Pickled Beef

[YetiDave]

Yep! It'll take about a week in the fridge to cure a belly, after that you can hot or cold smoke it. Really the only specialist ingredient you'll need is cure# 1 and you only use 2.5g per kg of meat, so one bag will last forever

[YetiDave]

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/maple-cured-smoked-bacon this is a really simple recipe, the key to working out the weight of ingredients needed is to divide all the ingredient amounts by the weight of the cut of meat. So for this recipe you'd need -

0.022g of salt per gram of meat
0.0025g of cure #1 per gram of meat
0.022g of brown sugar per gram of meat
0.026ml of maple syrup per gram of meat

Note that a lot of American recipes will tell you to hot smoke the belly, but as you're using the cure you can cold smoke if you wish (I give it about 12 hours of smoke) and it'll last for a couple of weeks in the fridge

[SmokinBBQ]

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/maple-cured-smoked-bacon this is a really simple recipe, the key to working out the weight of ingredients needed is to divide all the ingredient amounts by the weight of the cut of meat. So for this recipe you'd need -

0.022g of salt per gram of meat
0.0025g of cure #1 per gram of meat
0.022g of brown sugar per gram of meat
0.026ml of maple syrup per gram of meat

Note that a lot of American recipes will tell you to hot smoke the belly, but as you're using the cure you can cold smoke if you wish (I give it about 12 hours of smoke) and it'll last for a couple of weeks in the fridge

Ideal, thanks a lot for that!

[Gary Morris]

I'm doing some cured, smoked bacon atm, I think the cure no1 ingredient is a standard figure and must not on any account be over the recipe / pack instructions.

It's to do with the sodium nitrite in the cure - this is poisonous if over used / wrongly measured, hence the good advice of an accurate set of scales.

Other than that it's just different flavours - spices - erbs - etc.

[YetiDave]

2.5g/Kg is the right ratio - I spent ages searching and double and triple checking. If you got it a little over it wouldn't hurt too much though, I get the impression that the dangers of nitrates are really blown out of proportion. The cure itself is only 6.25% sodium nitrite anyway, so you're really using microscopic amounts I've not made bacon since winter, I may have to get a batch on the go. I've got a ton of guanciale and pancetta but that stuff's no good for sandwiches!

[keith157]

In some ways I have to agree, I think it's based on the concept of salted/cured foods as a regular food i.e. breakfast, dinner, tea & supper every day. I mean technically chocolate is toxic something called theobromine is really bad for us again I doubt even the most ardent chocoholic could eat enough in one sitting to harm her ooooooooooooooooooppppppps or him. . I think (maybe hope) that a slight overweight is more likely to ruin the taste of the food rather than your health but as with life moderation in all things.
No I have not been coerced into that last statement

[YetiDave]

Yeah it's the salt and fat content that makes it bad for ya, there are more nitrates in a portion of spinach or celery than you'll find in bacon