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Sounds good. Enjoy!!!
Pics are optional, by highly recommended, and appreciated during these events.
I will be faarrrkkkking legless before I am carriedcto the car ftombhere. - Michael Martin - Christmas 2015
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I was going to document it, but I forgot when I saw the industrial caution signs on the Sodium Nitrite pack and started reaching for my box of rubber gloves!
And the process at the moment wouldn't make good pictures: a lump of meat rubbed with stuff in a sealed bag, slowly leaking...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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The process is really simple, it's just the mix proportions.
You can buy "Prague Powder #1" ready made, but it includes a pink colourant I wanted to avoid, so I looked up what it's made of:
6.25% Sodium Nitrite (NOT Sodium Nitrate - NaNO3 is different and it degrades to Sodium Nitrite NaNO2 too slowly for us).
93.75% Salt (NaCl)
Sodium Nitrite you can buy on FleaBay (I did) but be damn careful with the raw material - it's environmentaly damaging, toxic to humans, and a strong oxidising agent (i.e. it'll burn happily without air).
That's a painful percentage - unless you are a drug dealer your scales won't work to 1/4 gram - so I multiplied by 16 to get 100g of Nitrite with 1500g of salt and made a Curing Salt. (Thats a handy number, since most the FleaBay suppliers I found sell in 100g or 200g quantities.) You don't need much of this, so the bulk of mine is vacuum sealed and in the cupboard for next time.
The cure mix itself is one I found on the internet:
By weight of meat, 2% soft brown sugar, 8% curing salt.
So in my case, a Pork Loin roasting joint from the supermarket de-stringed and opened up gave:
Meat: 2110g
Sugar: 42g
Curing salt: 169g
Mix the ingredients well, and take out 1/4 of the mix - set the rest aside.
Rub the meat all over with the mix (top, bottom, sides and ends) then either put in a dish and cover with cling film or (in my case) seal it in a bag with the vacuum sealer, but don't evacuate it.
this goes in the bottom of the fridge: Dropbox - BaconCuring.jpg[^]
Told you it was a dull picture!
Leave it there for a day, then pour away the liquid, and take 1/4 of the remaining curing rub. Rub this into the meat and return it to the dish, but upside down this time.
Repeat this for the next three days to use up the rub, and then just pour out and turn so it cures for a total of six days. (If you use Loin, you get Back, and it needs six days. Pork Belly gives Streaky, and takes five as it's thinner.)
At the end of the six days, remove the bacon from the dish, rinse it under the tap, dry carefully with kitchen towel, then wrap it loosely with greaseproof paper and put it back in the fridge. Ideally, wait a couple of days before you start eating it, but do let it rest at least overnight.
Done...is the plan!
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We need documentation! I have a dear friend who has an annoying neighbor that owns pigs. Said pigs often get loose, and seek to destroy my friend's garden. We desperately need an efficient way to eliminate the evidence after she eventually shoots one of the darned beasts, and since we're both bacon lovers, this could be the solution!
Will Rogers never met me.
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Quote: Maybe I will be able to serve home cured bacon on Herself's birthday (Jan 1st)!
I hope there's going to be a little more for her, otherwise........
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Is early today, as it's Christmas Eve!
Was Santa's red-nosed reindeer really named Brewdolph?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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You don't brew the spirit of Christmas, you distill it!
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I'll drink to that.
/ravi
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Cheers, Ravi! And serve it with a ham sandwich, if you please... Me, I'm having barbequed pork shoulder for Christmas, with chocolate satin pie.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Merry Xmas and a very happy New Year to you, Roger!
/ravi
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Otherwise known as Tescos. Note to self, stop making resolution s not to shop on Xmas eve and don't!
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Did the perishable stuff yesterday - the big ASDA was heaving, standing room only in the damn car park!
Dropped herself off at work 08:30 this morning and went directly to little ASDA for bits she forgot. Pretty clear of people except those who need two trolleys (one full of bread) because the shops are shut for one whole day ...
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OriginalGriff wrote: Pretty clear of people except those who need two trolleys (one full of bread) because the shops are shut for one whole day ...
yup - see it here - its like disaster/siege mentality, except adding 'mentality' there gives the perps waaaay too much credit
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The wife and daughter are out now, shopping. May they be strong. May they be quick.
I will be faarrrkkkking legless before I am carriedcto the car ftombhere. - Michael Martin - Christmas 2015
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Slacker007 wrote: May they be strong. May they be quick. May they survive.
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You've got to love us Brits. Same date every year yet it still comes a surprise!
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And that's why I got them to deliver on Tuesday.
This space for rent
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My problem with that was there were always "substitutions" - which generally had little or nothing to do with what I ordered...
One substitution was 100g strong cheddar == one whole wheel of brie
OK it was cheese, but...
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You can choose the no substitutions option or define exactly what they should substitute, you know. And you can always just hand back any substitution you don't like to the driver and get a refund. It's got to be a lot easier to pop round to your local shops to get a lump of cheese than risking life and limb in the big Tesco on Christmas Eve!
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Yeah, I know - buy that doesn't help when it's the Tuesday before Christmas and you don't get what you wanted (or she wanted)...: laugh:
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I'm not sure if it's a curse of every other place or the boon of the bathroom. I get more creative ideas /concepts when I'm taking a bath and forget them completely without a trace when I come out of the bathroom.
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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Wow, someone gave it a serious thought! Cool.
Real men generate heat and write through the stream[^] on the glass though.
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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