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Smoking bacon and ham's

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Kit's picture
Kit
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Joined: 2014-05-24 06:33
Smoking bacon and ham's

Ok I have tried to cure and smoke my own bacon and hams. I have used two different curing methods, as well as two different smoking methods.
Cures by brine which consist of using 2 cups kosher salt, 2 cups brown sugar, 1 1/2 table spoons ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of insta cure (pink salt) per 5 pounds on meat,1 cup real maple syrup and 5 quarts water, brought solution to boil for 15 to 20 minutes and then cooled overnight. Submerged meat in cooled brine for 7 to ten days. Then rinse in clear cold water.

On dry rub I use equal amounts of salt, and brown sugar ( cup for cup), and one cup of real maple syrup,and 1 teaspoon of insta cure per 5 pounds of meat. Mixed thoroughly. Cure for 5 to 7 days, then rinse under clear cold water.
I let meat air dry in frig on racks for at least 1 day usually two.

Smoking method hot using smoker set at 180 degrees until internal temp of meat reaches 160 degrees.
Cold smoke method using just a smoke generator were only temp is ambient air temp. No higher than 70 degrees usually for about 3 days. Then just let them hang for another 3 days at minimum.

My problem is not the flavor, but the toughness and/or chewy ness of meat. Would really like to know what am I doing wrong or is that toughness normal?
Especially in comparing it to commercial bacon and hams, though that maybe like comparing BBQ a rib eye and comparing it to a round steak. Just don't know so please any insight to problem would be appreciated.
Kit

jacob burton's picture
jacob burton
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One thing I would recommend

One thing I would recommend for the future is to keep track of all your measurements by weight. Volumetric measurements aren't that accurate, and it makes it hard to see what your use percentages of various ingredients are, which is really important in Charcuterie.

A couple of things...

  1. Sugar is hydroscopic, so it easily binds to water, which can cause the meat to seem dry and chewy. It's hard to say for sure since I don't know what percentage of sugar you're using by weight, but it sounds like you're using quite a bit of sugar.
  2. Try introducing humidity to the smoking environment, especially when hot smoking. If the smoke chamber is too dry, you will have issues with the collagen in the meat breaking down.
  3. Try introducing smoke only briefly (about 20 minutes of hot smoking) and then finish cooking using a secondary method like slow roasting (200F oven), steaming, or sous vide (85C/185F for 4-6 hours).

Overall, it sounds like your main issues is you're not getting the collagen to break down during the smoking process, which can cause the meat to be chewy. However, I do pancetta quite often, which is an uncooked cured pork belly, and I've never had it issues with it being chewy, which leads me to believe that your curing ratios might be off as well.

Kit's picture
Kit
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Chef Jacob, Thank you for

Chef Jacob,

Thank you for the input.

Well I haven't made brine or rub by weight except for the insta cure. So yes I am probably adding too much of something (sugar/syrup/ salt?).

Can you make a recommendation of ratios say per pound (or should i use kilograms) of meat for a brine (saw your video on brine solution so maybe able to use that for base of the brine) but not sure what ratios for a dry rub (salt to sugar to syrup).

On liquid brine to add sugar and maple syrup what would be there ratios to add to a 5% 
Looking for the sugar cured/maple flavoring for both.

Have watched your video on making pancetta which seems really similar to a bacon process, and well guess I am still confused on how the ratios are obtained. Trying to understand how much salt to insta cure to sugar/or maple syrup and or other spices. On the insta cure package it recommends 1 tsp per 5 pounds of meat which i am sure adds to my confusing because it does not relate to other additives like salt, spices etc. which the way i am reading things effect overall ratios.

Also not sure how i can add humidity to the cold smoke process except what is all ready in the air , though on hot smoking that won't be a problem.

Oh I have use Hickory, and/or apple (so far the best overall for milder taste on most meats) wood mostly for smoke though have also used cheery, oak, and alder.

Any how i do thank.

 Kit

ps.I would have attached pictures of past projects but not sure how in this format

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jacob burton
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First, check out this video

First, check out this video on the different forms of curing salt: http://stellaculinary.com/podcasts/video/difference-between-sodium-nitra...

For maple bacon, here's how I would do it:

Instead of using syrup, I'd get some maple sugar (this stuff makes awesome ice cream by the way).

