Curing your own meat

FrenchTart · 23 Sep 2013 at 21:31

So.. I've been reading up on curing parm ham and the like of late.

Capicola looks like a nice easy one to start with. Fairly short curing time and not much need to mess with anything special. Also using the cheapest cut of pork.

I've just stuck a few cuts of pork shoulder in the fridge with salt, sugar and curing salt. I'll post a few updates at some point once there's something more exciting to show.

Has anyone done anything similar? I've cured bacon before and hams but this seems a bit more interesting/involved

randomshenans · 24 Sep 2013 at 07:38

Nope but interested in the results!

FrenchTart · 30 Sep 2013 at 11:33

I'll get something posted up properly sometime

At least you'll enjoy

Yesterday I moved the cured pork shoulder meat into the casings. Have to say, natural casings are pretty rank - I think beef caps are much worse than the smaller casings you'd use for sausages.

Need to get some pics sorted before everything gets hung up properly. The things should be good to eat around mid December.

randomshenans · 30 Sep 2013 at 11:47

Nice man, I'm going to be trying out your bacon so that I have a ton of it here for Christmas since we dont get it here and I can't rely on people bringing it over.
Also, it's cool being able to have your own!

pitchfork · 30 Sep 2013 at 12:23

I've cured meat, but never cured my own "meat"

FrenchTart · 30 Sep 2013 at 14:04

randomshenans said:
Nice man, I'm going to be trying out your bacon so that I have a ton of it here for Christmas since we dont get it here and I can't rely on people bringing it over.
Also, it's cool being able to have your own!

Rocking. So far I've had quite mixed results with home made bacon. I'm trying a longer cure process (and being more strict with the amount of salt/sugar I use) right now to see if I can get a bit more consistency.

pitchfork said:
I've cured meat, but never cured my own "meat"

Aww man..you've never lived!

randomshenans · 30 Sep 2013 at 14:42

Are you using just a belly for this? Bacon wise? So you'll get streaky? I wonder what cut I'd ask for here to get back, it's filet and belly, but you know these cheese eaters...

FrenchTart · 30 Sep 2013 at 15:04

randomshenans said:
Are you using just a belly for this? Bacon wise? So you'll get streaky? I wonder what cut I'd ask for here to get back, it's filet and belly, but you know these cheese eaters...

I've used belly and shoulder previously. The latest attempt is with belly. After years of preferring back bacon these days I prefer streaky as if I'm honest, the fat part of the bacon is the best bit

Glaucus · 30 Sep 2013 at 15:08

Made salted beef a few times, didnt look great as didnt want to use curing salt, tasted great though.

But no nothing like that, be interested to see the final pics.

FrenchTart · 30 Sep 2013 at 15:28

Glaucus said:
Made salted beef a few times, didnt look great as didnt want to use curing salt, tasted great though.

But no nothing like that, be interested to see the final pics.

I think I remember you posting about that (or someone else perhaps). Personally the lack of decent colour is one of the things that has annoyed me in the past with my bacon curing efforts. I quite like making my food as presentable as possible

Glaucus · 30 Sep 2013 at 15:58

Yeah that was me, didnt look great, but tasted great, dont like adding stuff for the sake of it these days.

PlacidCasual · 30 Sep 2013 at 16:28

There are sanitation benefits to adding nitrates, you eliminate any botulism risk being the main one. The colour effect is a bonus.

I just assume I'm exposing myself to endless vanishingly minor toxins and carcinogens so adding anther to the list is neither here nor there. The bacon I'm curing will probably give me heart disease before the nitrates kill me. A little glib I know.

Glaucus · 1 Oct 2013 at 23:26

I don t worry about sanitation. People worry about raw meat, or raw eggs, or having to put cooked food in the fridge etc. like hell am i going to put a lasagne or curry in the fridge, it'll stay on the hob with a lid on for several days as i devour it. Each day improving its taste.

And no i don't think it'll kill me or do any harm, i just don't see the point of adding stuff for the sake of it.

FrenchTart · 1 Oct 2013 at 23:51

I'd say that the botulism thing is semi worthwhile (though not with beef I imagine) even though it is a very small risk. That said, I wouldn't worry about it massively if it weren't for the colour retention. For me and most of the people that eat the food I prepare presentation is a reasonable part of the experience so part of my effort goes into that side of things even if a lore more of my effort goes into everything else about the meal. If presentation doesn't matter to you/your dining audience I would say that the reduction of botulism chance from incredibly minuscule to near enough zero might not be enough to justify messing around with extra ingredients.

PlacidCasual · 2 Oct 2013 at 10:04

For bacon it's by the by I agree, for an air dried sausage however where the risk of botulism is significantly higher it's a no brainer for me, use the nitrates.

FrenchTart · 2 Oct 2013 at 10:59

PlacidCasual said:
For bacon it's by the by I agree, for an air dried sausage however where the risk of botulism is significantly higher it's a no brainer for me, use the nitrates.

Yeah..I thought I wrote that in my previous post but clearly not (I was quite tired).

The extended time that the air-dried meat is at room temperature means that nitrates are a really good idea.

molinari · 2 Oct 2013 at 12:22

Hey FT, would you be able to share your recipe and instructions for curing bacon? It's something I think I'd like to have a go at.

FrenchTart · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:54

molinari said:
Hey FT, would you be able to share your recipe and instructions for curing bacon? It's something I think I'd like to have a go at.

Sure. I'll do a proper post if this latest lot turns out well but basically it should be something along the lines of (for sweet-cure bacon):

Grab yourself some pork belly.

Trim the skin off but leave as much fat as possible behind.

For each 1kg of pork belly you need to mix up 30g of salt, 30g of sugar and 1 teaspoon of curing salt ("pink salt"..I use instacure #1). You can also add spices/herbs as you see fit. At the moment I'm just adding a large pinch of white pepper.

Very thoroughly mix your salt/sugar/etc ingredients and then apply them evenly to the surface of the pork belly. You want to have all of this mixture adhering to the surface of the pork.

Place in the fridge on a tray for a week. Turning it once per day. A lot of liquid will come out. This is normal and you don't need to drain it and there's no harm in the pork sitting in it.

After the week is up very thoroughly rinse the pork on all sides. If you noob this bit up you'll end up with extremely salty bacon.

Leave the bacon hung up or on a drying tray somewhere for a number of hours until the surface is completely dry. This will form a tacky pellicle which will protect the bacon from the elements and help prevent spoilage.

When it comes time to cut up the bacon you'll need a thin and sharp knife and lots of patience. Place the bacon slab in the freezer for an hour so it firms up. Once this is done you can slice it as thinly as you like/as able. If you have a meat slicer it will probably do a better job than you can by hand

That should be it really. You can also smoke the bacon after the pellicle creation step if you so wish. I've read about people experimenting with hot smoking the bacon but personally I plan to try cold smoking.

edit: 30g not 35g.

molinari · 3 Oct 2013 at 10:29

FrenchTart said:
Grab yourself some pork belly.
.
.
.
Place in the fridge on a tray for a week.

Excellent, thanks for that. One question; should it be covered in the fridge with clingfilm or foil, or just left uncovered?

FrenchTart · 3 Oct 2013 at 10:52

molinari said:
Excellent, thanks for that. One question; should it be covered in the fridge with clingfilm or foil, or just left uncovered?

It doesn't matter too much to be honest. You can leave it uncovered in a tray or you can put it in a zip-lock bag (as long as you're sure it doesn't leak).