# Sriracha Jalepeno Buckboard Bacon (and bellie bacon)



## mikewysuph (May 2, 2015)

Getting down to the bare bottom of our Buckboard Bacon stash so yep, you guessed it, time to make some more.

Last time I made 25 lbs of BBB. Some maple, some cracked black pepper, some plain and some a combination of them all. But as in all things smoking, I've got to experiment a bit more. This time with some spice.

I found 3 shoulders at about 3# a piece, and some beautiful bellies that measured out to about 9#, so around 18# all together.

I did 3 different treatments to the shoulders:

1) Just the High Mountain BBB cure (for the wife and kids)

2) The same cure with with a healthy splash of Sriracha sauce (I'm guessing this won't be very good, but I had to try.)

3) Same cure with around 3T of ground jalepeno powder mixed in (really excited for this test....I've got high hopes.)

Did 3 different treatments to the bellies. Since I was running out of the BBB cure, I whipped up some Pop's brine.

1) Just with Pop's brine. Thanks again Pops.

2) Pop's brine with a healthy dose of a really good commercial pork rub (really excited for this one too.)

3) Pop's brine with a healthy dose of gourmet applewood-smoked salt (probably gonna have to soak this one for a long time.)

Shoulders got wrapped and bagged and in the fridge. Bellies in Zip-locks for 13-14 days.

Here they are soaking after the 2 week cure/brine:













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__ mikewysuph
__ May 2, 2015


















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Did fry tests and really had to soak 'em. About 4 hours total. Here they are ready to dry out overnight:













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__ mikewysuph
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Here they are loaded in the cold smoker. Got the AMAZN tray loaded with hickory and Pitmaster's dust, along with some Pitmaster pellets sprinkled on top. And also have a little fan to help circulate air. Being in Colorado and with my set-up, this has been the only way to keep the tray lit for a whole run.













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__ mikewysuph
__ May 2, 2015






Here's the little leanto roof I built on the side of our garage. Contrary to popular belief, I definitely 100% DID NOT build this roof to have a dedicated, out of the elements, space for my smokers. Nope, definitely DID NOT do that at all. LOL













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__ mikewysuph
__ May 2, 2015






Got 'em in around 10 this morning (Saturday). I'll let it hum all day and maybe all day tomorrow. I'll see what kind of color we get after today.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!


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## themule69 (May 2, 2015)

It does sound tasty. Keep the pics coming and let us know how it turns out.

Happy smoken.

David


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## dave17a (May 3, 2015)

It all Sounds great. Did my homemade chipoltle powder on a belly. Did Bear's tq recipe. Sprinkled the powder on liberally with cure. Did not soak after. Oh yea, doubled brown sugar. Salty, sweet and then heat in that order of taste. Think next time will sprinkle powder after slicing. Didn't seem that hot, but warm. Let us know results. Seen Shirraca at Wallyworld. Good Luck!


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## rmmurray (May 3, 2015)

I'm looking forward to it. Great job so far. I'm watching!
:popcorn


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## mikewysuph (May 4, 2015)

Well, that AMAZN smoker just keeps on humming so I've kept going!













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__ mikewysuph
__ May 4, 2015






I'll pull them tonight and let them rest for a bit. Thanks for looking.


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## mikewysuph (May 4, 2015)

Pulled the bacon from the smoker finally. 3 days was enough! They had a strong smoke aroma no doubt. ;-)

Here's when they were pulled from the smoker:













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__ May 4, 2015






The color was diverse and amazing. Very happy so far.

Here's a close-up of the bellies. Beautiful! There's a weird yellow tinge to these pics that aren't there in real life. Oh well.













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__ May 4, 2015






Here's a closeup of the shoulders. They look like jerky!













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The bacon is now resting happily in the fridge. Unfortunately my company sold our Hobart slicer.....so I'm not sure what the path of least resistance is for slicing at this point. I'll let you know.

As always, thanks for coming along for the ride...I can't wait to try this stuff!


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## dave17a (May 7, 2015)

Aint that funny. Yellow freaks ya out on fat. No green Eat it.Had some greenish once on edge, tasted bad. Cut it off restwas great


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## pc farmer (May 7, 2015)

Looks great.

You say shoulders?   Did they have the shank still on?


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## dirtsailor2003 (May 7, 2015)

Tasty looking bacon!


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## themule69 (May 8, 2015)

Looks really good. I have a large slicing knife I got from a restaurant supply that works

well when I have a small batch and don't want to clean a big slicer.













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__ themule69
__ May 19, 2013






Happy smoken.

David


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## dave17a (May 8, 2015)

So how was the shirraca bacon, important ?


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## dave17a (May 8, 2015)

That looked stupid. Taste good, hot? Important to me on shirraca bacon.













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__ Apr 20, 2015
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## dave17a (May 8, 2015)

themule69 said:


> Looks really good. I have a large slicing knife I got from a restaurant supply that works
> 
> well when I have a small batch and don't want to clean a big slicer.
> 
> ...


Man, gotta get a nice sharp nife to do that. Old slicer could fault anytime.


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## dave17a (May 8, 2015)

Knife


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## mikewysuph (May 10, 2015)

cfarmer:

— no bone. Got them from our local Asian market. Absolutely beautiful. I haven't been able to buy boneless shoulders from my major grocer in months....maybe years now.

David:

— this was a big pain. I could of used a bigger, better, sharper knife. But you gotta do what you gotta do....arthritis and all!

TASTE TEST (my favorite part of the process):

The biggest surprise were what I thought would be the spicy stuff. *The spice did not translate 100% to the final product.* Which was totally weird, considering that the sriracha is a bit warm, and the jalapeno powder I bought was SUPER hot to the tongue. But adding it to the cure didn't translate. The final bacon was not hot at all....even according to my wife who hates hot food.

*SRIRACHA BACON was really great.* That combination of spices lended really nicely to Pop's brine.* The final product didn't taste like sriracha at all*, just a different flavor profile that was really unexpected, but really great, *dave17a*. Please give it a shot if you have an interest. It's different, but still comforting at the same time.

*Same with the Jalapeno Bacon.* The Jalapeno flavor was small, with just a mild heat increase. But that small heat uptick was constant throughout the tasting. Really delicious.

*SMOKED GARLIC SALT BACON*: Fabulous. Might be my favorite flavor of them all. I could just chew on a piece of this stuff for hours. Again, it wasn't too garlicky, or smokey, or anything. Just the great Pop's brine flavor with a slight garlic kick. Really really good.

Another favorite was the pork rub added to the brine. Really great flavor.....but it's a commercial rub. Too hard to replicate, but still fantastic.

All other flavors were tried-n-true of the High Mountain BBB cure and Pop's Brine with no other additives.

Here's a pic of the final haul:













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__ mikewysuph
__ May 10, 2015






15#s

Bear-view:













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__ May 10, 2015






:-)  Thanks for following along!

Make your own bacon!!!


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## mikewysuph (May 10, 2015)

My next Jalapeno Bacon test will include fresh, chopped/diced jalapenos (with seeds) to see if I can't infuse more jalapeno heat in the bacon. And maybe add some jalapeno flesh to the Sriracha cure as well...... we'll see!


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## delbbq (Jun 4, 2015)

The juice from pickled jalapenos adds alot of zip and flavour to things.


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