Thread: I've got a problem with bacon

Yes I often cure my own meat and make sausages

If your bacon doesn't fit in your pan cut it in half and it will, No need whatsoever to cover the inside of your oven it bacon fat and seriously after 20min (10 min each side) cooking all you will have left is the crusty residue of the bacon left over anyway
"Kosher" salt is un-iodised so simply go to your local supermarket and buy "Cooking" salt

Liquid smoke is usually easilly available at most butchers supliers and there is nothing wrong with the pinaple pump powder mix as long as you leave the meat at least 24hrs in a bucket in the cool room after you have pumped it with the leftover pump mix covering the meat

Originally Posted by trout1105

Yes I often cure my own meat and make sausages

If your bacon doesn't fit in your pan cut it in half and it will, No need whatsoever to cover the inside of your oven it bacon fat and seriously after 20min (10 min each side) cooking all you will have left is the crusty residue of the bacon left over anyway
"Kosher" salt is un-iodised so simply go to your local supermarket and buy "Cooking" salt

Liquid smoke is usually easilly available at most butchers supliers and there is nothing wrong with the pinaple pump powder mix as long as you leave the meat at least 24hrs in a bucket in the cool room after you have pumped it with the leftover pump mix covering the meat

Have you tried cooking bacon in the oven though? It doesn't coat the inside!

Have you looked at making salami and the like? I thought kosher salt was higher in nitrites? Not just non iodized? That's interesting you say that

I've tried the pumping compound and just compared to the rub style cure it just didn't come close I thought. It's still good and maybe for silverside would be nice too. Can you use the pumping compound as a rub or only as a solution?

Originally Posted by shwza

Have you tried cooking bacon in the oven though? It doesn't coat the inside!

Have you looked at making salami and the like? I thought kosher salt was higher in nitrites? Not just non iodized? That's interesting you say that

I've tried the pumping compound and just compared to the rub style cure it just didn't come close I thought. It's still good and maybe for silverside would be nice too. Can you use the pumping compound as a rub or only as a solution?

The only time I have seen bacon cooked in an oven is in large scale catering situations like at minesite mess halls and personally I prefer my bacon cooked so that it is still soft.

The salt you are thinking of is pickling salt (Kwik Cure) which I don't think is available anymore, I still have some of it in a tub that I use every now and then to make an instant silverside or Bush bacon.
The pumping compounds do the same job and I am pretty sure that you can get Non flavoured compounds.

The "Traditional" method of curing meat involves raw Salt (lots of it) and herbs/spices of your choice which is rubbed into the meat and it usually involves quite a lot of time to do, Think Coppa and procuto ham.

The pumping compounds contain the nitrates and I would imagine that rubbing them in instead of diluting them in water wouldnt work because they would be far too strong used dry.

I haven't tried my hand at making salami But I have made thousands of sausages over the years using sausage mix and various meats.
I recently made about 60kg of wild pork sausages that came out rather good

I do a bit of hot smoking.
I have had good success with hot smoking a pickled pork cut into ham, as well as putting a heavy spice and mustard rub on a corned silverside and making pastrami (quick and easy this way).
Would love to make sausage and salami, but missing a few key components like a stuffing machine, and a half decent grinder - currently using an anaemic kitchenaid one.

I get kosher salt from a food wholesale place in newcastle, and I have shopped online at a place called Solly's online groceries, who do a lot of kosher stuff. Second trout though- kosher salt is just a bit more flakey than cooking salt, and used for the koshering process (removing blood from meat), so on large scale, it would be a very expensive proposition compared to a plain old non iodised cooking salt. It's all sodium chloride in the end of the day.
Curing salts (sometimes called pink cure) uses more nitrates (IIRC potassium nitrate), so is a whole different product.

Show us the cold smoking rig!
I've got one cobbled together from a aquarium pump and a small firebox... ain't pretty but it works

Originally Posted by Toxic_Avenger

I do a bit of hot smoking.
I have had good success with hot smoking a pickled pork cut into ham, as well as putting a heavy spice and mustard rub on a corned silverside and making pastrami (quick and easy this way).
Would love to make sausage and salami, but missing a few key components like a stuffing machine, and a half decent grinder - currently using an anaemic kitchenaid one.

I get kosher salt from a food wholesale place in newcastle, and I have shopped online at a place called Solly's online groceries, who do a lot of kosher stuff. Second trout though- kosher salt is just a bit more flakey than cooking salt, and used for the koshering process (removing blood from meat), so on large scale, it would be a very expensive proposition compared to a plain old non iodised cooking salt. It's all sodium chloride in the end of the day.
Curing salts (sometimes called pink cure) uses more nitrates (IIRC potassium nitrate), so is a whole different product.

Show us the cold smoking rig!
I've got one cobbled together from a aquarium pump and a small firebox... ain't pretty but it works

Nice one! Trout try it in the oven 😂 it's perfectly cooked soft as well. Just go 5 min at a time. You can cook half a kilo or more haha

The rig I had is gone now and I could only cold smoke with it on a cold night. It was really basic. Trying to keep it under 30 something degrees (can't remember the exact temp) on any day that's over 24 is already giving you a hard time. I've seen some awesome ones made out of old fridges or a metal cabinet.

I still don't understand the difference between nitrites and nitrates. Seems one is more to make the meat go pink. I read something about some people call salt rub "salting" and nitrite nitrate "curing"
I had a bucket of pineapple pumping compound way back. It was really high in nitrites from memory. I used it sparingly as part of a mix once and got decent results. It's been a while and I've moved and I want to start getting into it again.

I'll check out that online place and see what they got. Been doing a heap of jerky too but I find that pretty easy to make

KOSHER SALT on PORK, WHICH IS NOT KOSHER, DOES NOT MAKE IT NEUTRAL . LOL

Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

KOSHER SALT on PORK, WHICH IS NOT KOSHER, DOES NOT MAKE IT NEUTRAL . LOL

You can make turkey bacon or pastrami which is kosher though. You can also make beef not kosher. Just because you put kosher salt on it doesn't make it kosher lol. Otherwise it would be like msg for Jewish people 😂

Oy vey!
You goy schmucks know bupkis
Kosher salt on pork- what mishegas will they think of next.