Great Job... I put off making bacon for several years, I was really freaked out thinking it all seemed so complex... that was back before I had discovered what many now call the EQ style of curing, which effectively means you use just enough salt and nitrite that it's virtually impossible to get it too salty even if you let it go for 5 days or more longer then you might have planned... the salt 'equalizes' with the meat and liquids that get pulled off, no more salt transfer takes place... With this EQ method, it's really quite easy to make bacon... I would strongly encourage anyone who might have been in fear of doing bacon, to give it a try, it's actually quite fun and very tasty.
But anyway... I experimented with a bunch of different spices and sugar types, and honestly I can't usually tell the difference between bacon made with white sugar, vs brown sugar... You'd think that it would be relatively easy to tell, but I did some blind taste tests, with my daughter, and we really could not tell... Same really for maple syrup and maple sugar... ( although if you put enough on it, I'm sure eventually you can tell ). Maybe it's because I tend to try and not over do it on my spices... maybe next batch I'll go overboard with some spices and see if I can taste any difference...
For the most part... a little black pepper and maybe some cayenne pepper to go with the salt and sugar is about all I typically use... My last batch used some salt and sugar free Memphis dust... it turned out good, but again, I'm not at all sure I can taste the difference between it and any other bacon I did in the past... I guess I need to try like doubling the amount of spices I use...
