Pork belly Bacon

[cathouse willy]

A 6 lb belly maple cured and maple smoked just out of the smoker

[Gafala]

Send it over here and I'll take care of it. Looking real good.

[watchdog56]

Looks good

[Nukeboy]

Time and temp?  How long with smoke?

[cathouse willy]

Time and temp?  How long with smoke?

I use this recipe from tenpoint5.



    Maple Cured Bacon
    From Tenpoint5
     

     

    Ingredients:

      2 oz. Kosher salt (about 1/4 cup)
      2 tsp. Cure #1 (aka pink salt, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1)
      1/4 C. Maple sugar or packed brown sugar
      1/4 C. Maple syrup


      5 lb. fresh pork belly
      (Makes enough for a 5 lb. belly)

    Directions:

      Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add syrup and stir
      until well combined.
        If the mixture is too thick, you can add more syrup to thin it.



      Rub cure mixture on belly making sure to cover the entire surface. Place
      skin side down in a 2 gallon sealable bag, and expel all air, and fold the
      empty end of the bag under so that the belly is in close contact with the
      bag. During the curing time the belly will release liquid, and it is
      important that this liquid stay in contact with the meat.
        Note - The skin was already removed at the Locker Plant on this one.
       


      Refrigerate at 34 – 40°F (the closer to 40°F the better) for 5 to 7 days,
      until belly is firm to the touch with no soft spots. During the curing
      time, turn the bag over once a day or once every other day to redistribute
      the cure.



      When belly is fully cured, rinse it thoroughly, and pat it dry. Place it
      on an inverted Bradley rack set over a baking sheet, and air dry uncovered
      in the refrigerator overnight (12 – 24 hours).
        If you don't have the refrigerator space to air dry the bacon you can do
        this step in the Bradley. Preheat the Bradley to 100 – 120°F with vent
        wide open, and place your room temperature bacon in the smoker. To get
        these low temperatures you will need to use the "cold smoke setup". Do
        not apply smoke at this time. You just want to dry the bellies until
        they are tacky when touched. Depending on the size of your load, this
        generally takes about 2 hours, but to be on the safe side check the
        bellies after one hour.
       

    Smoking/Cooking

      Once bacon has been "air dried" place into a 120 - 140° preheated smoker
      with vent half open.
        If air dried in the refrigerator, set the bellies out in room
        temperature for 1 - 2 hours before placing them in the smoker.

        If you air dried it in the Bradley, increase the temperature to 120 -
        140°, close to vent to half open, and begin to apply your smoke.

        The amount of smoke is up to you. I generally will only apply 2 hours,
        using maple.



      After you have applied your smoke, increase the heat to 160°F, and
      smoke/cook the bacon until an internal temperature of 150°F is reached.
        Or increase the temperature to 150°F, and smoke/cook until an IT of
        140°F is reached.

[Shuswap]

Oh yeah :P  My free range organic Berkshire belly arrives in a couple of weeks for triple smoked maple bacon.  Cathouse your bacon makes me drool in anticcipation :)

[manfromplaid]

I use tenpoints process to do my bacon. I might try something different now and then but its my go to for solid results. can't lose with this one.

[Johana80]

Send it over here and I'll take care of it. Looking real good.

Lol, I want too!!

[Smoker John]

Nice looking bacon. I use the same method works great.

[Edward176]

It looks real nice, BUT!! how does it taste? Hard to tell, but I"m sure I could be easily convinced to sample a couple of pounds for you ;)

[cherrybergher]

nicely done