While rinsing the bacon after the cure (and before it goes on the smoker), some of the pepper washes off.
I’m wondering if I should just add spices after the cure and after I rinse it with some water. It’s not like the pepper/spices “penetrate” the meat and it benefits from being mixed in with the curing period.
Certainly, some pepper remains, but I feel like it’d be less wasteful. And I’d only include distilled water, kosher salt, curing salt, and brown sugar during the cure.
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I always add more black pepper and a light dusting of GP and cayenne after the rinse. I don't think you should omit it in the cure, but it would be interesting to see the results if you do.
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I always add a sweet rub to the meat before I smoke it. I will desalinate the bacon for a few hours too. I tend to think it comes out a little salty at times.
However, I still add the rub, or sometimes even just brown sugar.
Maybe our pork is a bit bland but I reckon there is enough flavour infused by the cure, without adding more. I been working on getting the meat flavour in all my BBQ to stand up & be counted. Maybe it is just my neanderthal pallette, dunno 🤷♂️
I've gone to salt, pepper, garlic powder and occasionally onion powder. And very light on the powders too.
Now I have a bunch of rubs that I'll either store or toss. My daughter has a bunch as well, mostly salt.
Commercial, off brand names, are generally at least 55% salt anyway.
There are some good ones too... I've used most of my Meatheads pork and beef rubs. I have not touched the poultry one yet.
The only bbq sauce I use is Black Swan and I've tried many.
I don't think most of the spices add much, if anything, during the cure. I've done bay leaf, juniper etc and it's just not noticeable in the final product so now I do a basic salt, curing salt, sugar cure. Rinse that, add pepper etc if you want when smoking.
I’m forevermore going to add spices after the cure. Glad I figured that out. For what it’s worth, I never add maple syrup to the cure. I add it at the end when cooking the bacon. I can actually taste it that way. Maybe that’s what sparked my question when I saw pepper wash off.
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