# belly and jowl bacon -



## shellbellc (Feb 25, 2011)

Here is our 4th bacon project this winter.  One belly I used a maple cure from sausage maker, the other belly I used charcuterie recipe for maple cure bacon but I used hickory syrup instead of maple syrup.  10 day in the cure, 48 hour cold smoke over cherry wood using a-maze-n smoker.
































































Jowl bacon slice up.







Jowl sliced













Going in the oven































We really like the hickory bacon, unfortunately the cost of hickory syrup is quite high!  Haven't tried the jowl's yet...bacon is really good!


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## redneck69 (Feb 25, 2011)

Bacon...that looks awesome!!


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## tyotrain (Feb 25, 2011)

Man O Man that looks real good.. nice job


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## cowgirl (Feb 25, 2011)

Looks better than excellent Shell!!  I love jowl bacon.


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## fpnmf (Feb 25, 2011)

Great pictures and awsome bacon!!

  Craig


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## Bearcarver (Feb 25, 2011)

Awesome looking Bacon, Neighbor!!!

Thanks for the great views!!!

Bear


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## DanMcG (Feb 25, 2011)

All those pic's look delicious, great job!!!

I never heard of hichory syrup but I bet it's real tastey.


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## tjohnson (Feb 25, 2011)

Great Looking Bacon!

TJ


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## smokingeagle (Feb 25, 2011)

Good looking bacon.


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## metal man (Feb 25, 2011)

Thanks for taken the time to post the "Bacon View".

Looks great,good job.


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## shellbellc (Feb 28, 2011)

DanMcG said:


> All those pic's look delicious, great job!!!
> 
> I never heard of hichory syrup but I bet it's real tastey.


There is only one place on line that I've found it, I think the take the bark from a shagbark hickory tree and boil the bark.  It's not as sweet as maple but it really had a great flavor on the bacon.


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## ak1 (Mar 4, 2011)

Great looking bacon!

You've inspired me to make my own batch of hickory syrup.


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## chefrob (Mar 4, 2011)

looks like great stuff..............


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## Bearcarver (Mar 4, 2011)

ShellBell,

I forgot to mention---Being a pure, born & bred Yankee, the first time I ever heard of a "Jowl" was on the Beverly Hillbillies!

Sounded good to me then, but not near as good as your "Jowl Bacon" looks.

Bear


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## chefrob (Mar 5, 2011)

i likes me sum hog jowls!


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## virginiasmokesignal (Mar 5, 2011)

ShellBell,

That is some great looking bacon and unlike my dear friend Bear, I have known what a jowl was since I was a little boy, but I must admit it's the first time I have seen jowl bacon!  It all looks great and I absolutely love bacon, I don't care what it is made from it is the hogs gift to man!  Speaking of the Hickory Syrup, where did you find it on the web, I would like to get some to try!  I like maple syrup but it is a bit too sweet for me sometimes.  I think I would like to try the Hickory Syrup, and who knows may make my own someday if I can figure it out, we have all kinds of hickory trees on our property, only thing I ever knew they were good for was hickory nuts and squirrels.  Keep up the good work and keep the bacon rolling Shell.

Your SMF Friend,

Barry


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## dnovotny (Mar 6, 2011)

good looking bacon , jowl bacon is great too,, i mix up jowl with venison and form in a cake pan and smoke

it and turns out like bacon really good... never heard of hickey syrup where did you get that?

did you cure it the frig  for how many days, love to have dealtails of how you made it..


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## Bearcarver (Mar 6, 2011)

Found this, in case it helps anyone:

When the editor suggested this topic (the elusive hickory syrup) I recalled having seen some mention of the syrup while browsing in Dave's Gardens forums. In short order, I relocated the posts that I remembered. A DG member had said that hickory syrup was easily made using cracked shells of various hickory nuts, as well as by boiling shed hickory bark. He was kind enough to email me a copy of his writing on the subject of hickory syrup making.

