First Hot Smoked Bacon

[Fueling Around]

Looks good from here.
Got the first time jitters and figured it was actually pretty easy to make your bacon? Aging takes out the excess hammy flavor (it is pork no matter the source) but the fat balances out the taste.

I cut it in half width wise, so that I could slice shorter pieces (being the first time using a slicer). Here is how it looks...
...

I cut all my cured belly in half. I have an old meat slicer (inherited from my mother) and the slide is pretty small. But guess what? The half cut belly fits the frying pan.

 

[paleoman]

Looks good from here.
Got the first time jitters and figured it was actually pretty easy to make your bacon? Aging takes out the excess hammy flavor (it is pork no matter the source) but the fat balances out the taste.

Yes. It was an easy process. I definitely want to do a longer cure next time (and not start it so close to a holiday).

I cut all my cured belly in half. I have an old meat slicer (inherited from my mother) and the slide is pretty small. But guess what? The half cut belly fits the frying pan.

This was the first time using a slicer, and it doesn't have a very long slide either. I probably could have sliced the whole piece, but with it in half it seemed very easy. I just have to eat four slices instead of two.

 

[DougE]

This was the first time using a slicer, and it doesn't have a very long slide either. I probably could have sliced the whole piece, but with it in half it seemed very easy. I just have to eat four slices instead of two.

You can bend the belly into a "C" and slice it doubled up to get longer slices if you want. The only time I see the longer slices mattering much is if I'm doing a weave or wrapping ABTs. Other than that, the short slices eat the same.

 

[paleoman]

You can bend the belly into a "C" and slice it doubled up to get longer slices if you want. The only time I see the longer slices mattering much is if I'm doing a weave or wrapping ABTs. Other than that, the short slices eat the same.

Great tip!

 

[DougE]

Great tip!

Learned of it here on SMF, so I didn't originate the method. Probably the first time I heard of slicing bacon that way was from Eric SmokinEdge