Bacon set up yesterday report

[laserdoc]

Here was my setup yesterday.
Things I learned..I need a cold smoke adapter so I can burn my Amaze or bradely smoke generator about two feet from my cabinet and my smoke cools on the way in.

The Amaze does throw out heat.Not alot but enough to raise my temps to the low 100 range the last five hours. Ten hours of smoke. The first row in the A-maze was Hickory the other 3 were apple.
The first half was great as temp hung around 72. The ice helped but melted two fast since the A-maze was under it..

Bacon is now in the frig in a vacuum seal bag  to mellow. Then I will slice and freeze.

Probably cut back on the salt next time. I sliced a end piece off to sample and it was pretty salty. I just hope cutting further away from the end that it will be less.

How long should I hold it in the frig to mellow before I slice it and freeze

[beefmann]

i would let the bacon set in the fridge over  night  then  slice , package and freeze

[Saber 4]

If it's to salty, on the next batch when you soak it in fresh water slice off and fry a test piece and re-soak if it's still to salty.

[laserdoc]

I did that and if seemed OK. I'm hoping that the end piece I tried was just that,,,,because it was a end piece

[Brewoz]

I would let it rest overnight, slice it, vacuum pack it and back in the refrigerator for 2 days.
The smoke really melds into it in that 2 days.

[laserdoc]

Ok taste test !!!
Not good !! So salty I cannot even eat it !! I did Tenpoints recipe. I know this is a good one cause everything raves about it

I soaked in cool water about 3 hours after the cure. Did every thing your suppose to. Even removed the rhine before curing.
I have 10 pounds that I wasted $40.00 on. Guess I cant solve the to much salt taste know..
This is my first time so I dont know where I went wrong........ Question..When you get a pork belly is it fresh or frozen? Mine was frozen and a ton of salt on it. Is this how they come . If not then maybe this was the issue,,,,to much salt ???

[Habanero Smoker]

Ok taste test !!!
Not good !! So salty I cannot even eat it !! I did Tenpoints recipe. I know this is a good one cause everything raves about it

I soaked in cool water about 3 hours after the cure. Did every thing your suppose to. Even removed the rhine before curing.
I have 10 pounds that I wasted $40.00 on. Guess I cant solve the to much salt taste know..
This is my first time so I dont know where I went wrong........ Question..When you get a pork belly is it fresh or frozen? Mine was frozen and a ton of salt on it. Is this how they come . If not then maybe this was the issue,,,,to much salt ???

You can purchased purchase fresh belly either frozen or not, but it is not already salted. I seems you purchased salt pork; which has already been fully cured with only salt. It can still be used in many recipes. Google "uses for salt pork".

[Saber 4]

Habs has you on the right path with the salt pork, when you say you soaked for 3 hours did you change the water every 30 minutes or just do a long soak. I don't think it would have helped much since it seems you started with salt pork instead of fresh belly but it will be important on your next batch.

[laserdoc]

Changed the water ever hour,but that's beside the point at the moment. Trail and error like all things.
Plan to use the salt pork,,, that Just made !!  :) when I make some venison breakfast sausage. Just will not add any salt to the recipes  ;D
Will try another 5 pound pork belly and make sure the one I get is not all salted down this time.

[Saber 4]

Changed the water ever hour,but that's beside the point at the moment. Trail and error like all things.
Plan to use the salt pork,,, that Just made !!  :) when I make some venison breakfast sausage. Just will not add any salt to the recipes  ;D
Will try another 5 pound pork belly and make sure the one I get is not all salted down this time.

On the plus side you have enough salt pork to make a ton of beans. :D

[laserdoc]

All right I have another question . Going to try out this recipe for venison
2# ground meat.
2 tsp. Dried Sage.
2 tsp. Salt.
1 tsp. Gr. Black Pepper.
1/4 tsp. Dried Marjoram
1 tblsp. Brown Sugar
1/8 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper flakes
1 Pinch Ground Cloves

1.5 venison and 1/2 pound of salt pork. Would I be safe to say I don't need to add any salt plus the belly  I just did also has cure #1 in them so I'm should be ok

[Saber 4]

Looks like a tasty recipe, I would leave off the salt, but I will defer to the cure experts as to whether you need to add cure to the venison. Also you might want to let them know what type of sausage your going to make with the recipe, fresh, smoked, ground meat jerky, etc... it will help them give you the best answer.

[laserdoc]

Sorry, plan on fresh sausage , breakfast patties
Since my pork already has cure in it I'm thinking I don't need to add anymore.
That's a 10-4 on adding any salt

[Saber 4]

For fresh you shouldn't need any cure, let us know how it turns out, there's nothing better than home made breakfast sausage.

[Habanero Smoker]

The breakfast patties do sound good, but your test patty may indicate you will need add a little salt. As Saber 4 stated for fresh sausage you will not have to add any cure. With the bacon being so heavily salted I'm not sure if any further curing action happened. Did the meat in the bacon appear to be red while it was cooking or did it turn a grayish color?

If the nitrites did cure the bacon, and you wanted to smoke it you would still have to use cure #1; but at an adjusted rate. I wouldn't know how to do that, but I believe there is a recipe on the Len Poli site that uses bacon, and he adjusted the amount of cure #1 in the recipe. Sorry I can't recall what recipe it was. I just remember someone posted it.