First try at some bacon

Whitey Jr · July 23, 2011, 05:34:15 PM

I managed to get my hands on half a pig belly this morning (about 4 lbs) so I thought I'd try my hand at some bacon. I mostly took inspiration from the recipes/tips posted by GusRobin and HabenaroSmoker. Causethis is my first try, I cut the belly in half and put half in the freezer for later. This is the one I'm using now;

Made a simple wet-cure with a little maple syrup, bay, peppercorn, and minced garlic added.

Then bagged that bad-boy and into the fridge for the next 6 days.

Now comes my least favourite part of this smoking hobby/habit....the waiting.

-Whitey Jr

Caribou · July 23, 2011, 10:27:01 PM

Looks like it's going to be great :)
Your homemade bacon is going to ruin the store bought stuff for you!
Carolyn

mikecorn.1 · July 24, 2011, 05:25:52 AM

Nice. How did it turn out for you.

ghost9mm · July 24, 2011, 06:02:15 AM

It looks like you are off to a really great start, will be following this thread to see the final results...

Habanero Smoker · July 25, 2011, 02:23:15 AM

Everything looks good. If that brine solution is not fully covering the belly, you can just squeeze some more air out of that bag to bring the brine solution above the meat.

Whitey Jr · July 30, 2011, 11:59:55 AM

That's what I ended up doing. Left it out in the beer fridge for 4 days. I was a little worried about the temp for awhile, she was hovering between 35-40 (but not too worried) after hearing the cure process stops right around that area, but it all worked out well. A few lessons learned....

After taking it out of the brine I finally realize the hide is still on it, and there are about 3 big pig nipples staring up at me. Well that hide has to come off. This was the point that I realized I need a new set of knives. I did my best to flay the hide and got it off in two big pieces. I was about to throw it away when my wife suggests we try turning them into rawhides for the dog. Brilliant idea. I cut off a small piece of the bacon to fry up and make sure the cure took and it seemed fine (really good actually). Everything soaked in fresh water for an hour before going into the BDS.

I followed the smoking technique as desctribed in this post by MallardWhacker (with maple wood);

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=409.0

I forgot to take pics once it came out...but here's what's left

DAMN! Is it ever good. Caribou....you were right on the money. I don't think I'll ever get the storebought stuff again. Next time I think I'll cure one day less and add a little more maple syrup. Good thing I still have that other half of the pig belly (which is already thawing in preparation for curing tomorrow ;) ) So far this new hobby of mine is doing nothing for my beltline. ;D The rawhides worked out well too. I left them in the smoker with heat only at 130 for probably another 3 hours until they were hard and tough. There was still a bit of grease on them so I patted them off with paper towels every so often to speed the drying. The dog loved them (of course she licks her own ass occasionally), but only gets a piece of one every once in a while.

-Whitey Jr

EDinNB · August 02, 2011, 07:19:15 PM

Let it age some. My first belly (and only so far) was done with 10.5's recipe and 2 days out of the smoker, all I could taste was smoke. That was July 11, now it does have a distinct maple taste and a lot less smokey taste to it. With any luck, I'll get another belly this week.

EDinNB

Tenpoint5 · August 03, 2011, 07:36:29 AM

Quote from: EDinNB on August 02, 2011, 07:19:15 PM
Let it age some. My first belly (and only so far) was done with 10.5's recipe and 2 days out of the smoker, all I could taste was smoke. That was July 11, now it does have a distinct maple taste and a lot less smokey taste to it. With any luck, I'll get another belly this week.

EDinNB

How much smoke did you use on it?

EDinNB · August 03, 2011, 07:58:10 AM

I used 1hr 40 min of maple then brought it to an IT of 140 thick end and 145 on the thin end.

Tenpoint5 · August 04, 2011, 06:16:07 AM

Try backing it down to 1:20 for the next batch. Did you use Maple or Hickory for Smoke? If Hickory and the smoke was too strong try Maple or apple they are not as strong of flavors

Whitey Jr · August 04, 2011, 09:56:35 AM

Ya I figure I'll let the next batch sit a day or two (by far the hardest part), to see if that "maples" it up a bit. The next batch is curing now and should hopefully be ready for the smoker tomorrow or the next day. I smoked it under mostly Maple smoke (a little apple at the end cause I ran out of Maple) and I liked it. I'll probably stick with that for this batch too.

Whitey Jr