Well after a long decision I decided to try Bacon, I purchased a 10.5lb belly from my butcher, it came skin off for $2.59lb
I cut the Slab into 4 pieces rubbed on the dry cure and put them in the fridge
I forgot to take pics of the belly with the dry rub on it :o\
but here they are 2 days after
I cured the Bellies as the recipe prescribed at 1day per lb, so here they are 10 days later, took them out of the "brine" rinsed them off and I am let them dry and come up to room temperature about an hour b4 hitting the smoke house
I was going to place the Bacon on the racks of me MES30 because I didn't have any type of hooks, then it hit me, I ran down to the local welding supply and bought two, 3ft long 1\8 inch 316L surgical stainless steel welding rods for a total of $4.00, I brought the home and used my bench grinder to cut them into 5 pieces from turning them on the bench grinder to cut through them I sharpened them at the same time. then I put them into my vice and bent them into hooks, then I washed them in hot soapy water to remove any factory oils that may have been on them
The sharp points slipped right through the slabs with ease
Then into the MES30 for a drying period in the smoker took about 3rs at 135 to get the bacon's surface dry and ready for smoke
Then a nice TBS for around another 5hrs until I got the color I liked
out of the smoker and on to a rack for about 30min and then into the fridge for an over night rest
Here it is in the morning sorry I hand cut the slices so they are a bit wonky
and of course I had to fry some up
the bacon was good, it fried up nice my uneven cut strips made it hard to fry evenly I will be using the slicer for the rest,
the bacon is on the salty side, if I use this recipe again I think I will rinse it twice.
for anyone interested the was Rytek Kutas's recipe for what he calls his "Dry Box Bacon Cure" I followed it to a "T" with ingredients, cure times and smoke house temperatures
I would Like to Thank Everyone who gave me advice while I was biting my nails off for my 1st time making bacon, there was a lot of advice given by many great folks here and in fear of forgetting to mention someones name.. I will just say Thank you ALL
Thanks for looking,
Harry
I cut the Slab into 4 pieces rubbed on the dry cure and put them in the fridge
I forgot to take pics of the belly with the dry rub on it :o\
but here they are 2 days after
I cured the Bellies as the recipe prescribed at 1day per lb, so here they are 10 days later, took them out of the "brine" rinsed them off and I am let them dry and come up to room temperature about an hour b4 hitting the smoke house
I was going to place the Bacon on the racks of me MES30 because I didn't have any type of hooks, then it hit me, I ran down to the local welding supply and bought two, 3ft long 1\8 inch 316L surgical stainless steel welding rods for a total of $4.00, I brought the home and used my bench grinder to cut them into 5 pieces from turning them on the bench grinder to cut through them I sharpened them at the same time. then I put them into my vice and bent them into hooks, then I washed them in hot soapy water to remove any factory oils that may have been on them
The sharp points slipped right through the slabs with ease
Then into the MES30 for a drying period in the smoker took about 3rs at 135 to get the bacon's surface dry and ready for smoke
Then a nice TBS for around another 5hrs until I got the color I liked
out of the smoker and on to a rack for about 30min and then into the fridge for an over night rest
Here it is in the morning sorry I hand cut the slices so they are a bit wonky
and of course I had to fry some up
the bacon was good, it fried up nice my uneven cut strips made it hard to fry evenly I will be using the slicer for the rest,
the bacon is on the salty side, if I use this recipe again I think I will rinse it twice.
for anyone interested the was Rytek Kutas's recipe for what he calls his "Dry Box Bacon Cure" I followed it to a "T" with ingredients, cure times and smoke house temperatures
I would Like to Thank Everyone who gave me advice while I was biting my nails off for my 1st time making bacon, there was a lot of advice given by many great folks here and in fear of forgetting to mention someones name.. I will just say Thank you ALL
Thanks for looking,
Harry
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