Wet Salt Brine Equilibrium Curing

Some notes on equilibrium wet curing.

A ratio of 0.25% pink curing salt to the total weight of the meat & the water (1 kilogram = 1 Liter, easier with the metric system to do this).I am going to use the metric system since it’s easier:

1 gram (1,000gram=1kg) = 1 milliliter (1,000ml=1 Liter)

ie, 5 kilograms (5,000g) of pork belly for bacon in a wet brine

Pork Belly 5kg + Water 4L /4kg = 9kg or 9,000g

If I wanted to use a 2.5% total salt level for flavor (a bit salty for most people)

2.25% sea salt x 9,000 = 202.5g of salt for the brine

0.25% Pink Curing Salt No. 1 = 22.5 grams of pink curing salt

So for % of spices or sugar, you add this on top of the above

say plus 1% sugar, 0.01 x 9,000 = 90 grams of sugar

You would dissolve it all and have brine, which can be varied to ‘choose’ your level of saltiness or sweetness! In your bacon!

The other benefit is that it doesn’t matter if you leave the pork belly in for 1 week or 2. It won’t overdo the saltiness!

For those of you concerned about reaching the right salt and pink salt levels, you could use a technique called equilibrium brining, which I first read about in Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine. To do this, combine the weight of the meat and the weight of the water, then add 2% of that weight in salt, and 0.25% pink salt, in addition to aromatics. This can cure from seven days up to twenty-one days (and maybe longer). This way you will never have bacon that’s too salty