# And I'm Off



## GATOR240 (Feb 1, 2019)

I have been putting this off for several months now and I finally decided to make some bacon. I purchased a 9 lb. belly at the local butcher shop and am using Bear's "Bacon Extra Smokey" recipe. I'm going to back off on the smoke somewhat as the wife doesn't care for a lot of smoke. Will post follow up pics.


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## flatbroke (Feb 1, 2019)

very nice. good luck


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## pc farmer (Feb 1, 2019)

Gonna be good


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## chopsaw (Feb 1, 2019)

I agree . Gonna be good . I'm totally hooked on curing .


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## GATOR240 (Feb 1, 2019)

pc farmer said:


> Gonna be good


Hoping so, unless I mess it up. Have used several of Bears recipes, and I know if they don't turn out well it's on me.  -THE FOLLOWING IS TRUE - The wife just said to me not 5 minutes ago "You have big shoes to fill" Thanks my friend! No pressure!!


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## SmokinAl (Feb 2, 2019)

Once you make your own bacon, you won't want the store bought stuff any more!
Al


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## TomKnollRFV (Feb 2, 2019)

And a new addict is drawn in! ;)


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

After 9 days of flipping and massaging the bacon and letting it soak in the sink for an hour, it was time to do the fry test






Placed on clean smoker racks and put it in the beer fridge for a day and a half. I did add CBP to 1/3 of the belly.






Time to smoke  using apple dust. As said before, wife does not like a lot of smoke (she is coming around, so I don't want to push it!) The top rack was smoked for 2hrs the second rack 3hrs and the third for 4hrs.
	

		
			
		

		
	













Slicing the bacon by hand (will remedy that soon)












And the finished product that we had been waiting for......







The bacon turned out very well considering that it wasn't smoked very long. What we both found surprising was the fact that the three racks all tasted a little bit different, but there wasn't a noticeable smokiness to any of them......... my wife even said that it wasn't smokey and that I can put more smoke to the next belly I get!!!   So...........tomorrow I'm going to stop and order another belly and put some serious smoke to it!!!

Thanks for looking!


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## Braz (Feb 14, 2019)

Looks great to me. I hope the Valentines Bunny brought you a slicer.
I think you could have easily added more (longer) smoke without it going overboard. Personally, I like Bear's Extra Smoky version, but that is just me (and the wife).
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bacon-extra-smoky.108099/


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

Braz said:


> Looks great to me. I hope the Valentines Bunny brought you a slicer.
> I think you could have easily added more (longer) smoke without it going overboard. Personally, I like Bear's Extra Smoky version, but that is just me (and the wife).
> https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bacon-extra-smoky.108099/


Thanks Braz. Yeah, I could have added more smoke easily but don't want to turn the wife off, so it's slow and steady!! I think I'll call that belly "her's" and the one I'm ordering tomorrow will be "his"!! I was going to order a slicer last weekend but got busy and forgot about it.


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## smokin peachey (Feb 14, 2019)

Welcome to the bacon club Gator. Looks good.


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

Thanks Peachey. I'm off to the meatcutter tomorrow to get another belly!


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## smokin peachey (Feb 14, 2019)

GATOR240 said:


> Thanks Peachey. I'm off to the meatcutter tomorrow to get another belly!



Sounds fantastic. 

I am starting some hams and bacons this weekend for one of my employees.


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## Bearcarver (Feb 14, 2019)

Your Bacon looks excellent, Denny!!
I think that's a Smart move, breaking her in gradually on the Smoke.
However Mrs Bear doesn't like much, if any Smoke on most things, but She loves my Bacon, BBB, and CB with 11 hours of Hickory from one full AMNPS.
Like.

Bear


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

Bearcarver said:


> Your Bacon looks excellent, Denny!!
> I think that's a Smart move, breaking her in gradually on the Smoke.
> However Mrs Bear doesn't like much, if any Smoke on most things, but She loves my Bacon, BBB, and CB with 11 hours of Hickory from one full AMNPS.
> Like.
> ...


Thank you Bear. Even before I started smoking she wasn't real keen on smoked meat and it is really a wonder that I didn't turn her completely against it when I started smoking!! I think I'm going to go for 11 hours on my next one and use hickory dust in my AMNPS. Thanks for the like!


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## pc farmer (Feb 14, 2019)

Looks awesome Gator and you got the wife's approval too.


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

pc farmer said:


> Looks awesome Gator and you got the wife's approval too.


Thanks Adam..The best of both worlds! Thanks for the like.


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## Winterrider (Feb 14, 2019)

Looks real good. I need to talk with our butcher about getting a belly to try. I like th BB bacon but need to mix it up a little


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## GATOR240 (Feb 14, 2019)

smokin peachey said:


> Sounds fantastic.
> 
> I am starting some hams and bacons this weekend for one of my employees.


You can pretend I'm one of your employees!!


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## chopsaw (Feb 14, 2019)

Gator , looks great bud . Cooked up perfect , love the color . Did you eat it all ? Put some back in for a double smoke .


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## GATOR240 (Feb 15, 2019)

Thanks Chop. We're putting a dent in it. I actually had thought of putting my pepper bacon back in for a double smoke but didn't. I'm probably going to let this one alone and put the smoke to my next one.


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## GATOR240 (Feb 15, 2019)

Thanks Winterrider. i'm sure you will like it.


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## dernektambura (Feb 20, 2019)

Did you just cold smoked for 4 hours at very low temp?


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## GATOR240 (Feb 21, 2019)

dernektambura said:


> Did you just cold smoked for 4 hours at very low temp?


 I averaged between 110° and  127° for the four hours. I followed *Bearcarver's "Step by Step"* for Bacon Extra Smokey - minus the longer smoking time.


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## HalfSmoked (Feb 21, 2019)

Way to go there Denny don't know how I missed this. Great looking bacon for sure not bad hand slicing either. My wife was the same way and she is eating more smoke heavy meat all the time. She was the same way with shoe leather steaks too now mid well.

Warren


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## GATOR240 (Feb 21, 2019)

HalfSmoked said:


> Way to go there Denny don't know how I missed this. Great looking bacon for sure not bad hand slicing either. My wife was the same way and she is eating more smoke heavy meat all the time. She was the same way with shoe leather steaks too now mid well.
> 
> Warren


Thank you Warren and thank you for the like. I ordered another belly last week but it won't be in until next week.  As so many have said before and nailed it - "you won't be buying store bought any more" - that's for sure! I put the bacon in the freezer for a little over an hour to firm up before I sliced it. Once time was enough to slice by hand...that will be remedied soon!


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