Curing bacon - Equilibrium Brining advice & coffee cure suggestions

[nutshellml]

Morning all. I've cured bacon about 2-3x in the past using the Ruhlman recipe. Came out great except always a little salty, I tried adjusting each time. I want to now try equilibrium brining to see if I can get it on point. I was going to use the suggestion of Ruhlman - 2% of Kosher Salt and .25% pint salt. Question:
1) This is the percent of Meat AND Water combined, but how much water am I using??
2) Any tips on this method?
3) Will a 7-10 day brine be good, Ruhlan says this method "will give you flexibiilty on how long you cure". What does he mean by that? Meaning if you do it precisely by weight then 7 day brine is same as say 10-15 day brine?
4) If following Ruhlmans ingredients, since I'm adding water to the curing method assuming I need to change the amount/weights of the ingridents, but by how much? trial error or a percentage?
5) Finally - I'd like to try to add a Coffee flavor to the cure, any links to recipes that would work in an equilibrium brine?

Thanks in advance!

[kmhfive]

Wow, that’s an interesting series of questions! I just cured my first bacon and will be Crowd-testing it tonight, so I’ve got no answers. But I am curious as to how others will respond!

[kmhfive]

BTW, Welcome to the Pit! nutshellml.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Read these two articles:

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/making_bacon_from_scratch.html

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/curing_meats.html

Is this the recipe you are following?

http://ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/

As to question 4, all ingredients can be altered with the exception of the pink salt. This must be in proportion to the meat you are curing. Too much can be very bad for you, too little and it may not perform its task, to prevent botulism growth.

[RonB]

Once the salts reach equilibrium, the meat will not absorb any more salt. You can try using less kosher salt, but do not use less Prague #1. Most here will suggest soaking the meat a minimum of 8 hours in plain water after curing to help remove some salt. Depending on how salty you like your bacon, you can soak longer or change the water once or twice during the soak.

One thing you can try is to cut off a small piece and cook it after the soak in plain water. That will tell you if you need more time or not. However, it will probably be less salty near the outside, so take that into consideration when you test a piece. Another option would be to cut the slab in half so you can cut your test piece from the center.

[Spinaker]

Welcome to The Pit! Thank you for the support.

Recipes like this are precisely why docblonder came up with the curing calculator and why Meathead wrote the article on The Science of Curing Meats Safely. As ComfortablyNumb mentions, Please read the article suggested and follow our recipes and techniques for curing meats. It is safe and proven to work. If you have questions we are here to help. We can not always interpret what certain authors intend, nor can we guarantee they will work or be safe.

Meathead makes his case here,

"I cannot and will not comment on recipes from other websites or variations you want to try. You should not try to combine my curing recipes with others. There is a lot of misinformation out there. If you failed to follow my directions, please don't ask me how to fix your meat. Sorry to be so pedantic. If you know this website, we encourage experimentation on normal recipes. But you should not experiment with recipes using nitrites. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out."

[ComfortablyNumb]

Which is why I asked if the link I found was the recipe he is following. That one suggests pink salt is optional, that it is to keep colour in the meat and give it a 'piquant bacony flavour'. But what the heck, it's the Internet, eh?

[Spinaker]

Yeah man, there is a ton of misinformation out there. Thanks for your help on this one. It seems like Curing questions are the most common on the main site because of all of the misinformation. ComfortablyNumb

[ComfortablyNumb]

I just noticed that this is a first post for nutshellml Welcome to the Pit from NE Washington state. Along with tips, techniques, and recipes about BBQ we have a lot of fun. If you like music, go to this thread to hear what others are listening to and share what you like. For jokes, go to this thread. Happy to have you along and looking forward to your participation.

[HorseDoctor]

I do about 20# of bacon 4 or 5 times a year with the recipes out of Rhulman's book. I always desalinate with a 30-60 soak in fresh water after curing and that keeps it from being too salty for my "salt phobic" wife. Give it a try.

If if you want coffee flavor either add some instant coffee granules or some espresso to the cure. No idea on amounts. Maybe a tablespoon or two of granules or 1/2 cup of espresso for a 5# piece???

