Bacon times 3

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hoser

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Jul 11, 2008
452
10
Cumberland, Rhode Island
Well, found myself with a little extra time, pork bellies and butt this morning, so you know what happened.

Bacon times 3 is in the cure





Mixed up some Kosher salt, insta-cure, brown sugar and gave 'em a rub.



Then rubbed one with maple syrup, and the other with molasses, then vacuum sealed and in the fridge at 38 degrees.




Boned out the Butt to the best of my ability, and made the buckboard. Used 1 cup of salt, 3 Tbsp insta-cure, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated garlic, and 1/3 cup freshly ground coarse black pepper.



I'm kind of anxious to see how the buckboard comes out...my first attempt at that.

I'll update the thread next week, after they're out of the smoker.
 
Man I am jealous. I haven't had the time or commitment level to try my hand at bacon yet. You look like you're off to a great start. Hope it all works out for ya. Keep us posted!
 
I'm a sucker for hickory when it comes to bacon, but I think I'm going to supplement that with some apple or cherry as well.
 
you will never want to buy store bought again...except to get bacon grease. that is the only reason I buy it now.
 
Looking forward to see the outcome...
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Man those look good and the first few days are always hard to let go by. But after the first few the days just roll by and before you know it your smoking bacon. Those look great all 3 of them too.
 
OK...two days into the cure, and as far as I can tell, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Drawing the moisture out of the meat, and creating it's own brine to cure in.
Can hardly wait for Tuesday to smoke em up! <drool>
 
Looks like a great start should be some very good bacon
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Okey-dokey
Got the bellies out of the cure, washed them down good and gave it a fry test.



Whoa! waaaay too salty...gave it a one hour soak with three water changes and let the pellicle build overnight...then into the gosm.



Ok...another overnight in the cooler, then out comes the waring pro

Maple syrup cured is looking fine
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Molasses cured is a bit fattier, but ok.


All in all, very tasty bacon...the darker one here is the molasses cured.



Now the buckboard batch is soaking, to be smoked later this morning

I'll do a final update tomorrow, when the buckboard is sliced up and cooked up
Thanks for coming to look.
 
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Sorry it took so long folks, I know I promised a final update
saturday, but it was just a crazy weekend.

Here is the buckboard, smoked up nicely in about 3 hours...took it to 142 just to be safe
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I got out the trusty old Waring Pro and got down to business.

And the final test was per the wife...maple syrup cured with eggs and english muffin. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good.


Lessons learned:
1. After taste testing by family, and a chef friend it was determined that the Maple syrup cure was a clear winner..this will be my go-to recipe from now on with the possibility of some minor modifications.The preferences went as follows:

a. Maple syrup cure
b. Buckboard garlic, sugar and pepper cure.
c. Molasses cure

2. I have to find a way to cut down the salt in the initial cure recipe..wound up soaking one batch over three hours and12 water changes just to get it to where I could choke down the sample fry.
Any suggestions? I only used a cup of salt, but man, was it powerful

3.Don't bother putting pepper in the basic cure...only thing that came through was the garlic and salt when testing the buckboard...more experimentation is warranted ...time to try either pastrami or Canadian bacon.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my Q-View.
 
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