[Dan]

Hi, I would like to start curing bacon, but am having problems locating kosher or pickling salt.
Is this necessary, can you get away with normal salt? If not where do you get pickling/kosher salt without paying too much?

I've always used sea salt, and it's been fine. Not sure about table salt, might be a bit fine?

[Andym]

Ta Dan, I'll give it a go with the sea salt.

[Wizard]

Hello A and Dan One is supposed to use coarse granular salt NOT table salt it is to fine and has been Iosised When I was a boy it used to come in loafs and we had the job of grating it I asked British Salt if they would supply They will In lorry loads only

[Andym]

ta wiz, from what I have read on the Net, Kosher salt would seem to be best, but it's too expensive here in UK.
I will start with a smaller piece of pork and sea salt in case Mr Ballsup comes to town.

[Andym]

Hi, I tried and cured a 3kg bit of pork belly I bought from Costco (I cut it in 2) which was cheap, in case I ruined it.
As it turned out the bacon came out OK, but a wee bit tasteless and although I had it in cure in the fridge for 5 days resalting every day it still ended up tasting a bit like pork rather than bacon. I left it in water for about an hour afterwards to get rid of the salt as it was almost inedible without doing so. I didn't use saltpetre as I'm not bothered about how it looks.
After another go to get the green bacon better I intend to start smoking (the bacon that is!)

Q1 - Where did I go wrong with the pork/tasteless thing? Not curing long enough?
Q2 - Would it make that much difference to get a more expensive piece of pork from a butcher?
Q3 - Does the saltpetre affect the taste?

Any help much appreciated.

- Good fun though - enjoyed it.

[Wizard]

hello oinky i think it said im david one of georges sons i no he used to talk on here alot but im very sorry to have to tell u and all who new him reading this that he passed away in his sleep very early this morning so if u wud be so kind to pass this around your little network of followers i wud be most greatfull and yes mothers doing fine considering thanks again david

[plumseverywhere]

Hello David, I am so sorry to hear the sad news about George. He was well loved here    there is a thread on the coffee chat area that you might like to see  http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php/topic,9015.90/topicseen.html
lots of love and happy memories being bandied about on there

much love David to you and your mum and your family, your Dad truly inspired many of us and I for one will remember some of his jokes that he emailed me for a very long time 

Lisa xx

[JulieS]

I use fine sea salt for mine. 

Let us know how you get on.   

[Hilarysmum]

Andy M it may be that you need to leave in the cure longer.  Did you use just salt or did you make a cure with salt, sugar, pepper?

Buying an expensive piece of pork from the butcher will probably give you better texture if its free ranged, but I doubt it would make a huge difference to the flavour. 

You could try buying a proprietary cure from someone like the sausagemaker.  Once cured smoking does add the icing to the cake.

[Andym]

Thanks, I will leave it in the cure for another 2 days next time. I used fine sea salt (not too fine) with some brown suger - about one eighth/tenth - plus a sprinkle of black pepper and  few ground coriander seeds.

[Hilarysmum]

I dont know why, and now of course I cant find the article, but I know I read somewhere not to use sea salt (or table salt with iodine in it) .   Sorry that is probably not much help.  Do they sell curing salts in chemists over there?

[Eve]

I'll be on the hunt for Kosher salt again next week, I'll see what the quantities and prices are that I can get and let you know. It's supposed to be better at drawing blood out of meat than our salt. Fleur de sel is expensive, too. 

Andy, the bacon really shouldn't be tasteless, that would have been the specific cut. You need a thick meaty, fatty one. We used Waitrose's best belly before having our own pigs and ours is (honestly!) much better.

We thought we had oversalted our bacon when we first made it, but if you google "bacon too salty" it seems normal for bacon to seem too salty - soaking it for an hour, tipping the water away and then soaking it again for another hour in clean water would sort it. Or, if you've already smoked it, blanch it for 45 seconds before frying. (Don't know why that isn't mentioned on those websites and in those newspaper articles that entice us into making our own bacon in the first place?)

Smoked home made bacon is great!!


Eve 

Eve 

[Mo]

<snip>
We thought we had oversalted our bacon when we first made it, but if you google "bacon too salty" it seems normal for bacon to seem too salty -
Eve 

Our first attempt at making bacon is normal 
It's salty.
I'm away to google 

[lazybee]

Hello Ohlala. Please just scroll back up this thread and read the last entry by Wizard.