How much Cure #1 for bacon
For a dry-cured belly the usual dose is 156 ppm of nitrite — 0.25% of the meat’s weight in Cure #1. The rule for bacon allows up to 200 ppm with a dry cure (9 CFR 424.22(b)(3)) and up to 120 ppm in a brine (424.22(b)(2)). The calculator starts at 156 ppm and does not give a dose above the limit.
| Belly weight | Cure #1 at 156 ppm | Cure #1 at 200 ppm (limit) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 1.2 g | 1.6 g |
| 1 kg | 2.4 g | 3.2 g |
| 2 kg | 4.9 g | 6.4 g |
| 1 lb | 1.1 g | 1.4 g |
| 3 lb | 3.3 g | 4.3 g |
| 5 lb | 5.6 g | 7.2 g |
Rounded down to 0.1 g (to 1 g once the dose is 10 g or more), never up — the same rule the SaltCure app uses.
Dry cure or brine
In a dry cure all of the weighed mix goes onto the meat and stays there. In a brine the nitrite is dosed on the water: with plain soaking (no injection) the meat evens out toward the strength of the brine and cannot go above it, so for bacon the brine itself is held at 120 ppm.
Cure #2 is not for bacon
Cure #2 adds sodium nitrate. USDA rules do not allow added nitrate in bacon, so the calculator does not offer Cure #2 for it.
European curing salt
Pökelsalz and peklosól usually hold 0.4–0.6% nitrite — roughly ten times less than Cure #1 — so the dose in grams is roughly ten times bigger: 26 g of a 0.6% salt for 1 kg at 156 ppm. Pick the salt you actually have before you read the numbers.
