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[mowin]

My only concern with a dry cure on a solid piece of meat is application to said piece of meat.  So you might have a cup of rub that has maybe a tablespoon of cure in it?  I think that is high, but will go with it for my question...How do you make sure that 1 TBS get evenly distributed on that meat?  Is it even necessary for it to be evenly applied to the meat?  As long as it touches the meat in different spots, it will "seep" in to all of the meat and cure it?  I am to lazy to find this stuff out, so I wet cure/brine it!

I like your curing vessel!

The salt will pull some moisture out of the meat. Flipping and rubbing that moisture around the meat will evenly coat the meat. After a few days, the meat will suck up most of that moisture.

[mowin]

Since this is a Equalization brine/cure, leaving the meat in longer will not over cure it, so a extra day or two isn't going to hurt at all.

I also agree, however, an extra day or two may well result in overly salty bacon. Some "experts" recommend 5 days cure and others up to 10 days. When I did 10 days wet cure, it was too salty. I believe that the right answer is somewhere in between and depends on your individual definition of salty and/or cure formula. Assuming the same cure ratios, does anyone have an opinion as to the affect on curing time that dry Vs. wet has?

It shouldn't as the meat will equalize with the salt in the brine.  If it's too salty, you used too much salt in your brine.

Also meat absorbs salt at a faster rate then sugar. The sugar reduces the saltiness, so too little time in the brine can cause a saltier product

[hughver]

If it's too salty, you used too much salt in your brine.

I use 2.75% or about 1 Tbs./lb. kosher salt, is that too much?

[Bentley]

So 1/12 of what I said...makes it even more difficult to know if it is evenly mixed.  How do you know if the same concentration is equal on the meat?  1/2 tsp in what...a 1/2 cup of other ingredients?  These are the question I cant get a satisfactory answer for...ergo, I know my cure and all other ingredients are mixed cuz they are in liquid, it is the same concentration on every square inch of my meat.  Just the process I like.  I quit trying to convert folks years ago!

How do you make sure that 1 TBS get evenly distributed on that meat? 

I use .25% or roughly 1/2 tsp./lb. of cure and mix it thoroughly with rest of the rub ingredients. Spreading the rub evenly on all sides also spreads the cure. I cure in a gallon Ziploc bag and turn daily.

[Bentley]

Not sure how this applies to how evenly a dry cure is going to work?  So some gets absorbed in in the 1st 1, 3,  7,  X amount of hours, so there is less concentration now then when 1st applied, but as you rub it around, it gets evenly coated?  What am I missing?

The salt will pull some moisture out of the meat. Flipping and rubbing that moisture around the meat will evenly coat the meat. After a few days, the meat will suck up most of that moisture.

[mowin]

Bent, how it the cure less concentrated? If a 2# piece of meat calls for "x" amount of cure, that amount cure remains the same throughout the curing process. The meat will absorb the cure just as it will absorb the cure in a wet brine.

Both methods work equally well. Use the one you're most convenient in.

[Bentley]

So it does not matter if the cure is evenly distributed on the meat, it is going to cure it no matter what the concentration of it is on the meat?  It is going to just spread out in the meat no matter where it is put on?

If so, there is zero reason to worry about getting it well mixed into the rest of the cure ingredients.

[mowin]

Of course you mix it with the salt and sugar. Would you just drop the ingredients in a gal of water and not mix it? Place meat in a Ziploc and evenly cover the meat on both sides.

Rubbing the bellies each day ensures that ingredients are evenly distributed.  The texture of the meat is a little different for each method, which is why I like the dry cure for bacon. 

[hughver]

Here are a couple of interesting articles on Dry vs. Wet curing.

http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/2016/03/15/dry-cured-bacon-vs-wet-cured-bacon/

https://garethbarlow.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/bacon-dry-cured-or-wet-cured-let-the-battle-begin/

[GrillinGlen]

I dry brine bacon but wet brine everything else.  I found the bacon recipe in a book that was recommended to me and it is so good I cant see changing.  Within a short time it pulls out juices becomes a wet brine anyway.

[mowin]

I dry brine bacon but wet brine everything else.  I found the bacon recipe in a book that was recommended to me and it is so good I cant see changing.  Within a short time it pulls out juices becomes a wet brine anyway.

Ya it sort of does. The meat does reabsorb most of it.  I also wet cure most everything else. The texture and taste changes between the two processes.  Just like warm smoking and cold smoking creates two different products as far as taste and texture. 

[Bentley]

I guess I missed the "wet" cured part of the 1st article and the 2nd one.  Any bacon I have ever cooked has shrunk, but I seem to do something magical as I have never had my bacon do the rest, nor have I needed an extra hot pan...

Wet cured bacon shrinks, leaves an unpleasant white liquid in the pan and produces a floppy monstrosity – you also require a pan hotter than the core of the earth to actually attain nice, crispy bacon

But maybe those folks do not smoke their bacon after wet curing it!

[mowin]

I've cold smoked the couple of wet cured/brined bellies I've done. Same process. 8 hrs of smoke, a day or two of rest, then 8 hrs of smoke, repeat.  It's not the same taste or texture I like.  Bacon will curl because of the sugar content. Sugar burns faster than salt, so the more sugar or LESS salt you curing process has the more it will curl.

That's the beauty of cooking bacon in the oven. No curling.  Best yet, use the pellet grill.   

BTW...

[Bentley]

I have gotten to where I cant stand cooking bacon in a skillet anymore.  Only time I will do it anymore is if I need cut up pieces...Not much sugar in my brines for bacon...I understand why folks soak a corned beef, or their bacon...but man it seems silly to me. But most folks do not appreciate NaCl like I do!

[Michael_NW]

Since this is a Equalization brine/cure, leaving the meat in longer will not over cure it, so a extra day or two isn't going to hurt at all.

I also agree, however, an extra day or two may well result in overly salty bacon. Some "experts" recommend 5 days cure and others up to 10 days. When I did 10 days wet cure, it was too salty. I believe that the right answer is somewhere in between and depends on your individual definition of salty and/or cure formula. Assuming the same cure ratios, does anyone have an opinion as to the affect on curing time that dry Vs. wet has?

As you found, opinions and "answers" to questions were all over the board online, no matter how professional or amateur the source. For me, cure time was not an issue - I've got the space for it. I just knew that I wanted to be confident in my approach, which meant that I wanted to "peg" as many variables as possible to reduce the amount of variance that could occur during the cure. I think I'm with it enough to follow a method; I just wanted to reduce the possibility of human error as well as I could.

For instance, wet curing makes it possible for me to easily control humidity (100%), salinity, and uniformity; I just need to make sure I've got the nitrite concentration and time correct. With a cure calculator I can do that. If the recipe I follow makes the meat too salty, I can adjust that in my next cure. I plan on learning as I go WITHOUT making someone ill.