Bacon Update

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macbillybob

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
166
10
San Antonio Texas
When I did the brining-Alton-Brown test fiassco, I also dry cured two slabs (1/2 of the belly I bought) Used a recipe from M. Ruhlman (Charcuterie book), basic cure with some pepper, herbs, and some maple syrup.

They cured for a week, then dryed in the fridge and are now awaiting smoke. (been working on a smokehouse setup)

I did a test fry to check for salty problems etc. Passed the test. It was tasty.
It has been wrapped for 3 days waiting on the smoke-set-up.
 
Looks good to me. I luv me some bacon !!
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Looks great - I did some bacon a couple of weeks ago and it is gone - 10 lbs worth - going to order some more bellies today
 
That bacon looks great. My wife announced last night she has decided she does not like bacon. Bummer. Now I have to decide if I give up bacon or the wife????
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She don't like bacon!? What do you mean she don't like bacon?? That's like, 'I don't like oxygen', or 'I hate money'....or this:

 
My wife likes bacon but even if she didn't I think she sees this hobby as better than others. I do most all the cooking in our house and she blames me if she gains weight.

My attitude is "I cook but you don't have to eat it if you don't want to" It's like the TV, if you don't like what's on there is an off button.
 
It looks good have you gotten the smokehouse figured out?
 
Dave, I've found the homemade bacon is a lot better than the salt pumped, liquid smoke garbage found in stores. Some people have never tried real bacon and thus don't care for it.
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I've made many pounds and people who say they don't like bacon like or even love mine.
 
The smokehouse test yesterday was posted in the smoker builds section:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=88986

As noted in the above thread, I was only getting around 65-70 degrees in the smoke house. Lots of smoke and it was moving though at a good pace.

My biggest question was the temperature. Is this too cool? If it is then how long should I leave the slabs in the smoke?

It is cold here (at least for San Antonio) around 40. Yesterday when I did the test smoke it was 52.

Thanks for any input.
 
If your going to cook the bacon before eating it then temps don't much matter. Do you have skin on or off the belies?
 
Skin is still on. I was under the impression that I could remove after the smoke. Which way is better?
Yeah, I will cook, not much interest in raw bacon....
I would assume more smoke would get absorbed if the skin was off.
 
I have only smoked with skin on once and I went 10 hours and that wasn't enough for me. Skin off I do about 9-10 hours and its good.
 
well I'm really glsd my wife likes everything I make or she's really good at eating stuff that she don't like to humor me. Then she just looks behind herself and lokks up and says see what he has done to me. We really like pretty much anything home made to me it just taste better and you can make it as you want it too.
 
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