To EQ or not EQ...

[PaPaSmokes]

I have been making bacon for a couple of years now and never joined a “forum” or a community before. Wellllll i joined a bacon, ya know, and all i read about is this eq method, to a deafening degree. i have spoken out myself about how i think its way to complicated and time consuming as i image it, and if i were just a beginner i would have said no thanks with all that math…
i simply add 1 tsp of cure #1 to every 5lbs of meat and make the rest of my augmented recipes to taste, my customers love my stuff and all the different flavors we’ve developed. what say you and your method of the making of da bacon???

[processhead]

PaPaSmokes

I only use the EQ method on bacon, ham, and other whole cuts of meat. Here is what I like about the EQ method:

If you think about it, the EQ method is the same as following any other recipe in that you add the salt, sugar and cure #1 in amounts that are directly proportional to the green weight of the meat.

The only exception here is that for cure #1 and salt you need to stay within a certain range to ensure food safety and curing efficacy.

I think what gets some people is the math behind this, but there are some very easy to use calculators that makes it super simple.

You don’t need to be a math major to understand the EQ method, but it is a good idea to understand enough to make sure that the curing method you using falls within the safe and effective use of sodium nitrite curing agents.

For cure #1 it is pretty simple if you just remember 1 ounce per 25lbs of meat .

I use one that looks like this.

[bocephus]

processhead I have seen many that go between 1 to 2% sugar. How do you like it with 2%? I am going to start some buckboard and Canadian bacon tomorrow. Do you rinse yours before going to the smoker?

[processhead]

bocephus said in To EQ or not EQ...:

processhead I have seen many that go between 1 to 2% sugar. How do you like it with 2%? I am going to start some buckboard and Canadian bacon tomorrow. Do you rinse yours before going to the smoker?

I find that I like the flavor at 2% sugar.
I have rinsed and not rinsed. I can’t taste a difference between them.

[salmonmaster]

PaPaSmokes I’m with you, I like as simple as possible. processhead way of doing it probably not complicated either, especially with the app table. I just like going to the store, buying the buckboard bacon cure, rubbing it on the meat, in refer for 10 days, rinse off, soak in water a couple hours, smoke, then eat. So are you or processhead injecting the cure, or soaking it in a liquid brine?

[bocephus]

processhead Thank you, I think I will go with 2% sugar.

[processhead]

salmonmaster said in To EQ or not EQ...:

PaPaSmokes I’m with you, I like as simple as possible. processhead way of doing it probably not complicated either, especially with the app table. I just like going to the store, buying the buckboard bacon cure, rubbing it on the meat, in refer for 10 days, rinse off, soak in water a couple hours, smoke, then eat. So are you or processhead injecting the cure, or soaking it in a liquid brine?

When I cure bacon using this method, I apply the ingredients to the belly dry and then bag in a ziplock after expelling most of the air. Usually I cut the belly in halve to make two equal sized squares. Both halves fit about perfectly in a 2 gallon ziplock.

Recently when I have cured buckboard bacon aka cottage bacon, I have been dissolving the dry ingredients in a volume of water equal to 10% of the green weight of the pork butt. I then stitch pump all the brine using my Walton’s brine pump.
After pumping, the butt goes in a big ziplock and I expel most of the air.

Most recently I did that entire bone in ham using the same stitch pumping procedure as the pork butt.

I think the advantages of injecting a large piece of meat are a shorter cure time and the more even equalization throughout the meat, since the dry ingredients are already in solution and do not have to dissolve and be diffused through the tissues like they would if applied dry. However, I think dry curing is more than adequate for a relatively thin piece of meat like a pork belly when making bacon. So I don’t attempt to stitch pump bacon. Stitch pumping is also a way to add some moisture to the finished product, which I find I like on buckboard bacon.

[salmonmaster]

processhead so are you just rubbing the cure ingredients on the meat, and into refer for 10 days, or does the weight of the meat have to do with the time in refer?

[bocephus]

How long do you cure using dry rub, I read 1 day per 1/4" of product? How long do you cure when you wet brine with product being stitch pumped?

[processhead]

salmonmaster said in To EQ or not EQ...:

processhead so are you just rubbing the cure ingredients on the meat, and into refer for 10 days, or does the weight of the meat have to do with the time in refer?

