As a kid in New Hampshire, I remember the bacon quite well. It was maple
sugar cured since we had a vast supply of maple farms in the area. I'd say
you can't go wrong either way, but the maple sugar made some of the best
bacon I have ever tasted.

Paul


"Christine Dabney" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all,
>
> I am homecuring some bacon.
> I just got pink salt from www.sausagemaker.com, to make a dry cure and
> I made the basic dry cure from Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman.
>
> To that cure, to make my own bacon, I can add either brown sugar, or
> maple syrup. This is for a sweeter bacon. If I want a more savory
> bacon, I add garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves. Right now,I am
> going with the sweeter bacon. I will also smoke this after it has
> cured for about a week or a bit more.
>
> I am trying to decide between the maple syrup, or brown sugar now. I
> have both on hand. Being the indecisive person that I can be
> sometime, I am having a hard time deciding. I am trying to remember
> if I have had bacon with either a brown sugar or maple cure.
>
> Any preferences amongst all of you?
>
> I will try them all at some point, but right now I only have one slab
> of pork belly and this is my first attempt at curing bacon.
>
> Christine