Curing Bacon

[gregtr1]

Hi All -

I am hoping to get the answer to a question regarding curing bacon. I have followed Meathead's recipe, however, I have a hitch. I had the butcher cut up a 9 pound pork belly into three 3 lb slabs. I am trying each of Meathead's recipes. However, I only had 1 gallon freezer bags and I had to fold over 2 of the slabs. I have been squishing them around each day for 12 days.

My question is this: since after folding, they are about 3 inches thick, will going more days work to get the cure all the way through? If so, is 12 days enough, or do I need to go 2 weeks or longer. Or is this now a lost cause and I need to start over? I know - I probably should have asked this about 12 days ago! I'm kinda slow.

Thank you for any heip you can provide.
Greg

[Doc Hazard]

1. Cut it up yourself so it fits, next time; it's not hard. I cut my slabs into 4 pieces; two perpendicular cuts.
2. I'm not an expert, but take the pieces out, and refold them the other way, or better, cut them in half. You will probably have to cut them anyway to slice them. You can't really handle long strips of bacon like in the store packages. And it fits better in a pan/sandwich anyway. Then I'd cure the pieces another 5 days or so; longer won't hurt anything. If it has that pink-red cured color all the way through, you're good to go.
3.Good luck.

[Nuke em]

IN the future search out the 2 gallon ziplock bags. I get mine at the local wal marts and grocery stores. Sooner or later, you'll end up using them. Or even turkey cooking bags now that turkey day is around the corner

[scottranda]

Make sure the liquid solution is in contact with the meat. That's why you don't fold. I'm not the expert to the recipe, but I say you should be ok if you swish around every day so the meat sits in the solution everyday, you'll be ok. Just go a few extra days.

[gregtr1]

Thanks, everybody. I did fold it the other way at day 7, and I make a point of trying to get the liquid in between the folds when I do the squishing. I am going to give it a full 14 days and then do the smoking. If I live through this experience, I will definitely do things differently in the future. For one thing, I'm going to look for the bigger bags.

[MBMorgan]

If you're concerned, is there any reason you can't pull it out, slice into smaller pieces, then rebag it now?

[gregtr1]

Yeah, I thought about that, but wasn't really sure about how the whole chemistry thing would be affected after 12 days, and if I could split both the meat and the cure proportonately. I'm probably too paranoid. The whole process probably has a little wiggle room in it.

[Shane Rakow]

You will be just fine to smoke it today. Don't fold from now on. I've never had a pork belly piece that didn't fit in a 1 gallon zipper bag-- laying flat. I have 2 2lb slabs right now that are 9" long and 4 inches wide. You may have a brown spot where the fold is. It will taste like pork and not bacon. Cook to 165 . If I need to cut up anything, it would be because it wouldn't fit in my slicer anyways.