1st time bacon smoke. Help please.

[hoggs22]

Hello,

I've started cold smoking (2) 12# pork bellies.  I had to cut them into thirds each to fit into 5 gallon buckets to brine.  There are a lot of thin areas (inch or a little less).  How do I slice these to get the most out of my bacon?  I'm going to freeze them for about an hour before freezing.  I have a smaller (maybe 6") meat slicer.  I was thinking of cutting these at an angle to try to get the most out of it.  Would that work?

 

[worktogthr]

Just slice them whichever way you'd like. Sometimes I get bellies that are too thin or thin in one area. Still tastes the same. Another thing I like to do with odd looking or thinner pieces is sort them out and vacuum pack them separately to use for things like wrapping small meatballs, recipes that require chopped bacon, etc. sometimes I even take all the ends and odd shaped pieces and pulse them in the food processor for diced bacon for pastas, chili, bacon cheeseburger burritos and all sorts of fun stuff!

 

[hoggs22]

Good call!  There's a lot of the smaller areas.  I'm afraid I'll only get maybe 6-10# of actual bacon goodness out of the 24#.  Hopefully I'm wrong.  I got my bellies cryo-packed and thought they were going to be huge.  Nope, just folded in half.