Dry Rub Bacon cure vs. Blue Ribbon--Convert?
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i have several bellies out and ready to go but am short on Blue Ribbon cure. Is there anyway I could use Dry Rub Bacon Cure and add Sodium Erythorbate (I have both) to accelerate the process so I only have to hold overnight? I don’t really want to brine the remainder for days, but if I have to I will have to.
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i have several bellies out and ready to go but am short on Blue Ribbon cure. Is there anyway I could use Dry Rub Bacon Cure and add Sodium Erythorbate (I have both) to accelerate the process so I only have to hold overnight? I don’t really want to brine the remainder for days, but if I have to I will have to.
folsomwest Jonathon maybe able to get the team at Walton’s to answer this one. Not sure of the ingredient make up and I am guessing that the rub has more salt.
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I don’t think you can speed up the curing process too much with a dry rub cure applied to the outside of the belly.
Stitch pumping a pickle, yes.
The cure has to make contact with the meat and an accelerator does not help with that. Someone correct me if I am wrong. -
I don’t think you can speed up the curing process too much with a dry rub cure applied to the outside of the belly.
Stitch pumping a pickle, yes.
The cure has to make contact with the meat and an accelerator does not help with that. Someone correct me if I am wrong.processhead …I was hoping I could make injectable brine out of dry rub and use it like Blue Ribbon with adding Sodium Erythorbate. I only have about 25 extra pounds to do in this batch.
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processhead …I was hoping I could make injectable brine out of dry rub and use it like Blue Ribbon with adding Sodium Erythorbate. I only have about 25 extra pounds to do in this batch.
folsomwest said in Dry Rub Bacon cure vs. Blue Ribbon--Convert?:
processhead …I was hoping I could make injectable brine out of dry rub and use it like Blue Ribbon with adding Sodium Erythorbate. I only have about 25 extra pounds to do in this batch.
Got it. In theory I would think it’s doable, only wild card would be how much actual salt and cure would be going into the belly.
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You might be better off making your own simple cure from salt, sugar, erythorbate and cure #1. Then you would know your concentrations and might be able to come up with a brine with more predictable results. That all assume you have the ingredients available.
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folsomwest I just reviewed the ingredients and usage on each cure to be sure. I think you should be able to use the dry rub cure as a brine, maybe not designed or perfect for it, but it should work. It actually does already contain sodium erythorbate too, so you wouldn’t have to add extra. The parts per million of ingoing nitrite is higher. 200 ppm vs 120 ppm. That is due to the regulations from the USDA on how much nitrite can go into bacon, and they have different rules for brine/injected bacon and dry rub bacon. Seems strange, but that is what they require. That only applies to a commercial meat processor though. In my opinion, you aren’t going to hurt anything by doing that yourself at home. There is a big long explanation why the ppm are different, but you should be fine doing it once this way. If you made it that way, I’d definitely still eat it!!!
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folsomwest I forgot about the salt content… It is definitely going to be saltier. Dry rub bacon is used 5 lb per 100 lb of meat and blue ribbon is 2 lb per 100 lb. The dry rub should lose a lot of the salt when you rinse after they sit for a few days. Using as a brine or injection and putting that into the meat directly should make it a bit saltier. I don’t know exactly how much or if it would be too over the top and salty or not. In theory, if I can do math right, you’d use 3 lb of dry rub bacon sure to 100 lb of meat to reach your 120 ppm of nitrite. (It’s late and I’m not 100% sure on the math, but sounds right). That would get you closer and not be as salty. Still probably more salt, but at a more reasonable level. Hopefully that all makes sense. Let me know if it doesn’t or I can clarify anything.
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If I was experimenting with cure/salt levels like this, I would pump the belly, wait an hour or two and then cut a slice out of a thick part of one belly and see how it looked. Then fry it and taste it to see how salty it was. If too salty, soak in fresh water till the salt level is lowered to an acceptable amount. The relative salt level on a smoked belly will increase again due to drying and concentrating the residual cure/salt during thermal processing.
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folsomwest I forgot about the salt content… It is definitely going to be saltier. Dry rub bacon is used 5 lb per 100 lb of meat and blue ribbon is 2 lb per 100 lb. The dry rub should lose a lot of the salt when you rinse after they sit for a few days. Using as a brine or injection and putting that into the meat directly should make it a bit saltier. I don’t know exactly how much or if it would be too over the top and salty or not. In theory, if I can do math right, you’d use 3 lb of dry rub bacon sure to 100 lb of meat to reach your 120 ppm of nitrite. (It’s late and I’m not 100% sure on the math, but sounds right). That would get you closer and not be as salty. Still probably more salt, but at a more reasonable level. Hopefully that all makes sense. Let me know if it doesn’t or I can clarify anything.
Austin Thanks so much. Two things you said really helped me out (well everything, but two in particular) 1) it has Sodium Erythorbate and 2) the PPM in Dry Rub----your math is the same as mine to achieve 120 ppm. I broke up what I have left and try some things. One is dry rub inject, two is to do a more simple traditional cure injection (will miss your great flavor profiles but will still use bacon taste booster, and three–the wife reminded me of a recipe for chunked belly that is bbq’d on the grill which is also great and it will be ready to eat before I’m done smoking. —
On the last one my only concern is how many batches I can eat before I have I would have to schedule bypass surgery—it’s so good but man something that good can’t be good for for the ol’ ticker. Note sarcasm–hopefully far from that point but I’m apparently trying.
Finally, everyone saved the day—should have checked my stock before starting. Now off to the Waltons site to order more supplies!
Thanks again!
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