Dry cure bacon help

[saucisson]

This is from Oddley, after I got my sums wrong on another thread

Meat 1 kg
Prague #1 3.2 Grams (200 ppm)
Salt Weight 20 grams (2%)
Sugar Weight 10 grams (1%)
Sodium Ascorbate 0.55 grams (550 ppm)


Dave

[shanew]

Just give Franco �50 so hopefully i'll have my stuff soon. I'll tell our lass i intend "makin bacon" see how she reacts

[Oddley]

I've been shown that label before!
Walls bacon is mostly (entirely?) vacuum packed and aimed at a maximum shelf life. I wonder if their use of nitrate is to give long term protection in anaerobic conditions? And similarly Ascorbate (and its cousins) have well established uses as anti-oxidant preservatives.

Nitrite is itself a powerful antioxidant and with a continuous supply of nitrite from the nitrate, don't you think then, that the ascorbate is unnecessary, apart from a nitrite reducer.

There are a number of commercial bacon cure available with nitrite and nitrate supracure for one. Franco's bacon cures contains ascorbate.

I also have it from Parson Snows that the acid form (of both optical isomers) is specifically banned from use in bacon curing in the USA, just like saltpetre!

The use of saltpetre is not banned in the UK, nor is, as far as I know, ascorbic acid. The important thing is not just to take others words for things, but to question them ourselves. Have you got a direct link to the info Parson snows posted so we can see ourselves? Do you know why the USA banned the use of ascorbic acid as a reducer of nitrite, if indeed it did? After all PS has no formal qualifications in this field that I know of, so why should we take his word.

I would be most interested if you can answer any of the questions.

No 1 is 6.25% Nitrite. The rest salt.

shanew

Franco's cure #1 contains 5.8824% nitrite not 6.25% nitrite

Dry cure for bacon

1 kg meat not fat
2.55 g cure #1 (150 ppm)
0.3 g saltpetre (300 ppm)
0.55 g sodium ascorbate
18 g sea salt
10 gm sugar

British rules from the FSA allow 150 ppm Nitrite 300 ppm saltpetre.

[shanew]

Im confused now, do i need saltpetre for dry curing bacon? or is this now a debate?

[Oddley]

Saltpetre gives a deeper flavour. my recipe is perfectly ok to use, or use my recipe posted by saucisson. Your choice.

[shanew]

i'll stick some in then, sausage-maker sells on ebay, he sells it at 99p for 50g on ebay

[saucisson]

Im confused now, do i need saltpetre for dry curing bacon? or is this now a debate?

Mod hat on:

It's an interesting topic, can we start a new thread to debate this issue separately?.

hat off:

Shane, if you want to make safe bacon you do need a source of nitrite so you need either cure 1 or saltpetre to provide this and if you wish to follow a recipe that has both then that is fine too. Ascorbate in small quantities may reduce your risk of nitrosamine induced cancer so that is fine too.

Hope this makes sense and hasn't upset anyone

Dave

[jenny_haddow]

Whatever method he chooses, I hope shanew enjoys his home produced bacon as much as me and my family do. You cant beat it.

[shanew]

i hope i will too, theres nothing better than making things with your own hands.

[Oddley]

Mod hat on:

It's an interesting topic, can we start a new thread to debate this issue separately?

Moving to a new thread sort of breaks up the flow of the debate, Dave. All the best debates have been on threads that started as something else, and grew organically. I do have new info on ascorbic acid, but it would be churlish to post it without a reply first from dougal. After all this was a debate not an argument.

[saucisson]

Ok by me so long as shane has the information he needs to get started which I think he has now, so debate away

Dave

[shanew]

Im happy for anyone to post, im not like some who get uptight when others post in a thread i started.
p.s had a call today, my orders going to be around a week for delivery so i'll be asking more questions when i get my stuff.

[BBQer]

The more debate, the more knowledge exchanged, the more I learn. So keep the debate going.

That's what I say, but then what do I know. Or some that know me might say, what a wino.

[saucisson]

Let the flow of information commence

Dave

[Oddley]

I'm sorry, but it takes two to debate a subject, if dougal hasn't posted by tomorrow, I will post the info I have on ascorbic acid here.