# Cold smoked BBB with a bourbon cure



## gersus (Jul 28, 2012)

I haven't messed around with cooking at home with Bourbon but about everything I've had that has been cooked with bourbon has been awesome so I'm trying my hand at adding this awesome flavor to the awesomest of smokes, bacon. :)

*BBB is buckboard bacon, meaning it's cut from a pork butt. If you need more info plz use the search tool. There is a great tutorial here on butterflying a butt for this purpose. :)

I found a recipe in James Rockwell's book that included bourbon so I am using that. It's the usual basic mix of cure, salt, brown sugar, garlic then adds thyme, toasted fennel and coriander, and of course bourbon. He says coffee also works well in lieu of the bourbon. 

I am doing two slabs of BBB. I toasted the fennel and coriander, weighed the slabs, measured the appropriate amount of Morton's Tender Quick, mixed all dry ingredients, then added the bourbon and mixed some more. Then I poured the smelly concoction over the meat in a ziploc and mixed well. 







Next time I think I'll use wild turkey ;)
Behind the bottle is the BBB all mixed up and in ziplocs. 

That was on 7/17. Dont forget to massage the meat every say or two  I was going to smoke it the other day but I've had a horrible bout of bronchitis. Yuck! I'm better but still weak. 

Here we go, smoke day! 
I pulled the slabs out of the fridge. They were nice and firm with good color. Rinsed them off and soaked them in ice water for 45 minutes. 
Here's a pic of the beautiful color! 






Since I'm cold smoking I didn't need to preheat the smokehouse. Seemed kind of odd not to. After soaking I drained them off and placed them on a rack. 







Here they are in the smokehouse







I placed my Maverick probe near the meat to monitor smokehouse temps. It was 81 when it went in. 

After two hours of drying time, I added the AMNPS with two rows of pure maple pellets. I've never used solely maple so I hope it burns well. It lit well and I don't usually have any problems in the smokehouse so it should. 







Yep! It's smoking well! The maverick reads 100, just right. No heat source other than the AMNPS. It's 91 here right now outside. The smokehouse is on the north side of the house in the shade a lot (not yet though) so hopefully temps will stay low. 
Two hours of smoke so far. Will update later.


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## diggingdogfarm (Jul 28, 2012)

Cool!

Bourbon bacon and jerky are big favorites of mine.


~Martin


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## dragonmaster194 (Jul 28, 2012)

Waiting for more info and final product!  I am going to try bacon in my cold smoker as soon as I finish it.  Love Burbon, but can't drink it any more(Diabetes) so would like to try it.  Also a good Scotch!  Steve


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## gersus (Jul 28, 2012)

Just pulled them off. 10 hrs total, 8 with smoke. 







In the fridge, will slice tomorrow after a short trip in the freezer to firm up. Thanks for looking!


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## dragonmaster194 (Jul 28, 2012)

Looks excellent, waiting for the taste test.  Curious if you can taste that good bourbon.  Steve


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## gersus (Jul 29, 2012)

Meat was placed in the freezer for about an hour to make slicing manageable. 













Smell that???

You can definitely taste the bourbon. The fennel and coriander gives it a funky taste, IMO. the wife liked it at first till the fennel/coriander kicked in. 

May try omitting it in the future. Will still be good on a sandwich and definitely in certain dishes that could use those flavors.


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## dragonmaster194 (Jul 29, 2012)

Yes I can smell it!  Glad to hear that the bourbon taste is there.  I will try this as mu first test bacon.  That is some fine looking bacon btw.  Steve


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## deuce (Jul 29, 2012)

That looks Excellent! I like the bourbon idea.


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## donr (Jul 31, 2012)

I tried some Vanilla Bourbon bacon before.  Just a hint of vanilla.  Quite tasty.


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