Gonna TRY Butt Bacon

Sounds like you've found an answer to flavoring and curing at the same time. Maybe you could add a bit of fruit flavor for the last day or so, or after rinsing and just before smoking.

All this talk along with nice 79-cent shoulders got me interested in giving bacon a try.

I'm about to cut a 3lb or so chunk and cure it along the lines of the jackitup recipe, about half brown sugar and half tenderquick, adding a bit of maple syrup. He didn't specify how much mix to use for a given quantity of meat. My old tenderquick booklet says for bacon, use 1oz/lb and cure 1.5 days/lb. Previous experience says the booklet recipes are mighty salty, so I'll use 1.5oz for my 3lb chunk and cure it for a week or so. And then I'll know...

To be sure and safe from those nasty little pork bugs, better to use the recommended amount of cure and just not keep on as long. Soak in cold water for a couple or 3 hours and then rinse and rub under running water, then smoke.

tjr,
What we do is sprinkle liberally with the rub mix, rub it in and whatever sticks is how much it gets and that works out pretty good. The last time we made it we made about 110# and split between 2 of us and it was great. I think I have 1 chunk left. We put them in ziplock bags and I rotated top to bottom and flipped them and stacked them back up in a Rubbermade tub evry 3-4 days and cured for 12-15 days total. Gave them a good rinse then cold smoked for 10 hrs. Hot smoking would work fine to, just not so hot as to render them out. I think most take them to about 145 if hot smoking. The bulk rub recipe looks like alot of TQ but it's enough to do at least a couple hundred pounds. We did that last batch and have a but load of rub left. Just store the left over in an airtight container and you're good to go the next time. We use an empty Lawrys shaker to shake on the rub. Or a big empty Skippy jar works good with some large holes drilled in the top. Hope this helps some
Jon

Jon - thanks for the full story.

For a little sample, I mixed 1.5oz TQ, 1.25oz dark brown sugar, 1/8 tsp sodium erythorbate, rubbed in as much as would stick, wrapped in a ziplock and tossed in the spoonful that was left. After not quite a day, the pork is now almost beef color on the outside. I may skip the maple syrup as it's very juicy.

When you rinse, do you just do it under running water or do you soak for a time?