Makin' (Buckboard) Bacon

[BBillFleet]

Lucky you, having pork belly just lying around. I can't get my hands on it unless I make a special trip, and that means arousing my wife's attention, and then it's all downhill from there.

[bbqLuv]

See now I have to look up Jess Pryles, and buckboard bacon. It is all your fault.
You done good! I have to say. I have half a slab of pork belly to try to make bacon or burnt ends.
I guess I will have to consult SWMBO.

[rickgregory]

She doesn't give you a calculator but does give you a formula which is pretty standard - 2.5% by weight of salt, including 0.25% by weight of curing salt.

[BBillFleet]

Yes, I saw her recipe as well, but I figured I'd follow the recipes here. There are calculators here.

After the comment below, I went back to have a look, and her recipe is for a dry cure, not the ‘safer’ wet one that Meathead recommends.

But she does have a link to a calculator, that works for both wet and dry cures. But neither mentions the thickness vs. time calculation that is covered here…

[Huskee]

Have you looked at Meathead's curing calculator? It will answer your curing questions as far as how much and how long per your individual meat's dimensions. https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...ly/#calculator

[rickgregory]

Funny you should mention buckboard bacon... I just found Jess Pryles' recipe for this and am going to try it soon. https://jesspryles.com/pork-butt-bac...rk-butt-bacon/

[BBillFleet]

I have some pork butt sliced into slabs, and sitting in the cure. I will soak, smoke and slice it up later this week, once the weather clears.

I realized that if I ever wanted to make bacon again, I was going to have to do it buckboard style. The place I had gotten the pork belly before (US Foods) hasn't carried it for over two years, and I haven't seen it anywhere else for less than $7/pound. I'm in Charlotte, NC, and all the butchers around here that I can get to (as in late or weekend hours) are Halal, so no luck there.

But then, the Food Lion near me keeps selling pork butt at $1/pound (MVP special). So I'll occasionally pick up a few to make NJ pork roll (Taylor Ham, taste of home!) and I thought, "why not?"

But I have a question about the recipe. I'm following the basic Meathead recipe for belly bacon, but the rundown of bacon types recommended that I follow the Canadian Bacon recipe, which expects me to roll the thing up into a chub, and cure it that way.

I'm sure the way I'm doing it will turn out fine, but of course I must worry that I'm missing something important. (I'm an older gentleman (ahem) of European descent, worrying is how we express love; it's what drives the children away to become successful in life.). Does the meat/fat ratio require a higher amount of cure? I notice that it's giving off much less liquid than the last time I tried this, but that was with belly bacon.

Also, since they came to slightly different sizes when I cut them, I'm curing the lesser one as long as the greater one. Which way should I have sliced them? I hope they will be delicious either way.