The title is kind of a punchline in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, but kind of apropos here cause of the meat talk.
Anyway, I had some questions / concerns that weren't really ideal for the BBQ thread, as this is more related to curing. I bought the 5kg pork belly from Costco and decided to make an effort to cure my own bacon after watching this video from Glen & Friends youtube channel and thinking that bacon was ridiculously expensive and I had spare time.
And here is my valiant attempt:
I think it worked out really well and the bacon was delicious on my first attempt at curing some pork belly.
We went through the first 600g pretty quickly but the other I had wrapped in the fridge for over a month, and when I took it to have with some perogies, there were a few spots of white mold on the surface. I cut it off but then I was wondering whether did I do something wrong in the curing process or is this normal? I have seen cured meats with that white mold layer, but I wasn't expecting it on bacon. So, maybe I should have left it out of the fridge to dry cure in the air? Vacuum sealed it? Frozen it? I thought the fridge was safe. Maybe it was and I am worrying over nothing
I have made beef jerky in the food dehydrator and have never encountered any kind of mold, but I also tend to go super dry on the jerky and can leave them it in zip lock bags for months.