Help Needed with Modernist Cuisine House-Cured Bacon

I recently made a double batch of MC House-Cured Bacon (Page 6.107) and I've had some strange 'greening' on them.

So the crux of the recipe is as follows:
100% - Pork Belly
2.5% - Salt
1.8% - Sugar
0.6% - Insta Cure No.1
0.175% - Fermento
0.055% - Sodium Erythorbate
Various quantities of spices...

I have made several different batches of bacon using different recipes that were all successful so I felt confident making the following changes to the recipe:
- I skinned and boned the belly. I don't like the skin on home cured bacon so I removed it. Haven't had a problem with doing this in the past.
- I omitted the Fermento as it is not available where I live. I didn't feel this would be a big issue as I've never used it in the past and had great success with my bacon.
- I omitted Sodium Erythorbate. This is available where I live and relatively cheap but I need to buy it in bulk so I didn't bother. Again I've never used it in the past and have had no problems.

The salt, sugar and curing salt percentages are quite similar to other recipes I've used so I really didn't think my changes would make a difference to my results.

I cured the bacon in zip lock bags for a week in the fridge, then I rinsed them and laid them on a drying rack in the fridge for a week. When I pulled them out to smoke them they had alot of green tinge to the fat side with some 'patches' clearly darker than others. Everything smelt completely fine. I cut into the fat and the coloring penetrated 3-4 mm deep.

I've attached an image of one of the bellies. It was pearly white when I rinsed off the cure.

Whats going on? is it safe to eat?

I've read two things it might be:
1) Nitrite Burn (read this on the internet) as a result of 'too high a concentration of Nitrite cure'... which is odd because like I said, this recipe was very similar in its percentages to the other recipes I've tried. and the greening occured AFTER I had rinsed the cure away.
2) In the Modernist Cuisine book I read that "Greening happens when lactic acid bacteria produce hydrogen peroxide as a by-product of their growth. During cooking, hydrogen peroxide reacts with the cured myoglobin pigment, changing it from an appealing rosy color to an unattractive green-gray color." ... but the color showed up before any cooking was done.

Any help would be most appreciated on this matter. Would the addition of Sodium Erythorbate fix this problem?

Thanks.

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Comments

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Looks like nitrite burn.

Not uncommon when curing in a bag .....turning the bag 2 or 3 times a day or curing in a way that the juice from the meat will drain away helps prevent it.

Chris_Young_80640

Agree, that looks like nitrite burn.

nykidies

Just reading it very quickly you over cured your meat. According to the FDA you would only use 156 ppm of Cure 1 or 2 which equates mathematically to .25%. I do a lot of curing and lots and lots of Bacon.

You can read about it on my blog if you want.

I always use .25% cure #1 & #2 for all my curing needs. This equates to 156 ppm of Sodium Nitrite allowed by the Meat Division of the USDA. The .25% corresponds to 1 oz (28.35 g) of Cure for each 25 lbs (11.33 kg) of meat. l lb of Meat would need .04 oz of Cure. Percentage is .25% of the meats weight. I.E 16 oz X .25% = .04 oz . My preference is to always use grams.

http://kosherdosher.blogspot.com/p/charcuterie.html

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Actually, 120ppm is the maximum nitrite allowed in commercial bacon (other than bacon that's truly dry-cured for an extended time.)

Rory_22257

Thanks guys. I appreciate all the input so far.

For more details on my process:
-

I cured two bellies, I measured and mixed the cure for each portion separately. Rubbed and bagged them separately. One bag stayed completely

sealed, no air pockets at all. The other bag had a slight leak so there

was a little free air around the belly. But they BOTH were affect by

the greening.

- Both portions were flipped and massaged lightly twice a day to move the cure around.
- Both of the portions seemed to be from older pigs. Thicker than what is usually available here in NZ.
-

The meat was labeled as "frozen" belly at the butcher. Although it was

not frozen when I bought it, it had obviously been frozen prior. The skin was alot tougher than the usual supermarket belly. The fat was also noticeably firm and non-pliable. I assumed that these characteristics were from an 'older pig'. Was I correct in assuming this?

- The meat didn't release much liquid. The one that stayed completely

sealed released a bit in the first two to three day but had re-absorbed

this by the seventh day.
- The skin was removed PRIOR to curing step.

I just feel like I'm at a total loss as I'm very careful with my

process yet this effected what was essentially two seperate, isolated

batches.

... So today on my lunch break I popped into the local book store to see if I could find a few other bacon recipes. I found 3 in total. Their percentages of insta cure #1 were 0.25%, 0.25% and 0.32%. I didn't note the book names as I felt it was irrelevant. But it was interesting to see that the highest concentration was about HALF the quantity used in Modernist Cuisine.

Is the Modernist Cuisine recipe correct? am I missing something? I just checked the main volume AND the kitchen manual and they both state 0.6%. Is this what caused the burn?

Can you help with the following questions:

1) How do I avoid this? I feel like I have done everything correctly. I guess I should drastically reduce the amount of insta cure.

2) Is nitrite burned food safe to eat?
3) What is the purpose of Sodium Erythorbate? Would the use of this help at all? I don't want to buy it in bulk but will DEFINITELY buy it if it will help me out in future cures.
4) Was it the meat? Do I need 'fresh' non-frozen meat?
5) Do I need to rinse the belly more thoroughly after the cure? Should I soak it for an bit?

Thanks again. I really want to get this right as I did try some and

it tasted amazing. The same cut form the same butcher is currently at an amazing price and I want to buy in bulk but feel a little hesitant due to this latest mishap.

Cheers.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

It's not the meat.

Use less nitrite, I would use between 120ppm and 156ppm.

Don't let the exuded juices pool against the meat....the nitrite can be highly concentrated in the juice especially if not much juice is exuded.

Sodium erythorbate accelerates the nitrite curing action.

There is a cure calculator on my website to to easily calculate the exact amount of Cure #1......

http://www.diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

~Martin

robmcquarrie

Am I calculating it wrong or does the sous vide pastrami recipe here use ~0.43% cure #1? Even higher after you trim the short ribs and discount the bones. I'm making this recipe right now. On day 3 of the cure.

It's been a while but I've made the modernist cuisine bacon a couple of times without issue.

Rory_22257

Thanks Martin, the calculator is great. I'll give the MC recipe another go but change the quantity of the Insta Cure 1 using your calculator.

When you say "don't let the exuded juiced pool against the meat" what exactly does this mean for how you cure bacon? I assumed that curing in a zip lock bag (or in a vacuum bag as suggested by MC) was exactly for this reason! So that the juices exuded would stay in contact with the meat.

Would you drain the bag daily?

Thanks again for the advice. Really appreciate the help.

PS: Is it just me or is ChefSteps forum impossible to log into on an iPhone? I get to the forum, click "log in" where is says "log in to comment" ... it then takes me back to the main page where it tells me "you are already signed in" ... then if I navigate to the forum it says "log in to comment" and I get stuck in this infinite loop! :S

DiggingDogFarm_65362

When applying a dry cure and curing in a bag, because the nitrite may be concentrated in the exuded liquid, keeping the meat elevated so the liquid drains away will prevent nitrite burn.

I've never had nitrite burn when dry curing if the meat isn't allowed to rest in the liquid.

To prevent the meat from resting in the liquid, I put a small poly cutting board in the bag to keep the meat elevated.

If you have an issue with a lot of the cure falling off the meat, divide and apply the cure in a couple sessions 2 or 3 days apart.

HTH

~Martin