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[bregent]

Yeah, if too salty reduce the salt, not the cure time. This isn't gradient brining, all of the salt will be absorbed in a few days. I use 2% and don't need to soak. I've tried 2.5%, but that was too salty for me.

[bregent]

I used 2.75% salt or about 1/3 cup for 5 lbs. The bellies that I just finished cured for 6+ days and were a tad salty for my taste. I soaked them in fresh water for about 6 hours before I smoked them and they turned out perfect. Next time I'll reduce cure time to 5 days.

Also, are you counting the salt in the cure #1 in that 2.75? If not, then you are at just over 3% salt, assuming a cure rate of 156ppm.

[jstrand]

I hijacked this thread long before you were here...

I know this will sound like a smart xxx, but how much salt is the home cured guy using?  That will help me tell you...

Ha, I figured I would be asked how much salt is being used. Actually I haven't cured bacon, I want to try but I was just wondering because my dad cant have much salt, but he loves bacon. So I was just wondering if home cured was less salty than store bought.
But lets say I use mowins amounts for a 5 pound belly.
Cure#1 5.56g
coarse sea salt 40.05g
brown sugar 22.68g

[hughver]

Also, are you counting the salt in the cure #1 in that 2.75? If not, then you are at just over 3% salt, assuming a cure rate of 156ppm.

No, I used the recommended .25% Prague #1 cure and 2.75% salt which I assumed accounted for the cure salt content. The reason that I thought reduce cure time, is that in some curing recipes the cure is optional, but never the salt. 

[Bentley]

Commercially produced depending on the thickness of the slice of bacon, it will have 200-275mg of salt. So 4 slices is about half or the recommended amount of sodium in a daily diet.

Mowins formula is for a 5lb belly and 2% salt.  So I have searched high and low.  My issue is I cant find, nor am I smart enough how to figure out how many mg of sodium that will put in a slice of that bacon.  What I will say is, I doubt that formula is as high and I really would doubt that it is higher then commercially produced.  So if you cut that formula to 20g of salt you are halving it and therefore halving the mg of sodium in the bacon.

Is there a number you are shooting for?

[bregent]

I hijacked this thread long before you were here...

I know this will sound like a smart xxx, but how much salt is the home cured guy using?  That will help me tell you...

Ha, I figured I would be asked how much salt is being used. Actually I haven't cured bacon, I want to try but I was just wondering because my dad cant have much salt, but he loves bacon. So I was just wondering if home cured was less salty than store bought.
But lets say I use mowins amounts for a 5 pound belly.
Cure#1 5.56g
coarse sea salt 40.05g
brown sugar 22.68g

I think the math is correct:

That recipe calls for 2% salt. Salt contains 40% sodium, so it would be .8% sodium by weight.

Regular Oscar Mayer bacon has 260mg sodium in a 14 gram serving, which would be 1.8% by weight.

[LowSlowJoe]

According to USDA bacon should have 120 parts per million of added nitrite.   If it's "dry-cured" ( water content reduced significantly )  it can be  200 PPM.... but for standard bacon, 120 PPM, is the USDA standard...

   The math is easy really, and I would strongly advise having a scale, it makes things a lot easier and more precise.

   Math... 120 PPM, is the same as 0.012%.   So, you add 0.012% nitrite to make bacon.   Since cure #1 is 1/16th nitrite, you need 16 times more cure #1, than the amount of nitrite needed.   

   for 1000 grams of pork belly, you need to add 0.12 grams of Nitrite, to get this using Cure #1, you multiply that by 16, which tells you need to use 1.92 grams of cure #1 per kilogram of pork belly, to make pork belly bacon...  ( along with other salt, sugar, and whatever spices you want )


   How much salt or is it sodium, or how much sodium is in salt? I Have no idea how much sodium is in salt... but I do know from experience that I like bacon made using roughly 2% salt. (whatever amount of sodium that adds up to )

   If you want to do it without a scale...   For every pound of pork belly use.. 1.6 teaspoons of Sugar, 1.47 teaspoons of salt, and 1.1/8ths of a teaspoon Cure #1, and 1/4 teaspoon dry spices ( like pepper ). That will get you pretty close... but I'd encourage you to get a scale, it's much easier really.

[LowSlowJoe]

By the way... IMHO , Steve Raichlen is wrong on the amount of cure that should be used to make bacon... so are most other people on the internet...

 The correct amount is 1.375 teaspoons of cure #1 ( 6.25% Nitrite)  per 10 pounds of pork belly, when making bacon.  This should yield very close to the 120 parts per million that the USDA says should be in bacon. 

[Bentley]

I Love to have Smart people on my site...I figured salt and sodium were synonymous so I learned something new!  Maybe remember to throw that Chloride in there next time Bent...

[mowin]

Also, are you counting the salt in the cure #1 in that 2.75? If not, then you are at just over 3% salt, assuming a cure rate of 156ppm.

No, I used the recommended .25% Prague #1 cure and 2.75% salt which I assumed accounted for the cure salt content. The reason that I thought reduce cure time, is that in some curing recipes the cure is optional, but never the salt. 

If the cure isn't added, the meat isn't cured. It's not bacon.

[Bentley]

I have heard a lot of people just salt cure, I guess it would depend on your definition of cured.

[bregent]

Also, are you counting the salt in the cure #1 in that 2.75? If not, then you are at just over 3% salt, assuming a cure rate of 156ppm.

No, I used the recommended .25% Prague #1 cure and 2.75% salt which I assumed accounted for the cure salt content. The reason that I thought reduce cure time, is that in some curing recipes the cure is optional, but never the salt. 

If the cure isn't added, the meat isn't cured. It's not bacon.

I think that because we call Prague Powder and similar products 'curing salt', it's assumed that nitrates/nitrites are required to 'cure' meat. But as far as I can tell, cure is a general term for any of several methods to preserve food by drawing water out of it. But yeah, it ain't bacon without it.

[Conumdrum]

Prague powder is the PURE stuff, not to be considered the same as mortons cure. 

BE CAREFUL FOLKS. YOU CAN GET SICK.

[bregent]

Prague powder is the PURE stuff, not to be considered the same as mortons cure. 

BE CAREFUL FOLKS. YOU CAN GET SICK.

Huh? We're talking about Cure #1 here, not 'Tender Quick'.

[Bentley]

I think Prauge powder is still only 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% table salt.  But maybe you did not mean 100% sodium nitrite...Cure #1...Which is almost 12 times as strong as TQ, so yes, they are not interchangeable...