# Smoking bacon for long term (6-12month) storage



## salahaddin (Dec 17, 2014)

Hey guys,

Can you recommend some recipes for curing and smoking bacon for long term storage? Something that will last me 6 months to a year and maybe even longer.

Cheers!


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## themule69 (Dec 17, 2014)

salahaddin said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Can you recommend some recipes for curing and smoking bacon for long term storage? Something that will last me 6 months to a year and maybe even longer.
> 
> Cheers!


Any cured and smoked bacon will last for longer than a year if stored correctly. I vacuum seal mine.Take a look at POP's wet cure for an easy wet cure. I have used it as well as dry cure.













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Happy smoken.

David


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## daveomak (Dec 17, 2014)

Do you want shelf stable bacon or are you freezing it.....



You have seen this in your other thread.....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/103229/ready-to-eat-bacon


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## salahaddin (Dec 17, 2014)

DaveOmak said:


> Do you want shelf stable bacon or are you freezing it.....


Fridge stable.


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## daveomak (Dec 17, 2014)

Use AK-1's recipe in the link above...  I  would not wrap the bacon..... I would leave it in air with circulation in the refer...  It will continue to dry over time...   AK use cure #1 and I'm taking a stab here at about 200 Ppm.....


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## salahaddin (Dec 17, 2014)

DaveOmak said:


> Use AK-1's recipe in the link above... I would not wrap the bacon..... I would leave it in air with circulation in the refer... It will continue to dry over time... AK use cure #1 and I'm taking a stab here at about 200 Ppm.....


Thanks Dave, I used some of the recipes in the old thread, and none of them came out too good, I'm not sure where I went wrong. The bacon became really tough after air drying in the fridge, and the only thing i could do with it was to put it in beans or cabbage. Couldn't eat it as fried bacon.


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## rgautheir20420 (Dec 17, 2014)

salahaddin said:


> Thanks Dave, I used some of the recipes in the old thread, and none of them came out too good, I'm not sure where I went wrong. The bacon became really tough after air drying in the fridge, and the only thing i could do with it was to put it in beans and cabbage. Couldn't eat it as bacon.


When you're air drying products like this it's important to maintain a humidity level so that what you're talking about doesn't happen. A fridge is a very low humidity environment. A 65-75% humidity level is good for even drying and enhancing flavor. I'd imagine a cellar would be a nice cool moist environment for something like this. It would be great if AK could chime in and share that info.


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## daveomak (Dec 17, 2014)

salahaddin said:


> Thanks Dave, I used some of the recipes in the old thread, and none of them came out too good, I'm not sure where I went wrong. The bacon became really tough after air drying in the fridge, and the only thing i could do with it was to put it in beans or cabbage. Couldn't eat it as fried bacon.



Basically, you are looking at "bacon" jerky....    Heck, slice it really thin and dip it in a praline coating...  

You could try steaming it....  that may rehydrate it without "over cooking"...


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## salahaddin (Dec 17, 2014)

DaveOmak said:


> Basically, you are looking at "bacon" jerky.... Heck, slice it really thin and dip it in a praline coating...
> 
> You could try steaming it.... that may rehydrate it without "over cooking"...


That's an interesting idea, I've been going through some old "motherland" recipes, and they boiled the piece of meat for 15 minutes between dry curing and smoking.

Is there any way to avoid this bacon jerky in the first place :D ?


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## rgautheir20420 (Dec 17, 2014)

salahaddin said:


> That's an interesting idea, I've been going through some old "motherland" recipes, and they boiled the piece of meat for 15 minutes between dry curing and smoking.
> 
> Is there any way to avoid this bacon jerky in the first place :D ?


You need make sure you're drying the bacon in a moist cool environment. Mid 50's and humidity level of around 75%.


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## daveomak (Dec 17, 2014)

salahaddin said:


> That's an interesting idea, I've been going through some old "motherland" recipes, and they boiled the piece of meat for 15 minutes between dry curing and smoking.
> 
> Is there any way to avoid this bacon jerky in the first place :D ?



It has to be dry to get the aW level low enough to not support bacteria etc..


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## salahaddin (Dec 19, 2014)

Well, small update. This is the recipe i decided to go with for the dry cure:

5lbs of porc belly

7g of cure #1

30g of brown sugar

150g of coarse salt

Put it all over the meat, put that in a ziploc and stuck it in the fridge. Going to leave it there for a total of 7-10 days. I'll let it form a pellicle for about 12 hours and then cold smoke for 10h. Was also considering of doing a warmer smoke, maybe at 100-150 degrees.

What do you guys think?


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