MH Bacon Recipe Question

[HorseDoctor]

They come frozen, but I thaw, skin & cure the whole case at once. Wish I could buy them already skinned but the supplier that has skinned bellies also charges about 3 times as much for them.

[Steve Vojtek]

Looks awesome. I have only made the maple syrup recipe first with honey all i had - and then again with real maple syrup both times loved it. Everyone i gave a taste to loved it and their main comment was - not too salty like the shop bought stuff - i'm a bit of a 'salt nazi ' myself - but you can always add more salt it won't hurt it....great job from an old refrigerator though .. i remember ....

[Dr ROK]

I made one of each of MH's flavors and I love them all. The wife thinks they need more salt, which surprised me since she's usually a salt nazi! I did make some substitutions on the Asian as I don't care for hoisin sauce or 5 spice power. I used an equal amount of gochujang mixed with ketchup (2:1 ratio) in place of the hoisin sauce and allspice for the 5 spice. The other recipes were made as described in the recipes.

For some reason when I tried to upload pics, they come up sideways for some reason. If you interested in pics or my step by step log you can check it out here:

https://www.evernote.com/l/AEhQjKgfbOhEMKX9pM-sefmzilvN7fpBPyQ

[Steve Vojtek]

From what i know if you have more than one piece in the same curing mix the cure won't penetrate where the meat is touching - I have seen it happen - I guess being in separate bags should not be an issue as long as You 'gently massage ' them and flip them at least once a day to redistribute the cure and mix it with the juices released by the belly.When I make bacon I 'massage and flip' twice a day - when I wake up and when I get home from work just to be sure - result is always great bacon ...

[Steve Vojtek]

I have also used tap water and i never had issues - but tap water can differ depending on location i guess. Would bottled water work? Just curious .....

[Dr ROK]

I have them in separate bags. Are you referring to stacking them all in the same bag or even if they are in separate bags?

[Meathead]

Also, be careful that if you have more than one piece of meat that you don't stsck them.

[Meathead]

We have had reports from people whose cure liquids got cloudy and we came to the conclusion it was microbial contamination, so we now recommend distilled.

[The Burn]

That must be a new change also, as I've got a copy of the Maple Bacon recipe saved to Evernote and it doesn't mention water type. I've just used tap water each time I've made it, with no issues.

[aarontbell]

Just scale up the recipe. the important part is the salt and pink salt ratio to the meat. that gets you the proper cure. I have mustard and maple recipes I make regularly and am dialing in Asian and cajun recipes. salts are most important, other ingredients for flavor. a tip: excess sugar makes bacon burn easier. watch as you cook.

[Doc Hazard]

Dr ROK; sorry, you are correct. But it used to be there before the site switch, right above the ingredients it said something like "This recipe is for one pound of meat. If you use more, you must scale up the ingredients proportionally; if you have less than one pound, use the cure as written." I guess MH took it out when he revised the page, and added a Plain Bacon recipe; I can't imagine why. He did create a separate Curing Meats page, but that's not much help as it says "the bacon recipe is different." To add to the confusion, on the bacon page under Method, he mentions putting a 3 lb piece of belly in a plastic bag with the cure, but no mention of scaling up the amount. I should have looked again before I typed, but I knew I had read it. I now have my own cure spice mix, I don't go to that page generally. To emphasize, the important parts are to scale the amount of salt, curing salt, and total liquid. Everything else is just flavors and can be varied at will. I've found I like using corned beef spices (like pickling spices, but apparently different) with some sweetener, usually brown and white sugar, and Karo.

[Dr ROK]

HorseDoctor, are your bellies frozen or fresh. I purchased a 25 lb case thinking I'd get several to use one at a time. They were all frozen together and I didn't want to thaw all of them at once since this was the first time I'd done bacon. Ended up using my reciprocating saw to cut the massive chunk of frozen pork into three larger chunks. Wrapped two in plastic wrap and foil and back into the freezer with them. The remaining chunk I used to make one batch of each of MH's three recipes. Got about a week to go in the fridge yet. Looking forward to finally having some awesome bacon vs the store bought.

[HorseDoctor]

Bigger batches work fine. Just multiply ingredients X lbs. I get a better deal when I buy bellies by the 50# case. so always do big batches. Can't believe that the kind of water is a big deal as long as it's something you would drink. I use a dry rub that doesn't require water, but by about day 3 it's drawn enough water out of the bellies that it's basically a wet brine for the next 10-12 days anyway. Warning! You will never look at store bought bacon the same again (or be satisfied with it). Enjoy!

[Dr ROK]

Is the reason distilled water is called for is to avoid chlorinated water? Our water is ground water & isn't chlorinated.

[Dr ROK]

I must be blind I still don't see that in the recipe, but that's what I assumed. I watched the video on the recipe page and the gentleman there was making three batches each in a separate bag. I'm going to follow his lead and make a bag of each of the flavors listed in the recipe.