Hello there folks. I make something called buckboard bacon. It's
essentially a pork butt marinated in a brown sugar and molasses brine
over a 2-3 week period, after which it is smoked. The brine is about
16% salt by weight, and I use curing salts as well that contain both
sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. One of the curing salts I use is
especially strong, and as a result of both the cures and the salt, the
pork does lose a lot of water weight over that 2-3 week period. I would
estimate a 25% loss in weight, and that's prior to smoking it.

When curing the pork in the refrigerator, I typically like to keep the
temperature around 40 degrees fahrenheit. The last time I made it, my
refrigerator malfunctioned, and for one day the temperature was around
60 degrees. However, the pork did not spoil. In fact, I got better
flavor penetration on that batch than I did in previous ones. So, I
would like to raise the temperature the next time I brine the bacon. I
would hope to achieve better flavor penetration, and possibly be able
to shorten the brining period. Is there any way to determine how much
leeway I have in increasing the temperature? Thanks for any tips you
can provide.