# Bacon 1st Timer



## rgautheir20420 (Dec 24, 2014)

First time doing bacon. Did 2% salt 1% dark brown sugar and .35% Cure #1. Cut the slab into 4 pieces, weighed the spices and rubbed, and bagged them. Sitting in the fridge now. 













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## daveomak (Dec 24, 2014)

Looks mighty good so far....    See you after New Years....    Dave


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## disco (Dec 24, 2014)

I love bacon! I love home made bacon more! Watching!

Disco


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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 2, 2015)

Well they are out of the cure and hanging out in the fridge for a day or so. They are a nice color as of now. Did a fry test and it's amazing. Salty with a slight sweetness. I'm gonna do a test on just one of them and mop a bit of local honey a dust it with pepper before smoking. More to come later!













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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 3, 2015)

They're in the smoke! Full AMNPS of Pecan dust. 













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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 3, 2015)

They're done. A few finished pictures and a concern/question for the pros. The last couple pictures show some small black spots on a couple of the pieces. They weren't there when smoking began and they look to be small localized burn marks. Any ideas?













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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 3, 2015)

Found this thread. 

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/156245/when-is-it-to-cold-to-cold-smoke-bacon

The spots look exactly the same so that's what I'm going with. Thankfully there are only a few and they shouldn't effect the final tastes because they're so small. I'll be slicing these up in a couple days.


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## pc farmer (Jan 3, 2015)

Slabs look great.  I wouldnt worry about them spots.


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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 3, 2015)

c farmer said:


> Slabs look great.  I wouldnt worry about them spots.



Thanks c farmer. They took on some great color!


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## disco (Jan 4, 2015)

I'm with cfarmer. I get the spots occasionally but they have never affected the bacon and I ignore them.

Terrific looking bacon! 

Disco


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## rgautheir20420 (Jan 5, 2015)

Disco said:


> I'm with cfarmer. I get the spots occasionally but they have never affected the bacon and I ignore them.
> 
> Terrific looking bacon!
> 
> Disco


Thanks Disco. It's VERY good. Saran wrapped it this morning and into the freezer it went to sleep until I get my slicer (this week) and get them sliced up.


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## disco (Jan 5, 2015)

rgautheir20420 said:


> Thanks Disco. It's VERY good. Saran wrapped it this morning and into the freezer it went to sleep until I get my slicer (this week) and get them sliced up.


You are now doomed to never go back to store bought.

Disco


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## rgautheir20420 (Feb 12, 2015)

So I haven't done anymore bacon yet....I've got belly in m fridge right now. However, my mom and dad came up to Chicago to visit from New Orleans and my dad had a chance to try my bacon. Apparently, it's the only thing he's been able to talk about since he's been back in NO, so I got a call to help him make some. Talk about tears to my eyes! He used the exact proportions noted in this thread and walked him through the process. The only thing he added was a brush of maple syrup before the smoke. That's where that small pool of liquid comes from in one of the photos. It's really quite easy. He used a digital electric Cajun Injector smoker that he'd had sitting in his garage for 3 years not getting used. He also bought Todd's AMNPS and picked up a bag of apple pellets from Bass Pro shop. He used a full load of apple pellets and got just about a 10 hours burn. I must say, I'm proud of the man. The bacon looks amazing!













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