Category Archives: Curing Calculator

Air Dried Pork, Bacon, Curing Calculator

Jason’s Pancetta

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Many local farm suppliers are only too happy to sell you half a pig, usually rare breed; Gloucester Old Spot and the like. They generally weigh around 55-60lbs for the whole side before boning and making it into whatever pieces you require.

For curing, I wanted a side from a much larger pig, a ‘baconer’; a side of this will weigh between 80-100lbs. I got one from Don Hutton at Warwick Bridge Farm, Littlethorpe weighing 93lbs which has given me 75lbs of usable meat (60lbs excluding hocks, trotters, liver, heart and cheek). By the time it’s converted into ham, bacon, sausage, faggots etc I’ll have about 70lbs of edible products. This photo of a piece of loin being dry-cured for back bacon shows the size of it.

Pancetta

I’ve made all the usual things like bacon, ham and sausage and decided that my first venture into air drying meat would be pancetta. This Italian streaky bacon is made by dry curing bacon with a load of spices added to the cure, and then hanging it up to dry for a month or so – apart from the spices, that’s how we made bacon a few years ago!

Firstly, take a nice chunk of belly pork:

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Air Dried Pork, Bacon, Curing Calculator

Ventrèche – Bacon by another name

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The Gascon salted pork called Ventrèche is bacon that at its most traditional seems to be cured with just salt as a curing agent. However, commercially produced varieties seem to contain nitrite curing salts. 

Internet searches indicate that it’s salted or cured, rolled or flat, smoked or unsmoked, salt-pork or bacon, with or without nitrite/nitrate curing salts, used fresh or hung to dry, with or without garlic! There seems a concensus that it’s got a layer of black pepper over the meat though. Well, that’s nice and clear then!

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Bacon, Curing Calculator

Bacon Calculator

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Whilst there are already quite a few cure calculators for bacon on this site, none allow you to choose your own levels of salt, sugar etc. This one enables you to do just that whilst still curing to either EU or US commercial standards.

It has not been possible to present this calculator in the style of the rest of the site but it is fully functioning and accurate. It can be used for any type of dry curing project, not just for bacon.

Links at both the top and bottom of the page will return you to the main site when finished.

PLEASE NOTE: The Eu curing rules have changed. Until the calculator can be amended to reflect this, you should assume a maximum ingoing amount of 120mg/kg (Parts Per Million) Sodium Nitrite if you want to comply with the new rules.

Bacon Curing Calculator

Bacon, Curing Calculator

My Favourite Bacon

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Back Bacon

I recently posted a bacon tutorial that I wrote originally for a sausage-making forum. The recipe used was an amalgamation of a few already posted by myself and others and as such, was a compromise. Whilst it makes very nice bacon, it is a little sweet for me. The recipe I use most regularly differs in that it’s saltier and has less sugar. The method and other instructions are exactly the same as in the bacon and dry curing tutorial.

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