt levels, I think they are gonna be a push!
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I just presumed that you had smoked them, the last photo was a test fry I presume. Any difference in salt between the two? They ought to take on some serious smoke with a 3 day pellicle, can't wait to hear the final results.
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I felt the Wet Cured, because I just got lazy and did a brine concentration (6%) for the salt percentage was much saltier (something I like). But Kristin was just the opposite, she thought the Rub Cure was saltier, and it had the "standard" 2% salt in it! So that makes no sense to me
The Blaz'n Smoker is usually good for about 6 hours, will then Hot Smoke it to 135° IT in the Memphis on 180° and fry some up, maybe today, but may wait a day!
Any difference in salt between the two? They ought to take on some serious smoke with a 3 day pellicle, can't wait to hear the final results.
(https://i.imgur.com/q0Bc27Ah.jpg)
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Never let Cured Belly Air Dry for 3 days...I am gonna say it helped in Smoke Adhesion! :pig: I got scared when I checked at the 5 hour mark due to the color. I would normally have gone 3 more hours with the cold smoke and then Hot Smoke it till 135° IT. It is in the fridge now, going to have dinner with Karen & Jeff and then will come home, put in freezer and see if I can slice off some and cook!
(https://i.imgur.com/6jSFIAGh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DJVN89Mh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MEkNzwUh.jpg)
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man that looks good :pig: :pig:
Mudflap
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Hate to guess here but wet cure is left?
Both of them truly look outstanding, they really do.
It has been a while since mine looked that good out of the pellet grill.
Either way I am going to let them dry longer next time, very nice.
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Wet is on the right in both photos...And I will freeze and slice I hope tomorrow and we will see if I have a preference on taste!
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Those are gorgeous, Bentley. You're producing some awesome bacon!
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The color is wonderful...But it is way to much...I gotta go back to just warm smoking em in the Daniel Boone!
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If you're warm smoking them, do you still need to form a pellicle? Or is pellicle formation mostly helpful for smoke adhesion during cold smoking?
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Pretty sure it helps with smoke at any temperature.
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The color is wonderful...But it is way to much...I gotta go back to just warm smoking em in the Daniel Boone!
Bentley, curious as why you think the color is too much? I think it looks great. Plus when you slice it, your not going to see much of it.
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Again, I am way to cryptic and think I am concise!
Color has nothing to do with it...to much smoke, smells like you fell into a pile of wood ash! But as you stated, should be mitigated when sliced and cooked!
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Ok. I understand, it's the smokiness. More color, more smoke.
I cold smoke my bacon for up to 30 hrs over several days. When I open a package, the smoke smell is obvious. But cooking does diminish it considerably.
Looking forward to your opinions on the two methods.
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Curing the belly for smoking on the Product Review Vertical. I saw in another thread a slight discussion on possible vac sealing for curing a belly. Though why not see if there is any difference!
(https://i.imgur.com/jYPy7Psh.jpg)
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Way to go, Bentley! I was curious about a vacseal cure but knew going into it that I would make a mess of things in the process. And I'm sort of anal about things like that and I wanted to be sure to get the cure on evenly, which was hard enough using zip lock. Looks like you did a great job! Mad skillz!
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Thanks for the reminder to go turn these...although I am going to assume it mean nothing in the vac sealed one.
The pictures don't really show it very well, but much more liquid in the vac sealed then the ziplock. Maybe it will be some valuable data!
(https://i.imgur.com/ecIr5yNh.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/r8wEsDKh.jpg)
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The Vac sealed is on the right. Obviously a different color, my assumption would be no way for it to be oxidized? 2nd thing I noticed is the zip lock belly had no liquid left in it. I do not think It drained out in fridge, that would be my only guess. Will dry and then smoke when the Vertical gets here!
(https://i.imgur.com/HxOy26Ah.jpg)
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I did slice off a small piece of each and fry. I now know I am a 3% salt person and not a 2% and I might go to 175ppm on cure as opposed to 156ppm.