How to Use Bacon Curing Calculator
The Bacon Curing Calculator turns pork-belly weight into an exact, safe cure recipe.
- Enter pork weight — Weigh the trimmed pork belly in grams, kilograms or pounds.
- Set cure percentages — Adjust salt %, sugar % and pink curing salt %. The Bacon Curing Calculator defaults to 2.5% salt, 1.5% sugar and 0.25% Prague Powder #1.
- Pick belly thickness — Used to suggest a curing time of about 7 days per inch.
- Read the recipe — The Bacon Curing Calculator outputs grams of salt, sugar and pink curing salt, total cure weight and a suggested cure duration.
Formula & Theory — Bacon Curing Calculator
The Bacon Curing Calculator is based on equilibrium curing — every gram of cure is absorbed by the meat, so percentages map directly to flavor and safety.
salt_g = meat_g × salt_percent / 100
sugar_g = meat_g × sugar_percent / 100
pink_salt_g = meat_g × pink_salt_percent / 100 # default 0.25%
nitrite_ppm = pink_salt_g × 0.0625 / meat_kg × 1000
cure_days = ceil(thickness_inch × 7)| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| meat_g | Weight of trimmed pork belly |
| salt_percent | % of meat weight, taste & preservation |
| sugar_percent | % of meat weight, flavour balance |
| pink_salt_percent | % of meat weight, 0.25% = ~150 ppm NaNO₂ |
Use Cases for Bacon Curing Calculator
- Home charcuterie hobbyists — Get a safe, repeatable cure recipe at any batch size.
- Smoked / dry-cured bacon — Lock the nitrite ratio while tweaking salt and sugar for personal taste.
- Scaling existing recipes — Convert any percentage-based recipe to grams for the pork belly you actually have.
- Cooking classes — Demonstrate equilibrium curing math to students.
- Small farms & butchers — Quickly price out cure ingredients for custom orders.
The Bacon Curing Calculator makes curing pork belly approachable while keeping pink-salt dosing in the USDA-safe range.