[HouseHomey]

People are afraid to give advice on this because in extreme cases it can be bad. I understand. There's also the liability issue.

The pit are good and great hearted people and no one wants to see anybody get hurt here. That's not how it's done here. But I can tell you that I successfully brined my bacon And more than once, it was Rhulemans recipe and at the last moment I decided to give it a shot. It was good. Second time it was really good. I'm a couple of years off my brine game though. Fair warning.

to your questions. Yes, add the wight of the total contents of your bucket. Meat and liquid. Then use your ratios. Brined bacon you can take up to 200ppm

I believe I was at 7 days the first time. BTW IT WAS JUST OVER TWO GALLONS.

May I suggest that you first try it without the coffe flavor and use a "standard" type of flavor. You may also just try it with salty arse water. It's not likely to go bad with normal caution and care. It will be unsightly but you can get an idea of the salt.

The truly best and most honest information I can give you is. Start with tried and true recipes and techniques that have proven to to be flavorful, fun and safe for everyone involved.

While you do that learn the craft you are creating and learn it safely and technically. I assure you it's loads of fun and delicious. Then tweek one thing at a time to see how it acts. Then my friend the real learning begins. For the record. I feel you!! Don't worry your creativity will only grow.


Everyone here really wants to help but the skills involved and variables are just too many for Off the hip answers.

I hope I did not offend or speak too much for any of the Pit folk or offend you sir.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Oh, Huntington Beach welcomes you sir!

[Mudkat]

Well put!

[DWCowles]

Welcome @nutshellml

[Henrik]

Welcome to the pit nutshellml !

Since you’re new, and if you haven't already done so, please check out our homework assignment post for new members, it contains a few how-tos and please-dos. This will help you learn your way around so you can get the best experience from our forum.

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[Mudkat]

Welcome to the pit nutshellml! Looking forward to seeing your bacon cooks! Keep us posted on how thing progress. Don't forget pics!

[Oakgrovebacon]

Welcome to the pit from Southern Illinois!
My bacon approach is different cure method, but I have used expresso powder with great success

[ecowper]

Welcome @nutshellmi ..... Hope you love it here as much as I do. Here's my tried and true bacon recipe. The water, Prague #1 and Kosher Salt amounts are directly from Doc Blonder's cure calculator. The rest of it is developed to my own personal taste. I think you could easily take out the maple syrup and whisky and replace with the same amount of coffee. Probably espresso so that you get the concentrated coffee flavor you're looking for.

If you change the amount of pork belly, you must proportionally adjust the amounts of curing ingredients. Absolutely must, or you risk food illness. If you change the liquids to, say, coffee instead of maple syrup, you need to use the same quantity. If you change the liquid quantity, then you need to check with Doc Blonder's cure calculator referenced above and make sure your cure ingredients are correct. Again, if you don't, then you risk food illness.

This is a 5 day cure.

For 3lbs of trimmed pork belly

3.5 grams Prague Powder #1
4 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic (or 1 tsp minced garlic)
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3/4 cup distilled water
1/2 cup dark maple syrup
2 tbsp whiskey .... rye, bourbon, single malt

Once cured/brined, I smoke the bacon to an internal temp of 160. At that point it is quite safe. You can cut slices off and eat them right then and there. Of course, frying it is way better. What I normally do is cut it down to about 10" long. That makes for an easily sliced slab of bacon and the slices will fit conveniently in a frying pan. I take the ends that I cut off, dice them up. I use these little pieces in recipes that call for bacon, like a stew, chili, boeuf bourguignon, etc.

[Henrik]

Now that is pure gold, ComfortablyNumb! Pure gold! :-)

[CSS11T]

By the way which ones pink?

[ecowper]

CSS11T Prague Powder #1 is also called pink salt .... it is dyed pink so that you don't mix it up with actual salt.

[HouseHomey]

I was trying to sound intelligent as above 👆Like ecowper but nothing doing there. Well said sir.

[ComfortablyNumb]

I tried to sound intelligent once, it was an exercise in futility......

[ecowper]

wait a second ... we can sound intelligent?