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I've got a ~3.5 lb piece of pork belly getting its pellicle on in the fridge right now, using the recipe in the OP. I'm worried now that I screwed it up. I made the whole recipe from the OP (for 5lbs) and threw it all in the bag with the belly.. is this going to be the saltiest bacon ever? Last night I soaked it in cold water for an hour after I rinsed it off.. Maybe I should do a test fry before bothering to smoke it?
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Dec 6, 2011 18:11
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:22 |
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Bacon making success! Wife even thought it was "Gift-worthy" so that's a thumbs up if I ever heard one. The hour-soak in cold water did enough to get the salt level down on my too-heavily rubbed belly, I think. Now, I need to find a better source for belly than the asian market, since I got a measly pound or so out of the 3.5 lb piece I started out with. Also need some sort of slicing aparatus, I was only able to cut super-thick cut with my chef's knife.
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Dec 8, 2011 16:42
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Since my first meager 1 lb bacon-making attempt has been met with great success (positive reactions from whomever's tasted it), I decided to do a bigger batch. A much bigger batch: DSC_0300 by dedianmn, on Flickr At first I was disappointed I couldn't find any place that had belly that wasn't an Asian market whose meat counter smelled awful, or a "premium butcher" (also the only "butcher" in town) whose belly was 4.99/lb. I eventually found a place downtown that made their own bacon, who had a frozen belly they'd sell to me for 2.99/lb. Turns out this one was 14 lbs! I'm definitely not a pig expert, but it looks like there's extra meat on this belly, but I just cut it up into ~4.5 lbs pieces, and it'll be a bacostraveganza.  DSC_0302 by dedianmn, on Flickr The curing wasn't a problem (other than hand-grinding three batches-worth of pepper), but I might be a bit over my head in the final smoking/cooking, as I only have a 22" charcoal Webber (in Minnesota). I might just half-smoke each piece, and finish them in the oven... I was able to borrow a meat slicer, which will definitely improve on my super-thick sliced first-attempts. I also got lucky and got (read: asked for) a new food-saver for Christmas, so storage is taken care of. I basically used the recipe from the OP, except omitted the bay and nutmeg. Will be exciting to see how this all turns out, and be set for bacon for the next half a year, probably 
dedian fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Dec 26, 2011 |
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Dec 26, 2011 05:47
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It's bacon smoking day! Kinda hard keeping the temp consistent on a Weber when it's 27F and windy, but it's working pretty well. I just set up a webcam to watch the thermometers while I sit inside to avoid freezing   DSC_0537 by dedianmn, on Flickr
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Jan 1, 2012 19:33
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I've used my Weber Silver as a smoker before and it works out OK. I make a ring of briquettes around the bottom, two rows on the bottom one on top (so the ring goes a little over half way of the way around the charcoal grate - longer for longer smoking), and then light 6 or 9 briquettes and put them at one end of the ring. I place whatever smoking wood around along the top of this ring, so as the charcoal burns up you've got smoke the whole way around - obviously works better for chips than chunk. This is similar to putting a few lit briquettes on a pile of unlit, but it seems more consistent in temp, but you'll still be loving with the vents until you get a hang of it. Obviously pretty futzy to set up, but I've smoked bacon, ribs, and butt this way before I got a propane smoker for christmas one year.
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Feb 13, 2014 21:45
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Awesome smilingfish! I smoked about 3.5 lbs of pork shoulder bacon (country bacon?) this weekend and it turned out awesome. I used the recipe from the OP, but it's so much better than my last attempt. The pieces are smaller and fall apart sort of easily, but it's a lot less fatty (obviously) than belly, and is like awesome smokey bacon-y ham. Going to have to keep an eye out for sales on pork shoulder.. or loin, canadian bacon might be good.
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May 27, 2014 16:24
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Or for a quarter of the price: http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=237_12&products_id=56
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Jun 10, 2014 15:25
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 06:22 |
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Yeah, I didn't check the shipping from B-P, sorry Maybe if you've got other stuff to order it'd be a better deal through them.
dedian fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 00:01
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