Finally, got bacon

[mulepackin]

Well I found some belly, got it cured and now smoked. Had bacon with sourdough cakes and eggs for breakfast. All in all I'm pretty pleased. It was a little salty, so will have to pay more attention to that in the future, really couldn't tell much difference between the honey, maple, or brown sugar batches. The little old Oster slicer came through for me too, although I had to slice on the short side to fit it. Now ready for the freezer.

 

[hell fire grill]

Looks like good stuff to me. How long and how hot did you smoke it?

 

[irishteabear]

Congrats on your first bacon. Nice job!

 

[shooterrick]

Nice lookin bacon! Great job.

 

[mulepackin]

About 12 hours at 135, till internal of 127-128, and color was how I wanted it.

 

[brohnson]

YUMMY!

 

[scarbelly]

That is really great looking bacon. I am going thru the waiting game right now - I have some sitting in the cure with some brown sugar and some with CBP - got another 6 days to go -

 

[Bearcarver]

Great job!
Glad you finally got a belly. I almost decided to run one out there to you!

Note: I like to cut my bacon short. when I used to buy store-bought bacon, I used to cut the pack in half before I even opened it.
Reason??----> When you fry long strips of bacon, the middle gets done before the ends. When you flip them over, the middle is still in the middle of the pan. Now, when you cut the pieces shorter, and lay two pieces the same way as if they weren't cut in half, when you flip the half-pieces the ends that were in the middle of the pan are now at the outer edge of the pan, and the ends that were at the outer edge are now in the middle of the pan.

LOL-----Bears are picky,
So are their creators

 

[richoso1]

Congrats, that's some good looking bacon my friend.

 

[tcounts]

Whoo hoo. Looks good!

 

[mballi3011]

Now thats some great looking bacon there. So which one did you like the best???

 

[mulepackin]

You know, I'm really hard pressed to tell a difference between them. I spose sweet is sweet. The maple might have been better if I'd had real syrup or perhaps extract, still good, just no particular maple flavor. Thanks all for the compliments.

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks Great...

 

[smokin-jim]

Great job. Very nice color. I also like the sourdough pancakes.

 

[slim]

that looks amazing.....

 

[bob the noob]

I've seen in some posts that people have smoked their bellies over 100 degrees and/or until an internal temp like 120 to 130.

That's still in the danger zone for meat temps, so why do it? Isn't cold smoking supposed to be done under 100 degrees and shouldn't cook the meat?

 

[mulepackin]

That would be true if it were not a cured meat. Bacon is most certainly cured, so you are safe at these temps. The danger zone is 40 - 140 to the best of my knowledge, so even less than 100 would be an issue were it not for the cure.

 

[bob the noob]

(facepalm) duh.... I guess that'll teach me to post after midnight when I'm tired.

I don't even know why I asked, I smoke at 80, sometimes 100 degrees for almost a full day.

 

[walle]

MP - Found your post here looking for sourdough pancake recipes. Looks like you have a winner there! If you don't mind passing it along, I would love to give it a try.
Thanks,
Tracey