# 19lbs of belly in progress



## brandon91 (Jun 30, 2015)

SO..

I have 14 8ft tall tomato plants growing atm so I'm in need of some serious bacon for BLTs this summer.

Rubbed down with dry cure and vac packed, using maple sugar @ 2%. Into the beer fridge, see you in 10 days.

It has been over 105F here for over 2 weeks and only signs of heating up, so I'm not sure how much of a cold smoke this will be 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			


















bacon.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jun 30, 2015


















bacon2.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jun 30, 2015


----------



## dert (Jul 3, 2015)

Looking good!


----------



## twoalpha (Jul 3, 2015)

Going to be a lot of good samys for sure.

Will be watching

Larry


----------



## sabatour (Jul 9, 2015)

Will be interesting to see how the cold smoke works out in that temp - I am in Arkansas and at this point with the rain and temp pretty much conceded to wait until fall to cold smoke anything else. 

Also does the cure work well in a vacuum seal?


----------



## brandon91 (Jul 11, 2015)

Ended up pulling the bacon at 12 days instead of 10, cut a belly in half to make sure it cured properly and did a fry test. Came out perfectly. This is some really meaty bacon!













asdf1.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jul 11, 2015






Hung the bellies in the MES40













asdf2.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jul 11, 2015






Lit up the AMNPS with a layer of hickory and a layer of apple wood, some great smells

at this point. 













asdf3.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jul 11, 2015






Some nice clean smoke coming out of the stack.













asdf4.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jul 11, 2015






Going to smoke overnight I'm guessing 10-14 hours until it really starts to heat up outside then I'll pull it, followed by a 2-3 day rest.


----------



## brandon91 (Jul 11, 2015)

Sabatour said:


> Will be interesting to see how the cold smoke works out in that temp - I am in Arkansas and at this point with the rain and temp pretty much conceded to wait until fall to cold smoke anything else.
> 
> Also does the cure work well in a vacuum seal?


Ya I didn't think it would work well during the day so I'm doing it at night, we had a cooler week so it worked out. This is the temp the smoker is holding after 45min.













temp.jpg



__ brandon91
__ Jul 11, 2015


----------



## smokin phil (Jul 11, 2015)

I envy you guys. Stuck making BBB instead of real bacon, as I can't find belly around here for reasonable price. $8/lb ain't gonna cut it.


----------



## mneeley490 (Jul 11, 2015)

Smokin Phil, how much are pork butts in your area? I find a couple of fatty ones, and slice off the first 2" under the fat. Makes for a remarkable belly substitute.


----------



## smokin phil (Jul 11, 2015)

mneeley490 said:


> Smokin Phil, how much are pork butts in your area? I find a couple of fatty ones, and slice off the first 2" under the fat. Makes for a remarkable belly substitute.



Pork butts are cheap. I can get then for $2 or less/lb. Right now they're $1.49/lb. I'll have to try that.


----------



## steiny (Jul 17, 2015)

Have you talked to University of Illinois Meat Science Lab  about buying bellies?


----------



## mummel (Jul 17, 2015)

Love it!


----------



## torp3t3d0 (Jul 24, 2015)

put 32 lbs. of belly into pop's brine....15 in a "slap-yo-momma-"Molasses brine and 15 into a Honey-=brown sugar brine...going to let them cure for 14 days in my $3500 brining frig (that I "stoled" from LOWES for $300).  I also am making a gallon of Limoncello (which also take 14 days to cure..)

Went into semi-retirement last week and now will have time to do what I want to do!!!

Paid $2.49 from my local Asian Market....they were asking $4.49 but I asked them to reduce the price and they did


----------



## brandon91 (Nov 25, 2015)

Just realized I completely forgot about this thread, only 4 months late. Lol. Here's how it turned out.


----------

