Much Better than Ruhlman's

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Scogar
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Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Dec 06, 2019 14:45

Now I started with the Charcuterie book and I'm not one to put down my first mentor. In fact I still like the book even with the errors, I just doublecheck things before I make them. But I never have been happy with the bacon recipe in it. Each time I made the bacon I found it very difficult if not impossible to prevent it from scorching. I pan fried it, I baked it, I broiled it, heck I even started with water in the pan. It is possible that I did something a bit wrong in measuring but I doubt that. It is far more likely that the dextrose that I used which I got from being a beer brewer is slightly different from the dextrose one would find at Sausage Maker for example....I don't know.

I decided to chuck the remainder of my mix and start from scratch. I used Marianski's recipe, specifically as follows:
  • Bacon No. 1
    Meat 2044 grams
    Salt 55 grams 3.0%
    White Sugar 30.5 grams 1.5%
    Cure #1 6.5 grams
It came out fantastic. And I am struggling to burn it :lol: Even that third pic where the bacon is proscuitto thin and extra crisp (for SWMBO) just darkened along the edge
ImageImageImage

The flavor is fantastic and I won't go back to dextrose or at least beer brewing corn sugar...
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Bob K » Fri Dec 06, 2019 15:38

Scogar that looks great! The next time you run into a sugar cured bacon that burns, just microwave it, probably the only way without burning.

FYI- there is a misprint in that Bacon recipe, the cure amount is over the allowable limit for bacon of 120 ppm. Your correct amount would have been 3.9 grams for the 2044 gram meat block. Your bacon is fine just don't overcook (burn) it.

Just use the cure calculator and plug in 120 ppm when you make bacon.
https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausag ... calculator
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Dec 06, 2019 16:03

Yes I remember posing the question about the cure on a Facebook sausage/bacon forum. I tried to play with my premix to bring the nitrite into conformity by adding more salt and sugar. I made two or three more slabs but ultimately just decided to toss it since it always burned and start from scratch with Marianski and an equilibrium rub. As I said, I am very happy with this latest batch and now I can add from there if I decide to...different sugars, more or less salt (though I am happy with this amount), different smoker woods, etc
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Fri Dec 06, 2019 16:40

Looks good. I've shied away from sugar'ed bacon for that very reason.
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Dec 06, 2019 19:35

Butterbean I realize I'm the last to give you advice, but it didn't burn at all. Have to admit, each time I baked it at anywhere from 350 to 400 in the oven - so I haven't panfried it, but cane sugar in the 1.5% range wasn't burning at all. Give it a whirl
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Fri Dec 06, 2019 20:00

Nah, your post is interesting and I'll definitely keep that in mind and appreciate advice anywhere I can but I just got away from using sugars on bacon and instead leaned more toward peppers and such. I just feel I can always sop the cooked bacon in cane syrup if I want it sweetened.
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Mon Dec 09, 2019 22:17

Scogar wrote:
Fri Dec 06, 2019 19:35
Butterbean I realize I'm the last to give you advice, but it didn't burn at all. Have to admit, each time I baked it at anywhere from 350 to 400 in the oven - so I haven't panfried it, but cane sugar in the 1.5% range wasn't burning at all. Give it a whirl
Scogar, you have convinced me to give this a try but I'm wondering about your math on the salt. It seems to be off. Did you use 2.6% salt or 3% like recipe calls? These don't match up in your post unless I'm missing something. Not sure if this is a typo or if you cut the salt back. Appreciate your input on this as I have a couple bellies that need attending to. Thanks.
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Sun Dec 22, 2019 21:26

I just finished some bacon using this sugar ratio. I did one using black pepper and another where I added 0.74% chopped garlic and 0.52% Korean Red Pepper. The KRP is sortof like paprika only it has a bit more flavor and a tad more heat. Both are good but I highly recommend adding the garlic and korean pepper to the mix as it gives it a wonderful unique flavor.

Image

Image
The one's on left are black pepper and those on right are the garlic korean pepper
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:59

Sorry Butterbean I just saw this post... Typically I rely on the unread category to see updates of posts but somehow this wasn't flagged and I'm just catching it now

I rebuilt my thought process....so...what I did was this: I had 2044 grams of belly and I put that into http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/calcul ... ure_bacon/ under the US category. I plugged in 3.0% salt and 1.5% sugar. By the calculator this results in 55.8 grams salt, 30.66 grams sugar and 5.89 grams of cure.

As I mentioned above my actual numbers were rounded to 55 grams of salt, 30.5 grams of sugar, and 6.5 grams of cure. (Now how I got from just below 6 g to 6.5 g of cure is a mystery. I have no recollection of my thoughts or error as to why I am at this higher cure proportion). Hopefully I didn't overdue things with the Cure #1.

So looking deeper it seems that if you add the two salt components up their proportion is 3.018% whereas just the "white" salt comes out to the 2.6%.

My question...is it standard here to refer to the white salt or the white plus cure as the salt percentage? since the calculator obviously doesn't; other than being specific on what is what is there a proper way to refer to things?

And that bacon does look awesome. Where do you get your bellies? I find it hard to get them closer to Atlanta at a reasonable cost
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Jan 03, 2020 13:23

ahhhh, now I know what I was thinking on the cure. The calculator to which I referred to earlier this morning automatically filled in that I had skin on belly. I actually had skin off belly. If you flag this choice, you get the 6.5 gram of Cure #1 that I used.
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Fri Jan 03, 2020 16:22

When I'm calculating salt percentage I view it as the total percentage of salt and cure. I think this is the common way to look at it but not sure. However, doing it this way lets you have a benchmark on the saltiness of your product when making other things.

On this batch I used 2.75% salt and 0.19% Cure 1 which gave a total salt content of 2.94% which I found to be about spot on. Also, mine was rind on bacon.

I source my meat from two butchers and a distributor. I'll use the distributor when I purchasing large amounts because it takes a day for them to pull the order and being a small customer I hate to bother them if I'm just buying a small amount. (I'm just proud they are willing to sell to a peon like myself) :wink:
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by jjnurk » Fri Jan 03, 2020 16:23

1.jpg
I've done quite a bit of bacon with very good results both visually and taste.
My ratios, for the sugary one is:

Salt 2.00%
Cure #1 0.25%
Brown Sugar 3.00%

other wise I use 2% white sugar for the regular one. I have occasionally run out of brown sugar, to which I threw in some molasses with the white sugar, which also worked quite nicely. Everything was eq cured for a couple weeks. I know that others just give it a heavy smoke for a few hours and finish it on the frying pan. But when I smoke it, I take it to temp of 160F, being careful not to exceed too much, so the flavour / fat doesn't drip off. This way when I do fry it, it just gives it a quick crisp and no worries of burning any sugars.
No pics of finished product, doesn't last long enough to take the camera out :D
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Butterbean » Fri Jan 03, 2020 16:33

Looks good. I use molasses sometimes myself. I think it gives things a nice depth of flavor and people are always asking for more of it.
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Re: Much Better than Ruhlman's

Post by Scogar » Fri Jan 03, 2020 16:35

agreed, looks great
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