# Honey Cured Bacon



## fatback joe (Dec 27, 2009)

Got my hands on some belly pieces a week ago and decided to give the honey cure a try.

Just salt, instacure 1, and honey.

4 pieces totaling around 5 pounds








Put it in a 5 gallon ziploc with the cure







Flipped it once a day for a week.  About 1/2 way through I had to remove everything from the fridge in the garage (long story) and when I did, managed to pour about 1/2 of the liquid in my shoe............wasn't pleased, but no real harm done other than a shoe that smelled like honey and a mess to clean up. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





After a week took it out of the cure for a pre smoke scrubbing







Smoked it with a mix of hickory and apple........didn't take a pic after smoking and pre slicing. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Sliced and ready to bag.........







Overall it was pretty good, but I think  I prefer more of a traditional flavor over the honey cure.........never know until you try.

Thanks for looking.


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## beer-b-q (Dec 27, 2009)

Looks Great Joe...


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## mossymo (Dec 27, 2009)

Nice looking bacon, but no pics of the smoked shoe !!!


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## the dude abides (Dec 27, 2009)

Great looking bacon.  Congrats!


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## DanMcG (Dec 27, 2009)

NIce looking bacon Joe.


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## treegje (Dec 27, 2009)

This would be good for bacon with egg, great job


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## cheapchalee (Dec 27, 2009)

Nice looking bacon, looks like you sliced it on the thick side.  Nice Qview.

Charlie


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## Bearcarver (Dec 27, 2009)

Looks great Joe !
Thanks for the info on the honey. With my first bacon (11 lb belly), I added about 8 ounces of Maple Syrup with the cure, to all. I didn't really taste it after all was finished-----So why bother.

Warning ! Joe----Do not go outside with those shoes on, unless you can outrun all of the neighborhood dogs, raccoons, foxes, and any other carnivores within a 5 mile radius!!!

Bearcarver


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## fatback joe (Dec 27, 2009)

Shoe wasn't smoked, just cured.  LOL


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## alx (Dec 27, 2009)

Looks awesome and tanks for the observations...


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## bigtrain74 (Dec 27, 2009)

Looks great Joe!!! Im glad you finally got to use those bellies. Hope your holiday was a nice one!


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## erain (Dec 27, 2009)

nice job Joe!!! i prefer the traditional as well too, the honey bacon you have to be careful with cause it burns so easy when frying it up. great looking stuff though, looks like a great cure.


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## byounghusband (Dec 28, 2009)

Bear,
Thanks for that note!! I was just wondering about that. I am not a fan of Maple Bacon, so I probably won't use any either...


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## marknb (Jan 5, 2010)

Hey Joe,

Unfortunately my office computer won't allow me to view most Q-view.  Can you tell me what you use to scrub the extra salt and cure off the outside prior to smoking?  

I did about 8lbs of bacon during the Christmas break, and it is SALTY!  A little poaching prior to frying helps a lot though, pretty good for a first attempt.  I have it on good advice I should've spent more time rinsing the extra salt off before I smoked it.  Gonna do better next time...

Cheers,

Mark B


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## scarbelly (Jan 5, 2010)

That is some good looking bacon. Cant wait to try some - my TQ is on the way


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## fatback joe (Jan 5, 2010)

I just use water and a dish brush......no special equipment.  Really, I don't even give it that good of a scrubbing.


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## walle (Jan 5, 2010)

Mark B - 
When I did mine, I found that using the spray hose from my faucet worked really good.
Also, did you soak your bacon in fresh water prior to smoking?


Fatback Joe - Great looking bacon!


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## marknb (Jan 6, 2010)

Hey Walle, I was told NOT to soak it. Now I'm thinking a little soaking wouldn't be such a bad idea. For how long do you think?


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## pignit (Jan 6, 2010)

*Shweeeeeeet!*







If your not going to soak a piece of cured meat to lower the salt content... you can use warm water to rinse it off and do a short soak and another rinse. The warm water will take the cure off better than the cold water.


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## pineywoods (Jan 6, 2010)

I missed this thread earlier good looking bacon Joe


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## udsisbest (Jan 6, 2010)

Bacon really looks great


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## walle (Jan 7, 2010)

Mark - I'm no expert by any means, but when I did my batch, I was using whole bellies off of full grown hogs - right at 8# each.  I soaked these in cold water for 1.5 hours total with one water change in the middle somewhere and they turned out very good.

For a smaller piece of meat, I would go for 30 minutes and slice and fry to test.

Tracey


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## marknb (Jan 7, 2010)

Thanks Tracey, mine was around 8# too.  Same old story, every time I try something new, I tend to rush things rather than think things through (like stuffing sausaged before I fry test the batch).  Of course I could've cut off a piece and fried it before smoking!  Just wasn't thinking clearly.


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## polarlys (Jan 7, 2010)

One of my first attempts at bacon went astray when I purchased the bellies and without knowing any better I got bellies from smaller pigs and they were very thin.  Consequently they absorbed a lot of salt and I had to put some water in the pan when frying, pour it out and then continue the frying process.  Part of the learning curve.  Have not had any problems with that since.  

Yours looks great though.  Keep up the good work.


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