Amateur Dry Cured vs Wet Brined Buckboard Bacon Competition

[Wik]

Hey All,

After gathering some info from Pork Belly, NDKoze, and others posts I thought I'd try both methods on some buckboard bacon using their recipes.  Thanks guys for sharing as I knew nothing about the process or sample recipes to start from!!!  Smoked the Dry Cured a few days ago and sliced it up tonight.  One thing I noticed is the nice pink/red color on the exterior before and after the smoke and much firmer.  The Wet Brined one seemed lighter on the outside prior to the smoking (and is current in the smoker for the night) but still nice color and consistent in the middle after 12 days of brining.  For now here are some pictures of the Dry Cured.  I'll post pictures of the Wet Brined later once it is fully done.

I'm sure I didn't do everything just perfect and I didn't add too much extra seasoning, just some black pepper on one chunk.  Tried to keep it simple on my first adventure in the bacon world.  I have to wait till both are fully completed before giving my final opinion (not that it is worth all that much) and it really comes down to personal preference.  I'm assuming since the first batch was Dry Cured and smoked it up to 150 there was no harm in me eating a few smaller pieces during slicing without frying it first, right?

PS - The Berkel 927A slicer that I found on craigslist worked like a champ!!!  Couldn't be more happy with it.  Of course it took 3 days of late nights to clean it all up and get it ready for its maiden voyage as it had some caked on grease underneath and I still have a few parts on order that were missing, but nothing too major.

Cheers,
Wik

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[NDKoze]

Looks really good. I am interested to hear about the comparison between the two methods.

[DivotMaker]

Nice job, Chad!  Bet it tastes as good as it looks!

[Pork Belly]

That looks good and am looking forward to the taste test and how they brown up. 

[BedouinBob]

Looks great! I Haven't tried buckboard bacon yet. I'm just going to have to try it. Interested in your comparison.

[Pork Belly]

How much was the Berkel?

[NDKoze]

More test results please!!!

[Wik]

Hey Guys,
Wasn't as good getting pictures of the Wet Brined, but what I do have is below.  Personally I don't think you could go wrong with either method, but here are my observations.

Dry Cured:
Pro-Quick and easy drudge with Salt mixture and wait
Con-Remember to perform flip / meat rub down
Pro-Shorter cure time
Pro-Nice color that will start you drooling right after the Cure process
Con-This test run was a bit salty to the taste (maybe less salt or a soak needed somewhere along the way?)

Wet Brined
Con-Break out the large container for brining, dissolve, rearrange fridge to make room for large container
Pro-Forget about it for ~12 days
Con-Longer cure time (starting to get hungry...)
Con-Outside color is not as appealing after cure process
Pro-Saltiness was in check

I'm sure I have a lot to learn and not going to hang my hat on either process quite yet.  Just gives me a reason to start another batch in the near future.  Personally I think the color of the Dry Cure was better and something about the solidness prior to smoking appealed to me.  However the Wet Brined was so easy and the taste was awesome.  So I guess if I can figure out the saltiness I'd like to try the Dry Cure method again.  I'll cut and paste my general steps to see if anyone has comments on my potential mistakes later tonight, but they were my interpretations of some of the other previous forum posts regarding Bacon or Buckboard Bacon.

Pork Belly - I was able to pick up the Berkel for $300, which I felt ok with since you can at least find parts for it online.  I was looking for something to outlast me and so far pretty happy with it.

[Pork Belly]

Great deal on the Slicer! As to the Dry cure salt level, it always seems a bit over salted the first few days then it mellows. I always leave the smoked bacon in the fridge whole and uncovered for two days prior to slicing and packing. We have never had a batch that seemed to salty after the short aging process. I agree with you about it being firm. The dense texture is from removing moisture not adding any. 

[NDKoze]

How did the taste compare between the two methods?

[SuperDave]

How does one eat buckboard bacon?  It looks like a cured butt?

[NDKoze]

It is just a pure substitute for belly bacon. It tastes very similar but is meatier.

[Wik]

I may try soaking for 45 minutes after rinsing on the Dry Cure method next time based on TheSneakyZebra's bacon post.  I'm not sure his reasoning, but maybe this would mellow out the salt a bit.  But then again I'd think that would defeat the purpose of letting the Dry Cure pull out the moisture.  I did leave it in the fridge for at least 24hrs prior to slicing, but I'll try cooking up another batch later this week to see if it mellowed out.

"3. After 7-10 days you are looking for a firm belly, doesn't have to be hard, just not mushy. Rinse off cure well (I like to soak mine for about 45 minutes after rinsing), and pat dry and set on a rack and let it dry in the fridge for about 24 hours to form a good pellicle."

Need to research how to grow / shrink these recipes as well.  As I suspect the ingredients should be based on lbs of meat (especially the #1 pick salt).

[Pork Belly]

I wouldn't soak it. When dredging the meat to start the cure you can cover the meat without getting a lot of excess cure stuck to it. Any excess cure is salt you don't need.

[Wik]

Good to know.  I probably over did it trying to get as much salt mixture on the meat as possible this round.  I also put the meat in a vacuum sealed bag instead of just ziplock, but I doubt that had anything to do with it.