well if you remember my recent sausage thread there were some pork bellies that needed some cure and smoke...
so i decided on 3 recipes and started the cure process on, the first belyl was Ruhlmans basic bacon of which i didnt get a picture of at this stage...
the second i had some Curleys brown sugar cure...
and the third, a savory bacon recipe with juniper berries, bay leafs, lotsa garlic, etc...
i had these bellies all squared and halved as after the curing was done i planned on taking half of each and giving the CBP treatment... so into baggies they went and in cooler in garage. the cooler really was to keep from freezing. as temps in cooler dropped i would then bring inside house and keep in cold roomtill they got around 38 and back in garage. here they are after the curing. the basic,
Curleys,
and the Savory,
So then into the smoker for 4 days using TJ's Amazin Smokers. i used maple dust til i ran out and then finished off with hickory. i used the dust because i wasnt around to ck to make sure the pellets stayed lit. i would start them going in am and when i came home from work i would start them all over again. so was getting smoke aprx half of that. kept the smoker above freezing with small hotplate on low.
the basic...
Curleys...
Savory...
all...
and to the Weston...
the basic, peppered on left...
Curleys...
Savory...
i also discovered something quite by accident, have had some issues in past with the meat having this flap form on the botto as you slice...
always used to flip piece over every 3rd slice or so to keep at minimum. a bad pic, but found out because i had some pieces bigger than my table travel that if you lift leading edge,
and then let it drop down on blade starting the kerf...
end up with real purty slices and no need to flip over, best part once you got it down you could fly though a slab...
gonna vac pac it up and to the freezer. thks for checking in!
so i decided on 3 recipes and started the cure process on, the first belyl was Ruhlmans basic bacon of which i didnt get a picture of at this stage...
the second i had some Curleys brown sugar cure...
and the third, a savory bacon recipe with juniper berries, bay leafs, lotsa garlic, etc...
i had these bellies all squared and halved as after the curing was done i planned on taking half of each and giving the CBP treatment... so into baggies they went and in cooler in garage. the cooler really was to keep from freezing. as temps in cooler dropped i would then bring inside house and keep in cold roomtill they got around 38 and back in garage. here they are after the curing. the basic,
Curleys,
and the Savory,
So then into the smoker for 4 days using TJ's Amazin Smokers. i used maple dust til i ran out and then finished off with hickory. i used the dust because i wasnt around to ck to make sure the pellets stayed lit. i would start them going in am and when i came home from work i would start them all over again. so was getting smoke aprx half of that. kept the smoker above freezing with small hotplate on low.
the basic...
Curleys...
Savory...
all...
and to the Weston...
the basic, peppered on left...
Curleys...
Savory...
i also discovered something quite by accident, have had some issues in past with the meat having this flap form on the botto as you slice...
always used to flip piece over every 3rd slice or so to keep at minimum. a bad pic, but found out because i had some pieces bigger than my table travel that if you lift leading edge,
and then let it drop down on blade starting the kerf...
end up with real purty slices and no need to flip over, best part once you got it down you could fly though a slab...
gonna vac pac it up and to the freezer. thks for checking in!
