My First Bacon


 

JRAiona

TVWBB Gold Member
I'm preparing to do my first bacon.



1.5 lbs of pork belly

Mixing up the wet cure.



Into the fridge for a nice 10 day cure nap.

 
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This is my first time. It comes out of the cure tomorrow. It will sit overnight in the fridge then get smoked on Saturday.
 
I don't know the particulars of your cure, but I always do 8 to 12 hours soak in plain water with frequent changes to prevent the bacon from being too salty. Might just be my cure is too salty.
 
Looking great there! I do brine for pork chops and trying it on pastrami now. Most of my bacon is done a dry cure (rub) and I've just started to switch from a premix cure to Equilibrium Curing, but the EQ approach takes longer. Regardless of which approach you take, your bacon will be much better than store bought!
 
JR

I have not gotten around to bacon yet. What you have looks great! I'm motivated now. I love bacon and the stuff in the general store is not getting the job done for me.

CraigW
 
Craig, once you start making your own, you'll never go back! I've done it as a brine, a pre-mix cure, and EQ curing (just starting the latter). I hot smoked it, then moved to warm smoking, and now I cold smoke my bacon. But I still heat finish it to 150F in an oven with a pan to catch the grease - bacon grease is fantastic for cooking.
 
I second what Steve said. I will never purchase bacon again. It was just a bit to the salty side but that's an easy fix. That aside the flavor was outstanding. I smoked it at 200 to an IT of 140. The next batch I will cut the salt in the cure by 50% and reduce the smoking temp to 180 to increase the time in the smoker a bit and take on a bit more smoke. Overall I was very pleased for a first effort.
 

 

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