How long to leave the belly curing?

Just read the info relating to the bag of Bacon Cure: 1 day per 500g of meat.

2.5Kg belly = 5 x 500g of belly = 5 days in the fridge with the cure.

I will likely leave it in the cure for 7-8 days—parts are thicker than others, want the cure to penetrate ALL the meat in the belly!

Will make sure to have other stuff to go into the smoker: have a big hunk of chuck steak (in lieu of brisket) will thaw it out and brine it with a ton of spices and make some insanely great pastrami! Plus a couple racks of ribs, some sausage etc and corn on the cob.

BTW—definitely buy skinless pork belly or ask your butcher to skin (and bone) it or skin it yourself—have a razor sharp knife for this and try not to cut into the meat.

A reminder: here Duncan Henry shows you how to make bacon:

Jovial Monk wrote on May 15^th, 2024 at 5:47pm:


You could have found an alternative word, no?

I am surprised Bobby did not go nymphomaniac on your ass.

Bobby has some kind of fascination with a muscular Donald Trump. I was hinting at Bobby's apparent loyalties to America.

Keep your Bobby fantasies out of the Food forum please.