What is your preferred curing method?

[AKokkinos]

Hi to all. After reading many of the posts here it seems that the resident experts tend to favor a curing method over other ones. So, for example, for bacon almost always a dry cure is recommended, but for larger pieces of meat, brining or injection & brining is recommended. So, would you mind sharing your preferred method of curing for various types of cuts (bacon, ham, large (4kg+) and / or small pieces (2-3 kg). I am in the process of learning (so far, very good results for bacon and sausages), so now I have turned my attention to ham, and any input would be greatly appreciated.

Andreas

[NCPaul]

I'm not an expert but I like dry curing for pork bellies or loins and a combination of injection and dry curing for brisket (though I may be switching loins over to this as well). If I was trying to do a ham, I would use this combination. The only thing I brine cure is turkey. There are several ways to have a successful cure; the choice of technique can be connected to tools or containers, comfort with the technique, tradition, time, or available curing salts.

[wheels]

NCPaul's scaring me! He's not mentioned brine curing, even though he understands it better than all of us!

Preferred is one thing: easiest another. And best quality? Well that may be neither of those.

Personally, I like dry cured bacon; It's simple to make, and good.

I tend towards injection cured ham: but only for simplicity. I write about it often because people are impatient, and want things done so quickly.

...and therein lies a quandary: play to the crowd, or produce a great product?

For ham, as far as I am concerned, immersion or dry cured products are far better quality. However, calculating the cures for immersion cures is a minefield. What I'm trying to do at present is to produce a set of immersion cures that comply with all the standards, however you calculate them.

Until someone comes up with a better idea, I commend Oddleys combination Ham cure - and captain wassname's adaption of it.

Phil

[captain wassname]

I am a "show me the arithmetic" person and so stick to what can be proved.
I use dry cure for bacon,A combination cure for pork loins which I turn into bacon steaks or chops.I will use a 2-1 brine cure for hams up to 2.5kg. which is as large as I need to go.
Were I to cure a larger ham I would use a combination cure.
That is the extent of my curing as I am not a fan of air dried bacon or ham.

Jim