My mix ratio (based on the baker's percentage) would be:

  • 100% Kosher Salt
  • 50% Maple Sugar
  • 1% White Pepper
  • 1% Black Pepper
  • .2% Sodium Nitrite
  1. Heavily salt both sides of the pork belly, and let cure for 7-10 days.
  2. Rinse off salt and allow to dry for 2-3 days.
  3. If I wanted to do bacon slices, I would hot smoke for about 20-40 minutes (with the hot smoker I use, 20 minutes produces a pretty strong flavored product). I would then slice thin on a meat slicer and pan fry or bake.
  4. If I wanted to serve it as a chunk for an appetizer, I would smoke the belly for 20 minutes, and then braise for 4 hours in a 250F oven or sous vide in a 60C/140F bath for about 24 hours.
Kit's picture
Kit
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Jacob Thanks again Chef for

Jacob
Thanks again Chef for your input.
I did watch that video a few times. Now that plus your input let me see if i have right or at least close.
To keep it simple I will use the following table.

  • 100 grams kosher salt
  • 50 grams sugar
  • 1 gram each spices
  • 2 grams pink salt (insta cure #1 or 2)

Am I on track or close to being correct?
Being a dry brine do you seal meat (a lot of video's and other sites recommend sealing in a ziplock type bag to let meat marinate in it's own juices ) or let the water leeched from meat drain away from the meat?
For a wet brine (using a  5% solution formula )  that adding the dry ingredients to the liquid would be maintained in there same ratios. The salts, sugar and spices etc. with the only variable being the amount of the liquid.
Am I close there?
Also it seemed to me reading your input you are not so much worried about the internal temperature of meat during smoking.
Is that because it is basically cured meat and smoke is just an additional flavoring (again all the input i have had before requires the meat to be brought to an internal temperature of at least 140 F which really is sort of precooking in my opinion ) ? Or is it because you are using it in more of an immediate scenario and not long term storage?
Except for cold smoking where there it is just another part in the process of curing, this idea of having the internal temperature this high seems to dominate all the hot smoke feeds I have had.
Thanks again.
Kit

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Remmis
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Be careful! Jacob's ratio is

Be careful! Jacob's ratio is 0.2%, you definitely don't want to add 2 grams of sodium nitrite in your example.

*goes back to lurking*

Kit's picture
Kit
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Remmis Thanks as I did not

Remmis
Thanks as I did not notice the period in front of the two.
So instead of 2 grams insta cure, it should be 200 milligrams if I am doing the math right.
kit

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jacob burton
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@ Remmis, Thanks for jumping

@ Remmis,

Thanks for jumping in. It's always nice to know there's "lurkers" like you hanging around the site.

@Kit,

Yes, you're doing the math right. I would recommend making a 1000g batch of curing salt mix (100% salt, 0.2% nitrite). You can then label this, put it in a safe place, and add ingredients as needed for various projects (sugar, herbs, spices, etc).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Kit's picture
Kit
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Again I do thank both of you

Again I do thank both of you for input, and well I am looking forward to trying this newer method to create my brine.
In fact Chef, now that you have guided me towards this measurement by weight vs volume, I will also be using it in my other projects.
Smoking fish. Making sausage, and to some extent even in my canning.
Though I have had some good results in those,I think this method will make my end product more consistent.
Kit

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I use the calculator over at

I use the calculator over at Digging Dog Farm

http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

It perfectly calculates the cure so you don't end up with overly salty meat. If using a brine add the weight of the water to the weight of the meat (1 liter of water = 1 kg if going by volume)

That calculator is so important to my meat curing that I have it backed up on my main system at home, my google drive, my laptop, my tablet, on 3 different usb drives, and at work.

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Remmis
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@Kit - Yes, with measuring

@Kit -

Yes, with measuring weight vs. volume, you will never look back, especially for charcuterie and bread baking.

After frequenting this site and reading things like Reinhart's stuff and Ruhlman's Charcuterie book I find that now I get annoyed when I come across eg. bread recipes that only have volume measurements.  :)

Kit's picture
Kit
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@ Zalbar Thanks for input.

@ Zalbar
Thanks for input. Calculator would sure make things easier.
 Though isn't that calculator using a different base to create the brine. The weight of meat to obtain ratios vs the ratios of just creating the brine. Now using the calculator would make it a whole lot easier, but how do I know what percentage of salt, sugar etc. to plug in? Saw you had some percentages already plugged in but they can be changed so how did you calculate to get those ? Also you had 6.25 % for nitrite/nitrate (on the calculator) which is also percentage Chef gave as ratio of salt and nitrite/nitrate used by company when they created the curing salt for public use.
Could that calculator be adapted to just create brine, whether solution or rub? Seems as if it could.

@ Remmis
I think it will too though I am sure I will struggle some as my learning curve as I was growing up was always so many cups this so many teaspoon of that and then adjust with a pinch more of this or that ....lol in fact Chef Jacob mentioned (home page) that is the reason why he wanted to know the why's and not just the how's....which does separate him from the pack sort of speak.
Kit

Zalbar's picture
Zalbar
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The 6.25% is assuming you're

The 6.25% is assuming you're using standard "pink salt". To create a brine for "Weight of Meat in grams" simply add the weight of the meat and the water total. So if you have 1 kg of meat and 2 kg of water (2 liters), you would enter 3000 grams and then hit calculate.

