Maple Cured Bacon

[wyrman]

I butchered two hogs a couple of weeks ago and I decided to try Tenpoint5's recipe on one of the bellies. It's a 9lb belly that I managed to cut exactly in 4 1/2lb halves.
Here it is all gooped up and vacumn sealed for a week or so in the fridge.

My wife hasn't been too crazy about my bacon so far, she says it's too smokey, so I decided to try this and I'm thinking of cold smoking it for 16 - 24 hours with maybe an hour of smoke.
What do you guys think about that?

[devo]

Can you explain how this is possible?? Maybe I am missing something but this just does not make sense to me.

cold smoking it for 16 - 24 hours with maybe an hour of smoke.

[wyrman]

I'm not sure if it'll work on this one or not but I read at another site about smoking at 100° for 16 - 24 hours. Just thought I'd throw that out there for some opinions.

[JZ]

If I were you I would stick to the recipe as posted by 10.5. It is very good that way. Also I'm not sure if the vac seal is a good idea. The recipe calls for using a zip lock bag. You want to be able to mix the spices / juices around everyday to make sure every part of the meat gets an even treatment. I don't know if you will be able to do that with a vac sealed bag. Guess you will find out.

If you have smoked for 16 hrs before I can understand why your wife thought there was too much smoke. Just try the 10.5 recipe as is. I think you and your wife will like it. Good luck.

[devo]

When I do bacon I use 150°F as my smoker temp right from the start till its finished. If you want less smoke than cut the smoke time to 1 hour or even less. It's really something you need to experiment with to see where everyone likes it. My self I smoke for 4 hours but thats me. Myself and a few friends I smoke for all like lots of smoke.

[wyrman]

I have never tried smoking for an extended time, it was just a thought. I'll stick to the recipe as stated. I usually apply smoke for 2-3 hours, I love it but she doesn't. Just trying to see if I can make it to her liking also.
I don't have a ziplok bag that big so I used the vacunm bag, they didn't seal that tight. I can also take the vacumn off and just seal them.

[JZ]

What wood are you using for the smoke? I used maple and it is a very mild smoke. If you use something like Hickory it will be more pronounced.

[wyrman]

I use maple or alder usually. It is good, the wife doesn't like a lot of smoke in her food, that's all.
The guys at work have benefited from that and they absolutely love it but I am always up for a change.

[Consooger]

I agree with putitng these in a resealable bag ass opposed to the vac seal. It will allow the rub/salt/sugar to mix into the bellies and for it to cure better. I have done bacon bellies for 14-16 hours straight of cold smoke before. You can see ths results here. Not to toot my own horn but it is the best bacon I have ever tasted.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=29868.msg355694#msg355694

[Habanero Smoker]

I have never tried it, but some members have stated, from their experience that vacuum sealing accelerates the curing process. To me it just seems like an extra step, to shave off a day of curing time.

If you want to apply the smoke during cold smoking, keep your cabinet below 90°F. I prefer to cold smoke at 70°F. Once you hit 100°F you are hot smoking. From what I am reading, it looks as if you got that information from a site that the person has a smoke house, and is using standard procedure for a smoke house. The Bradley is different, and you have to adjust your method. The Maple Cure recipe only calls for 2 hours of smoke. If you are using more then that, try cutting your smoke time to 1:40 - 2:00 hours.

Unless you have a reason to cold smoke the bacon for 16 - 24 hours, and apply only one hour of smoke. Is there a reason to hold it in the smoker at 100°F for 16 - 24 hours without smoke? Are you trying to reduce the moisture in the bacon to concentrate some of the flavors.

[wyrman]

It's called being an amature Hab and throwing ideas out there. lol
I don't know what type of smoker the guy has at the other site but I have a PID controlled fridge smoker.
I can pretty much set it for what I want and it will hold there.

[CoreyMac]

I pretty much only vacuum seal my bacon now, but as stated a normal 7 day cure will be reduced to 5 days. The salt is perfect at that amount of time. I've even gone 4 days but the salt is a little light (personal preference). I also ONLY cold smoke bacon, I no longer cook the bacon. Best I've found is 10hrs of maple on the maple bacon recipe. Vacuum sealing and cold smoking has taken the amount I can do per session from about 5-7 lbs to 20 lbs because my little smoker doesn't have to cook it.

Corey

[KyNola]

I have vac sealed bellies and I have placed them in the 2.5 gallon ziplock bags.  If the belly will fit in the vac bag, that is my preferred method.  I think it better insures constant contact with the curing "brine" that forms in the bag and the vac bags are not as prone to leaking like a ziplock bag that doesn't seal completely(don't ask me how I know that :o.)  I hot smoke the belly at 200 degrees to an IT of around 150, with approximately 3 hours of smoke.  I like the outcome but everyone has their personal preference.



I am still totally confused with "cold smoking it for 16-24 hours with maybe an hour of smoke".  Can someone more knowledgeable than me please explain this method to me as I am apparently too thickheaded to "get it".  Does that mean you are going to hold the belly in the smoker for 16-24 hours at a temperature under 100 degrees and during that entire period only apply 1 hour of smoke?  What is the logic behind the method?  Not criticizing, I honestly don't understand it.

[Consooger]

Not taking away from this thread, but Larry that's some good lookin' bacon ya got there!!!

[Tenpoint5]

Larry from reading this and doing very little research I would venture to guess that it does dry the bacon out thus sort of condensing the flavors of the bacon.
Myself I tend to follow the recipe since it does work rather well and has worked rather well for myself and several others