Thanks for the info. Agreed, you can’t cook the spoil out. In the tons of meat I’ve smoked, cured or grilled—I’ve never had any spoil ‘on the rack’–granted I’ve wrecked some, but never had it spoil. What brought this to mind was ground meat. I do a lot of pork butts and whole muscle meat that spends a fair amount of time the danger zone despite my efforts to get it through there within 4 hours but the smoke and heat on the outside is probably high enough to avoid it growing–IT, where little bacteris is to begin with, spends quite a bit of time there. Ground meat though, well let’s just say I am particularly cautious with. Again, thanks for the reassurance.

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!

This question is relative to imitation bacon but could apply to anything that is cured. I’ve read about the dreaded DANGER ZONE of 40-140, and an associated 4 hour rule. When making imitation bacon where the recommended smoker temp is 170 after two one-hour periods of even lower temps, it would seem that there is little doubt that ground meat is going to spend more time in the danger zone than 4 hours to reach 140. Now, it finishes off at 160 at some point, so despite it being in the danger zone for quite awhile, does the 160 finish temp make it safe again? My imitation bacon contains pork and venison, no poultry. Does the curing process negate the risks of the danger zone timeframe? I’d like to know more. I’m not too concerned because we will fully cook the venison bacon again, well above 160, but would like to increase my knowledge. Thanks!

KenfromMI I can’t speak to the price difference but I switched from foil to peach/pink paper a few years ago. I really like the results I get–it’s a little messier on a pork butt due to the paper basically becoming an fat soaked rag, but the meat just seems better and I’m guessing it is because water vapor gets away but that flavorful fat still is retained. But to the original posters concern—crutching it can help in tough situations–paper or foil, either will do.

Adding a quick question…In looking around I find one recipe calling for 20% pump–uses cure accelerator and cold phosphate and then the whole muscle curing tutorial just uses cure and spice but calls for 10% pump. Why the difference?