# 1st crack at bacon



## starrider (Apr 14, 2013)

Well, after a month and a half of research and driving my wife absolutely crazy, I pulled the trigger and picked up 15 lbs. of belly from a local carcineria  (Mexican meat market). The price was right at $1.69 per lb., but it was frozen. I live in a heavy agricultural area, so finding a supplier of fresh pasture raised pig will be a goal for future attempts. Finding pink salt was a little more difficult. I ended up ordering it online from Butcher and Packer for $3.50 a lb. Best price I could find. I cut the belly into 3 manageable slabs, and trimmed off the loose ends. A simple dry cure of 1/4 Kosher salt, 1 heaped tsp. of pink salt and 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar was rubbed in. Then into 2 gallon bags.. On one slab I substituted half the sugar with honey, made a hell of a mess in the ziplock. But everything seems to be going according to plan, 24 hours into the cure and there's quite a bit of liquid already pulled out of the slabs. My plan is for a 7 day cure, an hour or two desalination soak after a thorough rinse, an overnight rest to form the pellicle and an early morning smoke on my Treager Lil Tex with hickory and applewood. Pics to follow, wish me luck!


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## starrider (Apr 14, 2013)

Thats 1/4 cup Kosher salt...


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## dirtsailor2003 (Apr 14, 2013)

Sounds like you are on the right track. You didn't mention it, but did you weigh each piece and mix separate batches of cure for each piece? For dry curing you really need to do that and add the cure by weight for each individual slab. Martin's Calculator should be used:

http://diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

Anyways with that said if your slabs were right at 5#'s each your 1 teaspoon of cure would be close.

Prior to soaking your bacon, do a fry test to see if you really need to soak it or not. You may not.

Are you doing a cold smoke or hot with the Treager?

And remember,


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## starrider (Apr 14, 2013)

I didn't weigh them, but after trimming I'm figureing each was just a hair under 5 lbs. I had two similar recipes for the cure, one said 1 tsp and the other said 2 tsp of pink salt for 5 lbs., so I kinda split the difference and used 1 not too heaping tsp. I did mix each batch separately. I will do a fry test before the soak, and I'm gonna smoke as cool as the Treager allows, probably at around 180 degrees, until I get an internal temp of 150 degrees. I have some ideas for utilizing a drum type charcoal grill coupled to the Treager with some flexible dryer vent duct as a cold smoker. Probably easier to just pick up an a-maze-n smoker for the drum grill.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Apr 14, 2013)

If you don't have a way to weigh the meat, and cure I would recommend that you use this method for your next try:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine

The Amaz-N-Smoker is the way to go. My Cousin has a Treager and we used my 18" AMNTS in it for a cold smoke on some eggs and other things a while back worked great. I have both the 18" and 2" AMNTS and wouldn't trade them for anything!


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## fpnmf (Apr 14, 2013)

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


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## starrider (Apr 14, 2013)




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## starrider (Apr 16, 2013)

I've spent countless hours perusing  innumerable wesites, devouring information with the same voracious appetite that I plan on attacking my bacon with. But NOWHERE did I read that the wait during the cure would be so excruciating. In a world of instant gratification, a week is a lifetime...


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