Many thanks to all who shared their experience . I used 2 gallons water,2 cups of salt ,2 cups brown sugar .Brined from Tue afternoon untill Monday at noon . (about 6 1/2 days ) the bacon was skinned . I paid $100 for 1/2 pig from the Hutterites it was gutted and scraped ,they said to my partner it was 200 # (Probably before killing ) .The bacon is great !!!! .I used a sazall for some cuts .The blade of choice I think is called a pruning blade (very jagged and coarse ) There was no stainless steel food blades to be had without ordering so we removed all paint from pruning blade and it worked good .I put the ham into sausage and we got 35# of sausage .

Sounds like done well. Any pictures of your finished bacon?

Mac

Sorry it is wrapped .

Sawzall works great, I only went back to a Jarvis Well Saw because I split beef, I’m glad the bacon came out great, if you have it down you can get a 50 pound box of bellies through a locker and possibly a grocery store.

Glad it turned out. I put a whole pigs worth of belly in cure last night. Did one half in an equilibrium cure and one half in a dry cure. I’ve only ever used the dry cure previously.

I hope the dry cure works for you. It never did work for me. It was always way too salty. You can always take it out in a day or two and cut a piece off and try it. you could cut a piece out of the middle of the slab and try it that way.