Homestead · Curing & Smoking · demo dispatch
Salt-cure a pork belly
Safety · Food safety: follow a tested process. Do not invent times, acid, or salt.
Safety · Food safety: measure the salt and the temperature. Cook or age the way the method requires.
Marco Bellini · 90 minutes of work, then days of cure · intermediate · moderate · 1 proofs · 1 saves · 0 reactions
An equilibrium cure for a pork belly you will later rinse, dry, and cook through. The salt is calculated, not scooped until it looks right.
bacon · cure · pork · salt
Tools and materials
- A fresh pork belly
- Kosher or curing salt, weighed
- A scale
- A bag or non-reactive tray
Steps
1. Weigh the meat
Pat the belly dry and weigh it in grams. Write the number down.
2. Mix the cure
Use 2.5 percent of the meat weight in salt. Add sugar only if you want it, at no more than 1 percent. Rub every surface.
3. Cure and rinse
Bag it in the fridge, flipping daily, about 1 day per half inch of thickness. Rinse, dry the surface, and cook the belly through before anyone eats it.
Safety
Cure in the fridge, not on a counter. This post does not make shelf-stable meat and it is not a nitrite schedule. If you use pink curing salt, follow the producer dose exactly. When in doubt, throw it out. Cook until the center is done.
Common mistakes
- Salting by eye
- Leaving it warm because the fridge was full
A short cold smoke after the cure is a different skill. Cook it anyway.
Proofs
Weighed the belly and the salt. Fridge the whole time. Rinsed and cooked it through before it hit a plate.