Lot's O' Bacon!

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golfnut

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 7, 2007
38
10
Lewiston, ID
Whew! I finally got to my bacon projects. To start off with, I picked up a big Pork loin from Costco, along with a new Foodsaver Vacuum sealer. I lopped the loin in half, gave it a coat of Tenderquick, sugar and my spicy sweet rub and then vacuum sealed it.



Into the fridge it went for 6 days. I pulled it out on day 6, and soaked it for an hour or so, changed the water, and soaked it for another two.



Next, I dried it off, and tied it up with butcher string to get a decent shape out of it then gave it a thorough dusting of my spicy sweet rub.



After that, it was ready for the smoker. I figured this would be a good batch to initiate the big freezer conversion. It's not complete yet, still need to cut an access door for easy chip adding and temp adjustment. I pulled all the plastic out, and lined the insulated top with aluminum sheeting. Had some scratched up stuff left over from aircraft wings, so it volunteered for the job. I also removed the rubber gasket, and relocated it on the very outskirt of the freezer door so I could still get a seal, but not in the food zone. Seems to work great, but I'll replace it with a more permanent solution soon.



I gotta say, I'm impressed with the insulating properties and smoke flow I got away with on this thing.
After a nice steady 200 degree smoke to 160 internal, I pulled it out.




Holy cow, the vacuum sealer added sooo much flavor to this bacon. I've done this before and always had good results, but man o man what a difference. I'm convinced! Into the packages it goes.



BUCKBOARD BACON continued in part 2....
 
Great looking bacon...........Sweet looking smoker...........Would love to see some pics of your smoker and how you built it............
 
Hmmm..about as basic as can be right now. As the one pic shows, I just lined the lid with aluminum sheeting. In the upper left-rear corner, I drilled a 2 1/4" hole for smoke exhaust, and in the lower front right there is a 2 1/4" hole that I ran the hose through for the small propane burner that is my heat source. Some wooden strips screwed to the sides for rail supports, and a bunch of wooden slats that I can adjust for rack supports or hang rope sausage from.
I thought I may have needed to add a fan, but after the big smoke this weekend, I don't need it. I'm getting excellent flow and even temps. I can hold it at 210 all day and night, or drop the burner to low and go down to around 145, crank it up, and it'd be like an oven! I do plan to add a port for cold smoking fish and cheese. That I'll use a Chief smoker for the smoke generator and duct it to the freezer. I put a cast iron skillet under my chip pot to even things out and slow the smolder. Thin bottom pans on propane flame don't work too well.
I'd nearly forgotten I even had this freezer. I was all set to build a wood shack smoker, then in the process, remembered this thing shoved under one of the decks and thought "Oh yeah...that'll work!"
 
Just did my first bacon, did a wet cure. Now just searching for different bacon recipes. I love your idea for curing, going to try that next time (love my foodsaver too!) and compare.
 
Looks great nice job
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Great post golfnut!! I fixed your first post so that the q-view and text flows nice and neat.

Nice conversion of that chest freezer. Would like to see more pics on how you did the conversion. Points to ya!!
 
Excellent looking bacon! Good job on the smoker too.
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