Bacon Salty

[lkrfletcher]

A question for the group. The Bacon I made is very salty - Wondering what I could have done different?
Here is what I did:

• Dry rubbed for 7 days under vacuum
• Removed from vac bags and washed thoroughly for 20 minutes
• Soaked in cold fresh water 30 minutes
• Repeated the above steps 2 more times.
• Soaked 3 hours in water
• Dried with paper towels and added pepper and jalepeno flakes - Refrigerated overnight
• Ran the Smoke schedule
• Refrigerated overnight
• Sliced and stored

Maybe not a full 7 days? - I had very little liquid in the Vac bags after the 7 days.
I was sure I rinsed it enough, but it is too salty - Too expensive to keep making it this way if it is going to be this salty.

[johnsbrewhouse]

lkrfletcher Soak in water overnight after rinsing, also reducing the amount of cure might help as well. That is why I usually make my own cure, I can control the amount of saltiness in the final product. I do the soak on my hams all the time to equalize the salt level. I don’t worry to much with the bacon since I control the salt except with my last batch where I used a packaged cure that I had left over. Should have known better.

[lkrfletcher]

johnsbrewhouse - Thanks - I might be outta my league on this.

[kyle]

lkrfletcher I also mix my own rub. I let mine sit 5 days and I dont vacuum seal it. I just put them in big ziplock bags and dont suck all the air out. I end up with a good amount of liquid in mine. I wonder if the vac seal has something to do with it

[johnsbrewhouse]

lkrfletcher It’s all good, you have to just figure out what’s going on. Kyle just responded regarding vacuum sealing. I never vacuum seal my bellies, just put them in 2 gallon ziploc bags. I brine mine as well, I have done dry rubs too. I prefer the brine since it seems to penetrate better for me. I know it expensive to experiment, but your bacon did come out looking good, cut your dry rub down if it was a ready made rub or make your own brine. Rinsing and soaking overnight will help out a lot since it removes and equalizes the salt levels over a longer period through penetration of the meat.

[kyle]

johnsbrewhouse what’s funny is I do a dry rub but after 5 days I have liquid in my bags. I suspect that the salt is pulling out moisture. What makes me think the vac seal has something to do with it is I have be doing alot of reading on sou vide (sorry about the spelling) and it seems that’s a benefit of putting food under vacuum. I have made smoked venison bundles in the past that have turned out salty and I soaked them in water after I smoked them and it did get some salt out

[RafterW]

lkrfletcher kyle I think the culprit may be the vaccuum too. I make my own basic cure as well and add to the meat block at a specific percentage based on the meat block weight. I place mine in ziplocks but under ambient pressure conditions. These sit for 7 days and always turn out perfect. I’d try again soon with a small batch and exclude the vac and see what you end up with.

[johnsbrewhouse]

kyle That’s what the salt does, it pulls out the liquids. That is basically why they used it as a preservative to dry foods in time of old. Dry rubs or equalization methods work well, we just have to control what we put on the meat and how much. I think you might have hit it on the head with the vacuum sealing not allowing the liquids to seep out of the meat, but rather concentrating the salts into the core.

[mrobisr]

lkrfletcher lkrfletcher if you do it this way it can NEVER get too salty as you put the amount of salt to your taste. If 2.25% is too much for you try 2%, there is zero soaking and if you leave in the bag for 90 days it still will have the perfect salt, sugar, and cure content.

Dry rub Bacon
Sugar - 1.5%
Salt - 2.25%
Cure #1 - 2.5g/1,000g meat
Cure 1 week for every 1" of depth of belly
Add any other spices or herbs as you desire, remove skin if your belly has it and rub mixture onto meat surfaces to coat as evenly as possible, do not worry about fat side. Put meat into vacuum bag or zip lock bag and put into refrigerator for time as required turning daily.
Once cured take out of bag and rinse in water put back into refrigerator uncovered for 24 hours to dry then smoke your way.
surface.

[mrobisr]

kyle Vac bag or not the liquid is pulled out of meat because of the salt if you leave it a few days longer the meat will reabsorb almost every drop. You’re pulling it too fast.

[mrobisr]

johnsbrewhouse I have used ziplock bags and vac bags and the results have been the same, do what you like on the bag and smoking, but the rest needs to remain the same to produce a quality consistent product.

[processhead]

lkrfletcher
Tell us about your dry rub recipe and how much salt it contains?
Also, how much rub do you use per lb of pork belly?

Too salty bacon, even after a fresh water soak, tells me the salt amount was significantly too high for the amount of meat you were curing.

This boils down to either using too much rub or using a rub with too much salt in it.

[YooperDog]

lkrfletcher yeah the first thing I would do with my recipe is reduce the salt for next time. It will take some tweaking. In the meantime you can soak the strips, yeah it is a PIA, but it will reduce the saltiness. There should have been liquid in the bag, maybe reduce the cure time. You are getting some pretty good input already. I know on my foray into bacon the first few were great and then I started tinkering, that’s when things went off the rails. Get the basic where you like it, making one or two changes. Break your belly down into 1/2, 1/3 or maybe 1/4’s and see what the changes do. You can do it.

[lkrfletcher]

processhead - Just used waltons dry rub bacon mix. 8 oz, for 10 pounds if I remember correctly. Was barley enough to cover all sides.

[lkrfletcher]

This is a tough one - At $50 or so for the belly and the rub, this is a costly mistake. There is clearly more to this than the video or instructions let on. Some can get it, some can not it appears. PapaSop got his first try, I was hoping for the same. Into the trash it goes - Wife calls it inedible. Darn. I will watch posts more carefully and try and learn more before I make this mistake again.

[kyle]

lkrfletcher before you chuck it, I would try soaking some in water and rinse it before frying it.

[glen]

As YooperDog & kyle said I would do a re-soak, it’s cured bacon, you could even re-smoke if the soak removed too much flavor

[mrobisr]

lkrfletcher You can also use as and ingredient in other dishes beans, cabbage, cornbread, greens, salads, etc… and cut the salt in them to utilize the bacon.

[processhead]

mrobisr said in Bacon Salty:

lkrfletcher You can also use as and ingredient in other dishes beans, cabbage, cornbread, greens, salads, etc… and cut the salt in them to utilize the bacon.

This!^^^^
Use it as an ingredient for bean soup, baked beans or other dishes. No need to discard.

[gus4416]

On you tube there is a guy that makes bacon and I use his recipe it is called my back yard he makes maple bacon so do I the first time I tried it was salty so I just kept soaking it for a hour at a time cut a piece of and cook it if was to salty I soaked it again till I got it where I liked it I would not vacuum seal it that I think is holding the salt right in it I use 2 gallon zip lock bags I have to watch my salt so I still have to soak it 3 or 4 times but what the heck I am not doing anything anyway.the recipe has molasses maple syrup sugar salt and pink salt and pepper I don’t use the pepper and for half the sugar I use maple sugar if you can’t find the guy on you tube let me no I will post the recipe I am not good with the computer or I would post the Chanel.what ever you do don’t give up never give up.