So i'm thinking about smoking bacon for the first time.

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Bacon

There is two excellent tutorials here. Pops which is a brine and BearCarvers which is a rub.

Here is what I understand, max heat allowable is approx 140 degrees. The warmer the bacon the better the smoke holds on, but you don't want to "Cook" it or render the fat. So from what I have seen some do cold smoke with a smoke generator the entire smoke.

Some of the more seasoned veterans do extended smokes gradually increasing the temp from 100 to approx 140 carefully watching to not render the bacon. Some small amounts of weigh loss are generally given to loss of water from curing. Less than 5% seems acceptable.

Cold smoking can but doesn't require a cooling medium like ice. More normally its achieved by just using a smoke generator with no additional heat from the smoker.

If you still have questions and don't we all I would suggest you read either:

Bearcarvers Tutorial

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/108099/bacon-extra-smoky

Craigs Tutorial (Pops Brine)

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/124885/bacon-made-the-easy-way

These guys are ahead of the curve on makin bacon.

Hope it helps.

I believe that Pop's recipe says 10 to 14 days? You are rushing it a little maybe?
 
Bacon

There is two excellent tutorials here. Pops which is a brine and BearCarvers which is a rub.

Here is what I understand, max heat allowable is approx 140 degrees. The warmer the bacon the better the smoke holds on, but you don't want to "Cook" it or render the fat. So from what I have seen some do cold smoke with a smoke generator the entire smoke.

Some of the more seasoned veterans do extended smokes gradually increasing the temp from 100 to approx 140 carefully watching to not render the bacon. Some small amounts of weigh loss are generally given to loss of water from curing. Less than 5% seems acceptable.

Cold smoking can but doesn't require a cooling medium like ice. More normally its achieved by just using a smoke generator with no additional heat from the smoker.

If you still have questions and don't we all I would suggest you read either:

Bearcarvers Tutorial

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/108099/bacon-extra-smoky

Craigs Tutorial (Pops Brine)

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/124885/bacon-made-the-easy-way

These guys are ahead of the curve on makin bacon.

Hope it helps.

I believe that Pop's recipe says 10 to 14 days? You are rushing it a little maybe?
Pop's says 10-14, but other, virtually identical recipes i've seen online say minimum of seven.

The Bearcarvers tutorial says 1 day per half inch, then 2 days for safety. My pieces are sizable, but not tiny, so seven days should suffice. I plan on smoking the bacon tomorrow afternoon (after almost 8 days in the cure). Cured by having it in a large plastic container in the fridge in the curing solution.
 
Question - After I smoke it in my warm smoker, do I need to cook it in the oven, as some recipes I have seen online state, before frying it up?
 
It was a complete success.

Smoked it until the internal temp hit 150 then took it off the smoker.

Put it in the fridge overnight and cut it today.

Meet one of our lovely pieces of pork belly (Not the one pictured in the following pictures):


Here's it all sliced up:


It's ready to go in the oven!


It's cooking!


And here we have some of the finished slices:

 
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