You have to use pink salt. That's the Prague #2 curing salt NOT Himalayan pink salt. It's dirt cheap, and you can pick it up at the Spice House on Wells. It's also--if ingested directly--toxic. So make sure you keep it in a sealed jar away from kids, pets etc. This does two things. First of all it gives it the bright red color and makes it taste like bacon instead of salted and cooked meat. Secondly, and possibly more important, it prevents botulism.
The basic ratio for a curing mix is (by weight!) 8:4:1.2 Kosher salt to sugar to curing salt. Use 4 to 5 percent of the weight of the meat to be cured. To this you can add your other curing ingredients. I'm going with toasted and roughly cracked black peppercorns, garlic, brown sugar, crushed juniper berries and thyme.
Into a non-reactive container (or large ziploc) for a week in the fridge. Every other day, reach in and redistribute the cure and really work it into the meat. At the end of the week, pull it out, rinse off the cure thoroughly (some say that--after rinsing--you should soak it in room temp water for 15 to 30 minutes to prevent the final product from being too salty), then cook, smoke or hang.
I'm using Michael Ruhlman's book
Charcuterie as a reference point.