Take another look at my previous post regarding question about dry rub cure or stitch pumping a wet brine salmonmaster.

With a brine, I use the same ratio of dry ingredients but adjust the amount up by 10% to compensate for the extra weight and dilution of the added water.

When using a dry cure, the thickness of the meat is the major factor on the cure time in the frig. Salt and cure #1 penetrate and diffuse through lean meat at a fairly predictable rate. The dry ingredients will take twice as long to penetrate and equalize through a 2 inch thick piece of meat as it will a 1 inch thick piece.

So the weight is less of a factor than the thickness and shape of the meat. With the the dry cure ingredients applied to both sides of 1 inch thick 10 lb pork belly, you could expect it to fully penetrate more quickly compared to a 5 inch thick pork loin that only weighs 5 lbs and with dry rub cure applied to all sides.

So it is more about the shape and thickness of the meat than the weight that determines the time to cure using dry rub cures, all other things being equal, and with no cure accelerators added.

I usually refrigerate a dry cured pork belly a minimum of 7 days. For thicker pieces, that I stitch pump, I usually go for 7-10 days.

Stitch pumping a piece of meat actually brings the cure ingredients into the center of the piece of meat and to some degree it cures from the inside outwards to the exterior.
When done correctly, stitch pumping should evenly exposes all the meat to the curing ingredients in the liquid brine. In actual practice that probably doesn’t happen, and some equalization of the concentrations takes place while curing in the refrigerator.

If you get a chance to read the section on meat curing Kutas’s book, he does a good job of explaining the penetration of dry cures vs. time and contrasts dry curing vs. stitch pumping or artery pumping a cut of meat like a ham.

[salmonmaster]

processhead thanks. As always, great job of explaining.

[bleathery]

I’m a newbie and after the first attempt at doing bacon’s and having to soak them for hour and a half to get the correct salt level, I went straight to the EQ and haven’t looked back. I convert everything to grams and it’s easy.

[salmonmaster]

bleathery thanks for the opinion.

[processhead]

bleathery said in To EQ or not EQ...:

I’m a newbie and after the first attempt at doing bacon’s and having to soak them for hour and a half to get the correct salt level, I went straight to the EQ and haven’t looked back. I convert everything to grams and it’s easy.

That was my experience as well. It seems all the prepared cures have you over-salt at the beginning and then remove salt through soaking at the end to try and hit the right degree of saltiness.
If you were following a cake recipe, would you add extra sugar at the beginning and then, assuming it was even possible, remove some of the sugar before baking?
No one has been able to explain to me why is the way it is, but I do know that the EQ method allows you to measure all the cure ingredients precisely and still make minor adjustments in salt or sweetener to suit your tastes.

[PaPaSmokes]

salmonmaster I don’t inject cure but I do inject. My cure goes in the brine and I refer for 7-10 days then rince really well then add my ribs etc and off to the smoker.

[salmonmaster]

PaPaSmokes sounds like there’s a lot of different ways to make bacon. Mostly, I just like eating it.

[Ridley Acres]

salmonmaster I did similar to processhead with EQ, and like he said the length of time has more to do with thickness than weight. Some recipes call for 2.5% for salt but I used 2-2.25 and came out really good.

This past winter timed out pretty perfect with weather so I made some without cure …as in only salt and sugar.

For the record, not recommended for beginner. My bacon seed never left my property from birth to oven so I know the quality of the meat, the humaneness of the kill, and the cleanliness of the processing.

The sub zero temps allowed me to cold smoke for a very long time and then I used gas smoker to get it close and finished to safe temp in my house oven. (which made the house smell amazing!)

[salmonmaster]

Ridley Acres I don’t do a lot of bacon, just some buckboard every once in a while. It turns out real good, but I really don’t have anything to compare it to except store bought, and it’s every bit as good as it is.

[Denny O]

Ridley Acres said in To EQ or not EQ...:

The sub zero temps allowed me to cold smoke for a very long time and then I used gas smoker to get it close and finished to safe temp in my house oven. (which made the house smell amazing!)

Humm, your cold smoking sounds vaguely familiar to me.