Well I finally found a belly and today it got smoked. It was cured with honey and molasses plus the normal curing stuff after a 5 day lay in state. About 3.5 hours of a mix of cherry and hickory to 128 It and the color is just fantastic. Can't hardly wait till it chills over night to get sliced.
It was itty bitty to start with so no shrinkage jokes!
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/ronbeaux/BBQ%20stuff/bbq%202/bbq%203/Misc/DSC03534.jpg)
The turkey is on 24 hours of cure and need about 30 more before the smoke for Christmas.
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/ronbeaux/BBQ%20stuff/bbq%202/bbq%203/Misc/DSC03526.jpg)
I never smoked one.. So, it looks plenty FAT to me!
Slice 'er up!
Quote from: hal4uk on December 21, 2009, 03:59:28 PM
I never smoked one.. So, it looks plenty FAT to me!
Slice 'er up!
Hal, we need to try this sometime.. I'll split it with you. (gawd knows we won't eat much of it here)
Yuuuuhhh huh!
It's just bacon...... Only you get to flavor it like you want. This one was 2.65lbs of pork belly and the Mrs likes the sweet bacon with lots of smoke. Soooooo, that's what she got. Going to fry some up tomorrow and I got some fresh jalapenos to wrap with it also.
Quote from: squirtthecat on December 21, 2009, 04:40:28 PM
Quote from: hal4uk on December 21, 2009, 03:59:28 PM
I never smoked one.. So, it looks plenty FAT to me!
Slice 'er up!
Hal, we need to try this sometime.. I'll split it with you. (gawd knows we won't eat much of it here)
Quote from: hal4uk on December 21, 2009, 05:16:04 PM
Yuuuuhhh huh!
Uhhhh Ohhh another episole of the "Hal & Squirt Show" .... "Here hold my beer while I...."
Ron that bacon color is beautiful.
Is that show on re-runs? I'm too new to have seen the original.
We need to find you that post, what a gazzer.
I'm surprised they are allowed to live in the same city, much less the same state.
That's a lot of scortched earth! What the heck happened here??
Dunno for sure, but I heard some computer geeks were smoking a pound of bacon...
and the one holding the beer was innocent...?
And for the record, we reside a good 25 miles, 5 zip-codes and 2 counties apart!
Some good looking Bacon there Ron
Watch this guys,
Hey Hal, when you come down to Paducah for Xmas, do you want me to call Hughes Meats to see if they got any fresh pork belly for you to take back to your other brother Darrell? They normally weigh about 6 pounds and already skinned.
If you want me to, let me know soon as I I'll have to run out there and hold it in my frig for you. Or I can freeze it for you too.
Response in 1...2...3...NOW!
KyNola
That sounds great, if you can get by and grab it!
I'll pay ya back when I get there.
And I'll give it to MrC for Christmas!
He can give me some smoked bacon back ;-)
Quote from: KyNola
your other brother Darrell
:D Well, we do have a Larry!
Quote from: hal4uk on December 21, 2009, 10:09:35 PM
That sounds great, if you can get by and grab it!
I'll pay ya back when I get there.
And I'll give it to MrC for Christmas!
He can give me some smoked bacon back ;-)
Deal. But we'll need to use
your garage fridge during the curing process... I don't have room for that much stuff in my kitchen fridge!
Ron, that looks great. Did you happen to jot down what all you put in the cure?
Sorry STC and Hal. I checked with the boys at Hughes's and they are out of pork bellies and won't have any in until sometime next week.
I tried!
KyNola
Settle down boys before you break something, again ;D
I used 1 cup of kosher salt with 2 teaspoons of pink salt then topped it with about 1 cup of honey. This went for 3 days before I rinsed it and then re-coated it with molasses. I could tell by the color that the cure had penetrated to the middle of this very small belly in the 3 day period. The molasses coating got an additional 2 days before a good rinse and dry out in the fridge over night.
Started the OBS at 135 with no smoke for the first hour then kicked it up to 160 and started the smoke. It was about 4 hours of smoke with an additional 3 hours to get the temp up to 129 IT. I left it in the fridge over night again to let it settle and then:
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/ronbeaux/BBQ%20stuff/bbq%202/bbq%203/Misc/DSC03535.jpg)
Fried me some up to test
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/ronbeaux/BBQ%20stuff/bbq%202/bbq%203/Misc/DSC03536.jpg)
The verdict was just fantastic. Not salty at all and really not all that sweet either. I could distinguish between the honey and the molasses with just a hint of salt. Mrs RB loved it!
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/ronbeaux/BBQ%20stuff/bbq%202/bbq%203/Misc/DSC03537.jpg)
I vacuumed up 3/4 of it and left out the rest for a breakfast coming up soon!
Good looking bacon RB!
Looks great, Ron...
We gotta try that.
KyNola, Thanks for trying...
There's a meat market on the north side of Springfield (somewhere on the North side of the state fairgrounds). Never been to it - it's a good drive from where I live, but I'm working on a contract very close to there right now, so I'll check it out when I get a chance.
Quote from: hal4uk on December 22, 2009, 04:31:10 PM
Looks great, Ron...
We gotta try that.
KyNola, Thanks for trying...
There's a meat market on the north side of Springfield (somewhere on the North side of the state fairgrounds). Never been to it - it's a good drive from where I live, but I'm working on a contract very close to there right now, so I'll check it out when I get a chance.
Y-T Packing (a.k.a. Turasky's) They 'might' have them. Another possibility would be Midstate Meats, over just N of the Super Walmart on Dirksen. (across from one of those farm stores)
that does look delicious, I love me some good bacon.
Looks great, Ron! Thanks for the ingredient list. This is a must-do for us.
Sorry to keep railroading your thread off topic... ;)
I'm not venturing anywhere "extra" till after the holidays.
It's CHAOS out there...
With so many folks out of work, it's hard to believe - but it's just crazy out there...
(of course "shopping" ain't the same as "buying")
I'll try both of those in a few weeks...
---
Whatchu talkin 'bout, Squirt???
We're still talking about BACON ain't we?
Since we are in the curing mode, I just took the turkey out of the brine/cure after 50 hours and I'm letting it dry out in the fridge. Gonna do a cold/hot smoke on it tomorrow at a max of 180 to 190F, with a step up method as called for. My goal is to have it ready for 1400 Christmas Eve. Of course this means I have to start late evening the 23rd and let it go all night and into the next day. I'm thinking starting it at around 1800 and doing the ramp up thing until bed time and letting it cook until I get up the next morning. If I get close to crunch time I can always use the oven, but I really want to use the OBS all the way through. The reason I bought it to begin with. I'll make sure it has plenty of water for the night this time!
Plus, this time I am putting the probe into the dark meat at the thigh joint so I can monitor the temp of the dark meat. I'M NOT POKING HOLES INTO the white meat. It actually squirted me last time and I'm not wasting any juice this time!
This was a HUGE hit at TG even after screwing up and poking holes all in it and finishing it in the oven. I can't even imagine how good it will be when I carve it!
Anybody have any suggestions on my strategy??
I have a plan B involving a free ham if it sucks.
Sure would be fun to see it finished/crisped up in OLD GRANDAD ;-)
(I'm toasting to your grandaddy right now!)
That is some fine looking Bacon... I been wanting to make some, but was unsure how to cure it... I just learned a little bit...