For my second attempt at bacon curing and smoking, here's what I noticed. As opposed to the previous session curing bacon for 7 days, this time the curing lasted 9 days and I noticed no residual liquid remaining within the zip locks.

Have you noticed that just after applying the cure, frank liquid appears to have exuded from the belly. This occurred and remained over the first several days. Then, upon removing the bellies from the zip locks to rinse and allow for pellicle formation, I noticed that there really wasn't any liquid remaining within the zip locks.

My speculation is that upon first apply the cure, osmosis rapidly occurs, drawing liquid from the belly into the zip lock. Then, as time goes on, the cure has penetrated fully into the belly, drawing that initial liquid back into the belly.

I'm wondering if this disappearance of liquid is a sign of proper curing, curing for the correct length of time.