# Maple Cured Belly Bacon (Q-View heavy)



## navigator (Mar 27, 2012)

After a successful buckboard outing I gave the belly bacon a try.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Kosher salt

• 1 tsp. Cure #1 (aka pink salt, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1) (edited typo)

• 1/4 C. Maple sugar or packed brown sugar

• 1/4 C. Maple syrup

• 5 lb. fresh pork belly

(Makes enough for a 5 lb. belly)

I live in the boonies but did find a frozen 1/2 slab at the local meat market, seems a little more than I see others paying but its 75 miles to the nearest Sams Club.








Removed the rind.













Applying the cure:







They were too long for gallon Zip Lock bags so I vacuum sealed them, I didn't suck all the air out just the majority. 
	

		
			
		

		
	







After 10 days of flipping them over daily I pulled them rinsed and tested a few slices, they were a little salty so I soaked them in ice water for a few hours and then they were good. Put them in the fridge overnight to form the pellicle. 
	

		
			
		

		
	







Brushed with maple syrup.







Put them in the #55 with a AMPS full of apple pellets. 







Burned up 5 rows in the AMPS Temps stayed between 75º and 110º had to leave the latches open and bungy the door closed so the AMPS would get a little extra air or it would go out in about a half hour. 







Finished.







Fried up some for BLT's, very good, maybe just a little bit too sweet. I will probably just skip the brushed on Maple next time. 
	

		
			
		

		
	







Sliced them up with my Craig s List Hobart Slicer that I picked up today and then vac sealed the extra. I wrote the 19th on for the date, I don't know why I thought it was the 19th today :)


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## diggingdogfarm (Mar 27, 2012)

Looks good.
Why so much cure #1? (2 tsp. for 5 lbs. of bacon)


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## BGKYSmoker (Mar 27, 2012)

Looks good. You used the right amount of cure.


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## navigator (Mar 27, 2012)

DiggingDogFarm said:


> Looks good.
> Why so much cure #1?


Thanks, that was a typo I used 8 grams as the belly weighed 7 pounds. (edited to read 1 tsp in recipe)

I used the cure calculator


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## diggingdogfarm (Mar 27, 2012)

Good deal!!!
How do you like your Weston vacuum sealer?
I can see he corner of it in one of the pics.


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## alblancher (Mar 27, 2012)

Hey Diggy    For a dry cure I estimate he should have 6.5 g of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly and 10 g of Cure 1 for 7.74 lbs of belly (as the meat is packaged).    One reason I never use volume measurements for cure is because a level teaspoon of cure1 is about 4 grams and a heaping teaspoon is about 7 grams. These amounts are calculated for rind on belly

If Navigator used 2 level teaspoons of Cure 1 for 7.74 pounds of rind on belly he is fine.   If he used 2 heaping teaspoons he is considerably over

If Navigator used either 2 level or 2 heaping teaspoons of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly as the recipe called for he is considerable over.

Navigator   everything looks great and the Qview is awesome but as you posted the recipe I think you may have used more cure then you should have.   I am posting this to let anyone attempting to use your recipe and procedure know that they should adjust the amount of cure.


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## alblancher (Mar 27, 2012)

Prior to making my post I see you adjusted the amount of cure you used.  Thanks for clearing that up.  I think you did a great job and like I said before the Qview is fantastic


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## navigator (Mar 27, 2012)

DiggingDogFarm said:


> Good deal!!!
> How do you like your Weston vacuum sealer?
> I can see he corner of it in one of the pics.


I love it, I wish I had purchased the Weston first not the  two Foodsaver's that died on me if I deduct the price of them I would only have about $125 into this one :)


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## tjohnson (Mar 27, 2012)

Awesome Color!

Maple flavor is tough to get

I use substitute Maple Sugar in the cure

I've also brushed on Maple Syrup, after the pelicle is formed, and before it's smoked

TJ


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## jrod62 (Mar 27, 2012)

Looks good !!!!!,
I need to do some more myself. Ran out few weeks ago .


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## diggingdogfarm (Mar 27, 2012)

alblancher said:


> Hey Diggy    For a dry cure I estimate he should have 6.5 g of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly and 10 g of Cure 1 for 7.74 lbs of belly (as the meat is packaged).    One reason I never use volume measurements for cure is because a level teaspoon of cure1 is about 4 grams and a heaping teaspoon is about 7 grams. These amounts are calculated for rind on belly
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks!
I'm familiar with recommended levels of cure.
Due to a typo, the OP originally had 2 tsps. of Cure #1 per 5 lbs. of bacon.


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## smokinhusker (Mar 27, 2012)

Great color!


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## gersus (Mar 28, 2012)

Looks real good! I'm surprised it's not darker than that after 5 rows of pellets. I haven't made maple yet. I guess I'm too stingy lol!


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## scarbelly (Mar 28, 2012)

Great looking bacon.


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