Bacon Curing Calculator: Salt, Sugar and Cure #1 by Weight

Prague Powder #1 (also sold as Insta Cure #1 or DQ Curing Salt) is 6.25% sodium nitrite in salt, for short cures like bacon, ham, and sausage that will be cooked or smoked within a few weeks. Prague Powder #2 adds sodium nitrate, which converts to nitrite slowly over months, and is for long dry-cured products like salami. Bacon cures in one to three weeks and needs nitrite from day one, so it is always Cure #1. This calculator does not offer #2 for that reason.

For a dry cure, 7 days per inch of thickness with a 7-day floor and a 21-day ceiling; a 2-inch belly is 14 days. 7 days per inch is also Morton's own direction for Tender Quick. Eat Cured Meat's bacon calculator uses a faster rule, 1 day per quarter inch of thickness plus 2 days, which is a day shorter for a 1-inch belly and well shorter for thick ones; this page keeps the longer figure for margin. A wet cure at 40% water is faster, 3 to 7 days, because the brine surrounds the meat. Under-curing shows as gray patches in the center; past 21 days the bacon only gets saltier.

Too much salt for the weight, a cure left far past its time, or skipping the rinse. Because this calculator sets salt as a percentage of the meat (an equilibrium cure), the belly can only take up the salt you added, so at 2.5% it cannot end up saltier than that. If a batch is already too salty, soak the belly in cold water for 30 to 60 minutes before slicing, or blanch slices briefly. For the next batch, drop the salt by 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points.

Yes. Rinse the belly under cold running water to take off the surface salt and any cure mix that did not dissolve, even with an equilibrium cure. Then pat it dry and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. That drying step forms the tacky surface (the pellicle) that smoke sticks to.

Yes. Roast the cured, rinsed, and dried belly in a 200°F (93°C) oven until the center reads 150°F (65°C), usually 2 to 3 hours. It is unsmoked bacon and cooks up the same way. For a smoky note without a smoker, add half a teaspoon of smoked paprika to the cure, or brush the belly lightly with liquid smoke before roasting.

You can salt-cure a pork belly without nitrite, but it will be gray rather than pink, taste like salt pork rather than bacon, and it will not have nitrite's protection against Clostridium botulinum, which matters most if you plan to cold smoke. Commercial bacon labeled uncured or no nitrates added still gets its nitrite from celery powder. Celery juice powder at 0.2 to 0.4% of meat weight (the rate Meats and Sausages gives) is the home version, but its nitrite content varies by product, so the ppm cannot be checked the way it can with Cure #1.

Wrapped tightly or vacuum sealed, use it within a week in the refrigerator, the figure USDA's cold storage chart gives for bacon, or freeze it: USDA gives 1 month for best quality, and University of Missouri Extension allows 2 to 3 months for sliced home-cured bacon (unsliced keeps its flavor longer). Slice before freezing and separate the slices with parchment so you can take out a few at a time. It carries no preservatives beyond the cure, so check for off smells or a slimy surface before cooking.

Pork belly, skin removed, with even thickness and a good share of meat to fat. Pork loin makes Canadian (back) bacon, pork jowl makes jowl bacon, and pork shoulder makes cottage bacon; the calculator's percentages work the same for all of them, only the thickness and therefore the days change.

Yes, when the cure is weighed, the belly stays at 36 to 40°F (2 to 4°C) for the whole cure, and the bacon is cooked before eating. Cure #1 at 0.25% of meat weight delivers 156 ppm sodium nitrite, under the 200 ppm limit for dry-cured bacon in 9 CFR 424.22(b), and that nitrite is what stops Clostridium botulinum. Use a gram scale, never swap in pink Himalayan salt for pink curing salt, and keep the curing salt labeled and away from the table salt.

The salt pulls liquid out of the belly and the cure dissolves into it. Flipping the bag each day, with a quick massage, keeps every surface wet with that liquid so the cure moves in evenly. Skip it and the side sitting in the liquid cures faster than the side above it. It matters most in the first few days when the most liquid comes out.

2.5 g of Cure #1 per kilogram of meat for a dry cure, which is 0.25% of the weight and gives 156 ppm sodium nitrite. Per pound it is 1.13 g, and a level teaspoon (about 6 g) covers roughly 2.4 kg or 5.3 lb. Weigh it on a scale that reads to 0.1 g rather than using the spoon.

The federal limits for bacon in 9 CFR 424.22(b) are 200 ppm ingoing sodium nitrite for dry-cured bacon and 120 ppm for pumped or immersion-cured bacon. The home standard of 0.25% Cure #1 on meat weight comes to 156 ppm, inside the dry-cure limit. This calculator's wet-cure mode doses the meat plus water to 120 ppm to match the immersion limit, which is why it uses slightly less Cure #1 per gram of total weight than the dry mode.