# A Tale of Two Bacons



## rainyprincess (Apr 11, 2017)

Alright friends, this is my second go at bacon. I'm doing one sweet and one savory. I got 8.67 lbs of pork belly, skin off, for 2.99/lb at Costco and trimmed off about a pound - froze trimmings for sausage later.

SWEET
4 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
3 T cracked black pepper
1/3 C brown sugar
1 T water

SAVORY
3.66 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
4 bay leaves, crushed
3 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp garlic pow
1/4 tsp onion pow
2 T cracked black pepper
3 T brown sugar

Rubbed it down on 4/3/17 and vac packed them, put them in the fridge, flipping and rubbing once per day. Today, on 4/11/17, I pulled them out, rinsed them, dried them in towels and soaked them in ice water for about an hour to get some salt out. Put them on my smoker racks and put them in the fridge to air dry. Plan to leave them there for three days to smoke them this coming Friday (4/14/17) for 12 hours on apple chips at probably 120 or so in my MES 30. I plan to then let them air out in the fridge for another couple days before slicing and vac packing.

Thoughts - I'm thinking I should probably use maple syrup in the future for sweet bacon instead of brown sugar. I bought some Mapleine imitation maple syrup and I'm wanting to try that next time. I also totally shot from the hip on the savory mix so we'll see how that turns out. I also didn't add any more seasoning after soaking them and putting them in the fridge to dry so I'm wondering how much of a difference that makes. 

Here are some shots of what I've done thus far:













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Savory mix













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Sweet mix













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Whole belly













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Sweet belly in vac pack













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Savory belly in vac pack













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Bellys soaking in ice water for an hour. 













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Drying out in towels. 












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On racks drying in the fridge.


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## SmokinAl (Apr 12, 2017)

Looks good so far!

Al


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## daveomak (Apr 12, 2017)

Drying in the refer on racks will intensify the bacon flavor...   You did good.....


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## rainyprincess (Apr 12, 2017)

Awesome, thanks guys. I'll update later this week with how the smoke goes and what I think of the two different recipes.


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## scarps23 (Apr 12, 2017)

Looks good to me. Only done bacon once, but it seems the more time you give to fridge before and after the smoke only helped it. 

I've been wanting to try the maple syrup also along with the brown sugar. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## rainyprincess (Apr 14, 2017)

Okay, I put them in the smoker at 6pm at 120 with apple chips. I'll be getting up throughout the night to check on them and refill the cold smoker attachment and plan to pull them at 6am. Then back to the fridge to rest for a day or two before slicing. 













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## rainyprincess (Apr 15, 2017)

I ended up pulling them at about 5am, so 11 hours in the smoker. Realistically, they might have only gotten about 8 or less hours of smoke because the cold smoker attachment isn't super reliable. The chips always jam and I have to push them down with a stick before filling again. Yes, I have an AMNPS, but don't use it much. Put them in the fridge to rest and I'll probably use my BRAND NEW MEAT SLICER (!!!) in a couple days to slice them up. Then vac pack and freezer time. 













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## dert (Apr 16, 2017)

Looks awesome..:

How long did you let them dry in the fridge and what type of wood did you use; what time do you think it got up to?


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## allingamer (Apr 16, 2017)

Looking awesome. Love making bacon. Curious to see how the savory one turns out


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## rainyprincess (Apr 16, 2017)

Dert said:


> Looks awesome..:
> 
> How long did you let them dry in the fridge and what type of wood did you use; what time do you think it got up to?



Hey Dert, thanks for watching -

I dry cured on 4/3/17, then rinsed and soaked in ice water for an hour on 4/11/17 (did not do a fry test - might be kicking myself on that, we'll see) and put in the fridge to dry unwrapped, just on racks. Smoked on Friday (4/14/17) for 12 hours at 120 on apple chips and then put back in the fridge on racks to air out. Several of the fellas have said it's best to put the belly in the fridge for a few days both after the cure and also after the smoke to concentrate flavors. I think some of them let it rest for more than what I did, but I kinda have a deadline I'm trying to make. I'm going to slice it up later today (4/17/17). I'll be posting pics and also my thoughts on the quality. Really not sure on what temp they got up to. I was "cold" smoking so didn't pay attention.


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## rainyprincess (Apr 17, 2017)

allingamer said:


> Looking awesome. Love making bacon. Curious to see how the savory one turns out



Yeah, I'm not really sure what to expect with either of them actually. Previously I've used real maple syrup instead of brown sugar and as for the savory one I was looking at a few different recipes and then just kind of winged it, merging them. I also didn't do any seasoning at all after I rinsed the cure off. So we'll see. I'm slicing and frying later today so I'll be sure to provide an update. It'll be interesting to see the difference between them.


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## dert (Apr 17, 2017)

Looks good I hope mine turn out like that when I smoke them next weekend !


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## rainyprincess (May 1, 2017)

Alright, it's been longer than I had intended but here are the results. The sweet bacon was good. Nothing crazy, but good. The savory however was very good I thought. Definitely a richer savory flavor. I'd recommend giving that recipe a shot. 

And here is a shot of my new slicer on its maiden voyage. 













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And here's a shot up close. 













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__ May 1, 2017


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## dert (May 2, 2017)

Looks awesome!!!


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## allingamer (May 3, 2017)

Looks good. Nice to hear savory recipe came out good. I need to get myself a nice slicer.


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