Self-described hickory "nut" Dr. Lucky Pittman tells about his experience with homemade hickory syrup in a paper submitted to the Northern Nut Growers Association newsletter. With his permission, I present the following instructions for making your own hickory syrup from bark or nutshells.

*Ingredients:*

*a large pot full of cracked shell and husk, or cracked whole nuts from shagbark or mockernut hickory, or of exfoliating bark scraps collected from shagbark, shellbark or pignut hickory trees.*

*Sugar*

*Water*

*Wash and drain the nuts, nutshells or bark pieces to remove loose dirt. Put the bark or shell into a large pot and cover with water. Boil the mixture all day. (Makes the house smell good!) Strain out the solids and measure the liquid. Return the now brown, aromatic hickory "liquor" to the pot and add sugar in a proportion of one and a half times the amount of sugar as you have of liquid, for example four cups of liquid needs six cups of sugar. Boil this for thirty minutes. Pour the syrup into canning jars and seal them. (Not specified, but I would suggest you may want to store in the refrigerator) You may adjust the amount of sugar a bit but too much sugar will simply crystallize in the jar.*

That sounds simple enough. I will give certainly give the Hickoryworks folks due credit; I'm sure they've been diligent in standardizing their recipe to turn out a consistently high-quality product. A video on their home page will give you a little more insight into the technical aspects, such as Brix testing, of their process. Between hints from Hickoryworks, and the experience shared by Dr. Pittman, I think we have the makings of some fun experiments in hickory home brewing to warm up the rest of autumn. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out. I'm off to identify some local hickories.

Source:

[font=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif][font=Arial, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', Verdana]http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2646/[/font][/font]

There are some other hits on the Net, if you search "Hickory nut/bark syrup".

Bear


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## shellbellc (Mar 10, 2011)

Thanks Bear, Good insight.  I ordered mine from Hickory works, a ma and pa place out in Indiana. It's not cheap, I think $30 for a quart.   There is also a place in CT that sells the shagbark hickory syrup and also hickory nut syrup...

Hickory Works

http://hickoryworks.com/

Turkeywoods Farm

http://turkeywoodsfarm.com/index.html


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## meateater (Mar 10, 2011)

HICKORY SYRUP!!! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





I'm on it like pink on salt........


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## beer-b-q (Mar 10, 2011)

That is some great looking bacon...


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## SmokinAl (Mar 11, 2011)

Excellent looking bacon!


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## garyc (Mar 31, 2011)

Question sir, 48 hour cold smoke? What temp was that at? Even if you are working with cured meat is it safe for that long?


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## big twig (Mar 31, 2011)

MMMMMmmmmmmmm..........Bacon.......Damn this place kills me!


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## shellbellc (Apr 4, 2011)

GaryC said:


> Question sir, 48 hour cold smoke? What temp was that at? Even if you are working with cured meat is it safe for that long?




This was a cold winter, everytime I've smoked bacons this winter my bacon was sitting in below freezing temps, funny, they never froze either!  The last smoke I did was for 56 hours!  It just took that long to get a good color change on them...


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## garyc (Apr 4, 2011)

Shellbellc said:


> This was a cold winter, everytime I've smoked bacons this winter my bacon was sitting in below freezing temps, funny, they never froze either!  The last smoke I did was for 56 hours!  It just took that long to get a good color change on them...


Heh, ok that makes sense. In general, how long can I keep cured meat below 140 deg and still be safe? I am new at this cold smoking and I don't want anyone to get sick. I see that a lot of people cold smoke belly bacon for 8 hours at or below 100 deg. What would the max time be and still not have any problems?


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## shellbellc (Apr 13, 2011)

I don't want to quote a time because I'm not sure.  I hear of cold
Smoking hams for even longer times. I am not cooking te bacon so the four hour rule doesn't apply here, especially since it's cured, maybe someone will come along with some better advice. I'm also thinking that smoking it in warmer conditions will make for a faster color change, as in the bacons that people do smoking them under heat.


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## eman (Apr 13, 2011)

chefrob said:


> i likes me sum hog jowls!


I'd rather the Tonic!!!!


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