That gives us

7.49grams of pink salt
52.98 grams of salt
30 grams of sugar.

Dissolve that into the water, add you meat and weight it down and store in the fridge to cure. You can also inject some of it into the meat to cure it faster. Other things such as maple syrup can be added but you need to be really careful not to overdo it with sugars in brines. You can end up with what is known as ropey brine which looks, feel and coats everything in a layer of slime. Happened to me once, luckily I saved the bacon.

Kit's picture
Kit
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@ Zalbar Yes it is the

@ Zalbar
Yes it is the standard pink salt. On the package furnished by supplier it recommends 3 oz (which is 85.049 grams using a conversion scale) to one gal (us) which is ( what i weigh equaled 3464 grams or 3.464kg). They do not list if they considered meat weight or other additives such as salt,sugar or spices.

Now i am going to ask why you add weight of meat to the solution weight (though it maybe obvious to some it is not to me).
It does seem by doing that you change the percentage of pink salt,salt, sugar and spices  used per batch substantially by either the weight of meat or liquid.
Also the ratio of pink salt used in your table would be lower than what they recommend (which theirs did seem pretty high to me in looking at what has been recommend to me so far). That probably is because of your PPM factor (just guessing here).
Could you also tell me why you use 2% for salt and 1% for sugar.

Oh and for all...just info here....when i want to weight down meat to keep it submerged in brine solution, I have found ziplock plastic bags work well. Can fill them with any extra brine you have or just water seal them and just lay on top of meat. Makes it easy and you really don't have to try and balance a weight. They will also fit the container you are using in marinating meat. They will also reach the same temperature as the solution.

thanks kit
 

Zalbar's picture
Zalbar
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You're adding the weight of

You're adding the weight of the water and meat together because salt will always want to be at equilibrium throughout a solution it's dissolved in. You're controlling the salt content this way.

The salt and sugar percentages are perfect for curing meat without being overly salty. I've never needed to soak meat after curing using this calculator either wet or dry. Ham tastes like ham, not a salt lick.

Kit's picture
Kit
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@ Zalbar I will definitely

@ Zalbar
I will definitely try using it next time.

Think I may have to buy a new scale.All this info that i have gotten really shows the short comings of my old one.

Will also try Chefs formulations.
Just been so frustrated in trying to get that good blend in my processing these last few years, and now I definitely have  a better insight and now be able to actually figure out what I have been doing wrong.
Thanks all.

Joz's picture
Joz
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I appreciate your posts.

I appreciate your posts. Please let me know what you do after the curing process is done to keep the bacon for say 3 or 4 weeks. Do you fully cook it or cold smoke?
 

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jacob burton
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Approaches differ, but

Approaches differ, but usually the bacon is hot smoked until it reaches a desired internal temperature (commonly 150F).

Because of the curing salt and smoking, the bacon can easily last in the fridge for a month, assuming it's well wrapped. If you plan on not using it in a month, vacuum pack and freeze, wheree it will easily keep for 6-12 months.

Kit's picture
Kit
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Joined: 2014-05-24 06:33
@ Jos  From what I have seen

@ Jos
 From what I have seen there are basically two ways that the curing and smoking of bacon is done.
The start of the curing is pretty much the same.
Salt, insta cure (a nitrate or nitrite), usually a sweetener (sugar etc.) and other spices (subject to your own slant) is added to the surface (and in maybe internal if injecting a brine) of the meat.
Smoking is the big difference.
One is the hot smoke as Chief Jacob mentioned Heat and smoke are applied at same time. Product is finished and really no further curing time is needed.
The other is what is referred to as cold smoking where as just ambient air temperature is used along with smoke supplied remotely so that it carries little or no heat. Meat is usually a left to hang for a while to finish the overall curing (aging).
 
Both products from what I understand if done right should last for weeks or months if allowed to hang in a cool dry place.
The biggest problem in storage is moisture so it is necessary for air flow to be able to reach all surface area of meat.
Even in refrigeration if meat is hanging it will last longer that the meat covered and on a shelf which means self life after slicing is reduced...and today we have freezers and vacuum pack options (which i do use myself) and I have stored some for a year this way.

My problem has been the ratios of cure to meat. The flavor is ok, but the collagen was not breaking down as it should. Soon will be testing out some of the suggestions given above for this years batch.
Will also using those suggestions on the turkey breast that i do every year to give as Christmas presents (even though they have been good they maybe even turn out better using tips that i have gleamed from this post). 
kit