Brenden Turley

Thanks all for the replies.

I have moved the suspect belly from the fridge to the waste. I have now gone and bought some curing salt 2% nitrites.

I am still a stubborn fool though; I am trying a Pancatta recipe that I have in a book.

For the next attempt at bacon I will try with the curing salts. I suppose poor nitrites and nitrates have a bad reputation from over use in the past and used properly in small amounts are fairly safe. At least as much as a couple of cold beers every day.

Thanks again for the information.

Thanks for the reply Julia.

It has now been two days since I noticed the bubbles initially. They have not continued to form, and this has made me wonder if perhaps the air was trapped in between the grains of salt and sugar.

I wanted to avoid the use of nitrites, mostly only because I wanted to have a go at making cured meats the "old fashioned way" (even though I am using a cryovac o.0)

Is there a test other than sensory for botulism that I can perform at home?

Regards

Hi,

Recently I have started an adventure into curing pork belly for bacon and pancetta. My first attempt worked wonderfully.

Alas my second round has made me consider I have gone wrong somewhere. Only about 8 hours after I started my curing process I noticed bubbles starting to form in the bag, and also considerably more moisture been released from the meat.

The method for my first and second batch was only 1:1 salt and raw sugar. I made four different spice mixes, but used the same ratio of salt and sugar for each batch. Then vac packed the meat and stored in the fridge, turning each 24 hours.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me why this has occurred, and whether it is something that I should be concerned about.

Thanks in advance.

Regards