# wait time between smoking and slicing?



## mgriebel (Apr 3, 2017)

Hello all.

Long time lurker here, I finally found the time to do my first ever smoked bacon. I followed Pops brine method on 7 pounds of pork belly.

Let it cure for ~15 days. Then rest in the fridge for ~4 days. 16 hours of apple pellet smoke on Saturday - Sunday and I'm very pleased with the results.

My quandary is this, the delivery of my my newly purchased meat slicer got delayed and wont show up until next Monday, 8 days after the smoking.

Now I'm willing to slice it all by hand, but would really like to wait and use my new meat slicing  toy.

Am I ok just letting it sit in the refrigerator, should I vacuum seal it and freeze or just break down and slice it by hand?

What would all you seasoned smoking veterans do?

Thanks

-mark-


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## rexster314 (Apr 3, 2017)

I often let my smoked bellies sit in the fridge for several days before slicing, no big deal. The meat will slice better totally chilled anyway.


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## SmokinAl (Apr 4, 2017)

I let mine rest 4 days in the fridge, but a lot of the guys go for a week or longer.

So yours should be fine.

Just put it in the freezer for a couple of hours before slicing & it will slice much better.

Al


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## mgriebel (Apr 4, 2017)

Thanks all. I figured it was OK. Just wanted confirmation.

It's just hard looking at this and not being able to eat it.













Photo Apr 02, 10 16 13 AM.jpg



__ mgriebel
__ Apr 4, 2017


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## pugsbrew (Apr 5, 2017)

Nice bacon.  It was hot smoked, correct?


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## mgriebel (Apr 5, 2017)

Pugsbrew said:


> Nice bacon.  It was hot smoked, correct?


Well.... the intent was to cold smoke. And the majority of the 16 hours was between 90 and 110 degrees.
I re-purposed a gas Mastercraft smoker to electric.

I did have 2 flame-ups that set off the alarm at 140 degrees. I was using a 12 inch a-maze-n tube smoker with apple pellets.
My new amnps arrived yesterday. So I'm off to Home Depot after work to grab a mailbox and some flex duct to move the smoke generation out of the smoker.
And my PID is scheduled to arrive today so I should be able to keep the temps more stable going forward.


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