My Wife Is Awesome

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solaryellow

Master of the Pit
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jul 26, 2009
2,893
63
Orlando, FL
Came home from work today and found out we had to make a special trip into town. Turns out wifey had ordered a case of pork bellies from Whole Foods and they were in. I was shocked that she negotiated a price of $1.99/lbs for organic. Looks like 58 lbs of bacon has been added to my ToDo list this weekend. :agree:
 
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58 Lbs???!!!!!! 
eek.gif
Are you feeding an army?!!!!  Is that a 1 year supply??!!!!  Are they gifts for the extended family??!!!!  Inquiring minds want to know!!!!!!!!!
 
58 Lbs???!!!!!! 
eek.gif
Are you feeding an army?!!!!  Is that a 1 year supply??!!!!  Are they gifts for the extended family??!!!!  Inquiring minds want to know!!!!!!!!!
To be fair, the answer is yes all the way around. My coworkers will buy most of it before I even have a chance to eat my first slice.
 
 
After a nice relaxing day of sitting in a mountain stream followed by fajitas, I got busy with the bacon. I am using the rub Al Blancher gave me a few months ago because it is incredibly simple and the flavor is perfect. The formula is fairly close to TQ substitute but without the nitrate.

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And into the 20 gal ziploc bag we go. I try to scoop up as much of the rub that doesn't stick as possible and place it on the pork belly once it is in the bag.

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Working on another one.

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Ready for a good rubbing.

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Unfortunately the wifey didn't get any shots of the sides being rubbed. :(

Should be ready to smoke in 10 days.
 
Tonight I rinsed it all off and dried it until the pellicle formed. I just put my 12" cast iron pan filled with apple chips, cherry chunks, and hickory chunks covered with HD foil onto the hot plate. That should get me about 12 hours of smoke. I should have some pics to share later tomorrow.
 
Looks and sounds awesome I'll be looking forward to the Qview to follow
 
Bacon is done smoking. Once the sun rose this morning, I had a tough time holding temps in the 90's. By 8am the ambient temp was already 80*.

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I do love these giant ziploc bags.

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29" of smoky goodness

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I will let it rest in one of my garage fridges for a couple days before slicing.
 
Looks great Solar.
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Yeah.... I keep a supply of the 3 gallon and 5 gallon ziplocs handy for all my overnight rubs, marinades, and brines. Then at Thanksgiving I buy the big 20 gallon ones for brining turkeys in.
 
Man that looks great.

 The recipe Al uses is my favorite as it is low salt . most store bought and tq cured bacon is to salty for my taste.
 
Man that looks great.

 The recipe Al uses is my favorite as it is low salt . most store bought and tq cured bacon is to salty for my taste.


Agreed. I also love that there is no need for soaking the meat in water to pull out salt.
 
Your bellies look great Solar!

Even though this is somewhere between "Cold Smoke" and "Hot Smoke", what was the temp inside your smoker?

Looks like your bacon sweated a little

I'm torn between "Cold Smoking" and Smoking at 140°.  I'm wondering if adding a little heat allows the cured bacon to absorb more smoke.

My next batch will be at 100° to start, and I'll ramp up to 140°.

Todd
 
Your bellies look great Solar!

Even though this is somewhere between "Cold Smoke" and "Hot Smoke", what was the temp inside your smoker?

Looks like your bacon sweated a little

I'm torn between "Cold Smoking" and Smoking at 140°.  I'm wondering if adding a little heat allows the cured bacon to absorb more smoke.

My next batch will be at 100° to start, and I'll ramp up to 140°.

Todd


Thanks Todd! Overnight I stayed in the 90* - 100* range in the plywood smoker. Ambient temp overnight was 78* when I started around 11:30pm and got down to around 70* by 5am. When the sun came up this morning and the ambient temp started climbing so did the temp inside the smoker. By 9am I was seeing ambient temps around 80* and about 105* in the smoker. When I pulled it off around noon ambient temps were in the upper 80's and the smoker was around 120*.

I used to hot smoke bacon but actually prefer the cold/warm smoked version.
 
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