# Even more easy bacon *pops*



## senator (Aug 14, 2011)

2x 1.1 lbs of pork bellie using pops recipe. Only change to Pops recipe was the addition of some juniper berries, peppercorns and bay leaves. I also boiled the brine for 10 minutes then cooled it to under 4 degrees before putting the bellies in.

After 6 days I removed one of the bellies, I'm leaving the other to cure longer. Pics below are the for 6 day piece.

Pork and brine smelt good, no foul odour, cloudyness or scum. Pork smelt like pork still.

'grey' side is the side that was in contact with the brine. nice pink side is the colour from the middle of the piece.








Slice:







Cooked:







I cooked it quite well done... This was green, next step is to smoke it!

Flavour was good, a bit sweet and a bit salty. Could taste the pork too. I'm fairly happy with it in its green state, tastes like good bacon.


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## SmokinAl (Aug 14, 2011)

Looking forward to the final product!


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## senator (Aug 22, 2011)

Smoked it in a bradley portable propane smoker with Hickory for around 4 hours.

The bradley's are pretty vicious, really pumps through a whole lot of smoke.

Here's the finished product, took it to 140F internally in the meat, smoker was around 210F.







Pellicle after 24 hours







After 4 hours in the Bradley







Finished product - looks good.







Cooked!

Tastes great- tiny bit sweet for me, will halve the sugar next time. But great all round!!


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## pops6927 (Aug 22, 2011)

So glad you liked it, and that's the beauty about a wet brine, you can adjust and modify it to your liking, adding more ingredients, changing them for different flavorings, etc.  This is a basic brine - your imagination is limitless!


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## exhaustedspark (Aug 22, 2011)

When you say cooled it to under 4 Degrees are you saying the liquid was at 4 degrees F. ???????

I thought it would be a block of ice by then. I have never done one so i am asking.

Karl


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## mdboatbum (Aug 22, 2011)

ExhaustedSpark said:


> When you say cooled it to under 4 Degrees are you saying the liquid was at 4 degrees F. ???????
> 
> 
> I thought it would be a block of ice by then. I have never done one so i am asking.
> ...



I'm guessing from his polite grammar and spelling of the words "colour" and "odour" that he may hail from outside the land of fahrenheit. Hence, I'm guessing he's referring to 4˚ C, just above freezing.


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## exhaustedspark (Aug 22, 2011)

Mdboatbum said:


> ExhaustedSpark said:
> 
> 
> > When you say cooled it to under 4 Degrees are you saying the liquid was at 4 degrees F. ???????
> ...


That would make sense. I have been looking for pops recipe on bacon hopefully that will have the info on it.

tnx

Karl


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## venture (Aug 22, 2011)

Nice looking bacon.

Good luck and good smoking.


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## alelover (Aug 22, 2011)

Nice looking bacon. 4C = 39F


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## roller (Aug 22, 2011)

Nice bacon....


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## senator (Aug 23, 2011)

Mdboatbum said:


> I'm guessing from his polite grammar and spelling of the words "colour" and "odour" that he may hail from outside the land of fahrenheit. Hence, I'm guessing he's referring to 4˚ C, just above freezing.


I've been outed! I'm an Australian, and have been trying to stick to fahrenheit, pounds but I got caught out there. Yes, it is 4C...

I used Pops recipe, can't quite remember which thread I found it in... I also added bay leaves, pepper corns and juniper berries. I also hard boiled the brine for 10 minutes then cooled before starting the brining process.

?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?"Just to toss a big ol' wrench right in the middle of this..... try *WET curing**  *instead of dry curing ... mix up ½ cup to 1 cup salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup plain ol' sugar, 1 tbsp. pink salt, and 1 gallon of water.  Dump your meat in a bucket, cover it with brine, let it sit for 5 - 7 days in the fridge, don't flip it, don't massage it, don't examine it.. just let it sit and cure.  Make up multiple batches as necessary or partial batches to cover it in brine. Toss a ziploc gallon bag half full of water (push the air out) on top of it to weight it down first.  After it cures, dump the brine, fry test (you don't need to soak ("freshen") it either!), smoke and enjoy!"


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## exhaustedspark (Aug 23, 2011)

senator said:


> I've been outed! I'm an Australian


Hey Senator.

I have a Sister in law Down under. Do you know her? Her name is ruth. Tell her i said hey or gday or whatever it is yall say.

You do know every one on that island (Australia) right?  I heard it is allmost as big as Texas.

Happy Smokin

Karl


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## bluebombersfan (Aug 23, 2011)

MMMMMMMMMMMMM............BACON.............


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## Bearcarver (Aug 23, 2011)

Looks Great from here Senator !!!

Thanks for the views!!!!

Bear


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## africanmeat (Aug 23, 2011)

Hi Aussie  this is a great looking  bacon mate Well done


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## laszlo (Aug 26, 2011)

ExhaustedSpark said:


> Hey Senator.
> 
> I have a Sister in law Down under. Do you know her? Her name is ruth. Tell her i said hey or gday or whatever it is yall say.
> 
> ...









@ senator - well done mate. Your bacon is beaut.


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## senator (Aug 26, 2011)

thanks everyone for the encouragement and feedback. I've eaten it all now :-)

Next batch I'm going to reduce the sugar and cure time. The long cured piece was 14 days, I'm going to drop it back to 10. I might do a cold smoke next time too.

I'm also going to skip the juniper berries and bay leaves, not sure they added anything.

There was a slight ash smell to the meat too, although I couldn't taste it- I think the brickettes must have ignited at some point in the bradley.

Otherwise, it was great fun - I'm looking forward to batch 2- will post it up once I've done it.


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