How To Make Measured Wet / Bag Cure Bacon

How To Make Measured Wet / Bag Cure Bacon

This is a continuation of our how to make bacon series - this time we're making and tasting Measured Wet / Bag Cure Bacon. Pretty much the same as our dry cure bacon recipe, except you put the pork belly in a ziplock bag for the curing process.

Ingredients By Weight:
Pork Belly 100%
Salt: 2.5%
Sugar: 1%
Pink Cure #1: .25% (150ppm)


Method:
Weigh your piece of pork belly.
Weigh the rest of the cure components:
Salt is 2.5% of the weight of the pork belly.
Sugar is 1% of the weight of the pork belly.
Pink Cure #1 is 0.25% of the weight of the pork belly.
Mix together the salt, sugar, and pink cure #1.
The above constitutes the ‘cure’.
If you wish to ‘flavour’ the bacon you can layer on as much as you want of almost whatever you want.

Flavour #1:
We added 2% ground black pepper to one belly.

Flavour #2:
Ground black pepper: 2%
Bay leaves: 4-5 / Kg
Juniper berries: 0.5%
Thyme: 0.5%

Leave the skin on the pork belly, and rub the cure all over.
Don’t forget the sides and ends.

Place in a Ziplock or sealable freezer bag, and pour in any cure that didn’t stick to the belly.
Place in a refrigerator for 5-7 days, turning daily.

After 5-7 days rinse off any ‘cure left on the surface, place on a clean rack and put back in the fridge for 12-24 hours.

We cold smoked the bacon for 2-3 hours, but you could also hot smoke it if that makes you more comfortable.
Cold smoking needs to be done a temperatures below 30ºC (86ºF) - but ideally below 18ºC (65ºF).
We smoke for 2-3 hours depending on the thickness of the belly.
After smoking remove and discard the skin.

After cold smoking this bacon needs to be refrigerated, and it needs to be cooked before eating.
For longer term storage slice, wrap, and freeze.