I recently finished eating a 5 lb. slab of this and I have to say it was the best bacon i've ever 'et. Here's the cure and the process. Of course, it's copyright Michael Ruhlman and you can check out more great cured meat recipes in his wonderful book Charcuterie.

Maple Cured Bacon

One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on
2 ounces kosher salt
1/4 C. pure Maple syrup
2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawain stuff)
1/4 C. Maple sugar (pricey, worth it)

Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly). Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use one of the cheapies from walmart used for allowing cookies to cool) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle).

Next, take the bacon out of the fridge and hot smoke it (about 200 degrees) until your therm reads 147. Take the slab out, place it in another zip lock bag, and immerse in a cool water bath to cool it quickly. Put it in the fridge, and now you've got bacon!!!!

Ruhlman suggests slicing the rind off after smoking. I did it before smoking, because I wanted more smoke flavor for the bacon itself. I guess some people also leave the rind on and just slice as is (I'm going to do this next time...I've discovered I like rind on bacon).

Good luck!

Phil, The book is on it's way. This post is what pushed me over the edge to buy it. I love Bacon, no better vegatable on the planet than Bacon.

Bryan,

If in your book bacon is a vegetable, then this is *definately* the book for you! Seriously, it's really well written and researched. One bit of advice...order your pink salt now. What's going to happen is you're going to want to make a few of the recipes after you receive the book, but you'll have to wait a week for the pink salt to arrive. The waiting will drive you nuts!

quote:

Originally posted by Phil R.:
Bryan,

If in your book bacon is a vegetable, then this is *definately* the book for you! Seriously, it's really well written and researched. One bit of advice...order your pink salt now. What's going to happen is you're going to want to make a few of the recipes after you receive the book, but you'll have to wait a week for the pink salt to arrive. The waiting will drive you nuts!

Phil, Thanks for the heads up on the pink salt, I have plenty here, 2 lb bag. The book came today along with the sauces book, the sauces book is huge/thick. I have not looked at them yet as I watched Football all day. Go SeaHawks.

Bryan,

Let us know about any of you curing adventures out of Charcuterie...I (and I'm sure other people here as well) would love to compare notes!

I just started a batch of this today I recieved the book for Christmas and I have made a few items from it so far I really like everything I have made. I made the summer sausage and used venison instead of beef it came out great and I was able to keep the wsm right around the 100 degree mark for the first two hours.
Phil, let us know what else you try and how it comes out I would love to hear

Glon

Went to Root's Market after work and scored a fresh 5.40 lb pork belly for $2.59 a lb. Now all I have to find is Maple Sugar. Any hints on where to look? Remember, I'm in Amish town here so..... TIA.

Bryan, that market is sweeeeeeeettttt!

Q'n, Golf'n & Grill'n.... too many Choices!
Gary

Bryan,

Here's one place I found on the net. Hopefully others will chime in as well with good sources. $2.59 is a good price (at least compared to what I normally pay...somewhere around $3-3.50).

I think you guys will really like the bacon...It is truly fantastic. You haven't had a BLT until you have it with this bacon. Out of this world!

Phil, I went to bed lastnight racking my brain of where to get the Maple Sugar local, since I had the belly and wanted to do it up fresh verses freezing the belly till the sugar came. Got up Wed morn for work still thinking on where to look. After my shower still nothing came to mind, then it hit me while getting ready. Health food store. So I called from work this morn and the first place said that they usually carry it, "it's so wonderful" she said but they were out. She was nice enough to tell me to call another Health food store, they would have it. So I gave them a call and sure enough they had it in 1lb bags @ $7.49 per lb, which was cheap compared to online. Also it's made right here in PA and does smell fantastic. I then stopped at Dutch Gold Honey on the way home for a pint of dark amber maple syrup $7.50 and picked up a 5 lb jug of Tupelo honey since it's back in stock for $21.35, love that honey. I'll take some pics along the way, and keep you posted. Thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bryan S,

OK the Maple Bacon is done, and cooling in the fridge. I'll slice it up tomorrow, but here's some pics for you to look at. Link to Maple Bacon pics.

Bryan - looks just awesome. Can't wait to see some of the sliced pics.

I sliced the skin off today and while I had the Forschner 14" Granton Slicer dirty I sliced 6 pieces off and cooked them up. Hands down the best Bacon that ever went into my mouth. I cooked mine different than the book said to. I maintained 180 the whole time (thanks Guru) and took it to a internal of 140 (thanks Kevin K for confirming that temp was OK) This is very easy to do, give it a try sometime. Next up is Tupelo Honey Bacon, it's in the cure.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bryan S,

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:
I sliced the skin off today and while I had the Forschner 14" Granton Slicer dirty I sliced 6 pieces off and cooked them up. Hands down the best Bacon that ever went into my mouth. I cooked mine different than the book said to. I maintained 180 the whole time (thanks Guru) and took it to a internal of 140 (thanks Kevin K for confirming that temp was OK) This is very easy to do, give it a try sometime. Next up is Tupelo Honey Bacon, it's in the cure.

Bryan - were you using lump or briquettes? I usually use lump, but haven't tried temps under 200. How much in the ring? Top vent open or closed (I tend to always leave the top open).

quote:

Originally posted by r benash:
Bryan - were you using lump or briquettes? I usually use lump, but haven't tried temps under 200. How much in the ring? Top vent open or closed (I tend to always leave the top open).

Ray, I used Rancher briquettes about 30-35 of them standing up made into a circle and the center filled in with more briqs. If you click on the "link to pics in my above post I have 2 pics in there of the charcoal and wood circle. I put 3 fully lit briqs on top of the center fill briqs and placed maple wood on top of the 3 lit. The pic you see with the whole top covered with wood, there's 3 lit under that wood. I use a 16" pizza stone sitting on the lower grate tabs to help block the heat but still allow the smoke to come up. This is a Huge help in keeping the temps low, and making the hot zone on the upper rack very small so the ends of the belly don't over cook and dry out. Link to pizza stone pic. Top vent open for about the first hr then I closed it to about 1/2 open for the rest of the cook. I cook to a internal temp of 140. HTH

This sounds very good and I plan on making it next weekend. My question is do you have use water or is it a dry cook? I am new at this so any info would help.

quote:

Originally posted by Chico:
This sounds very good and I plan on making it next weekend. My question is do you have use water or is it a dry cook? I am new at this so any info would help.

I don't use water for any cooks but you might want to if you have trouble keeping temps low. This cook should be done in the 170-200 degree range IMO. My last one I smoked was at 170. You don't want the fat to melt on the belly. You want bacon not cooked smoked belly.

The pizza stone set-up is a good idea.

I use water for my bacon cooks at the moment because they are almost all done in direct sun. No way I can keep temps low in those conditions without a heat sink. But making a mini Minion works fine. Loading in the bellies immediately means that there will be good smoke time as the temps slowly come up. Mine often get as high as 200, eventually, but that has never been a problem. Soon thereafter the bellies are done.

couple of questions:

quote:

2 ounces kosher salt

this is weight not volume right?

Can you taste the maple in the end product? Is it sweet, strong or just a hint?

I used a bunch of brown sugar in my first bacon and I couldn't taste it ... wondering if the maple sugar is worth it.

Shawn, ya it's not a typo. I put the weight instead of volume for salt because different types of kosher salts' densities can vary. So, I put up the weight measurement.