Last weekend I purchased two pork bellies (see photos of one belly
Photos. I used the Ruhlman and Polcyn maple cure. Each belly was cut crosswise into 4 approximately 3lb pieces.
This morning completed 7 days of curing so I smoked them on the WSM. It took about 5 hours for the smoke. Smoker temps varied a little bit but stayed between 170F and 190F. It was around 33F today and the winds were not too bad.
The bacon reached a point where it didn't want to budge off of 145F and stayed there for about 90 minutes, so I pulled it. The bacon was so soft and sort of translucent looking that I was worried that it may have been on too long. It wasn't until after I had cut the 8 approximately 3lb slabs into 1.5lb pieces, food saver sealed, and put in the freezer that the bacon really looked like bacon to me. Finally at that time the bacon showed the meat/fat striations that I recognize. I didn't take anymore photos than the few above because I was thinking that it was not turning out well. We did try some for dinner (we had breakfast for dinner tonight)and it was good. I had trouble making thin slices while it was warm and so the slices were thicker than what I like but it had good flavor. I could detect the hickory smoke well, but neither my wife nor I could really pick up the maple flavor. The salt content seemed perfect to me.
Despite getting the pork belly for $1.99/lb I made the following purchases: pink salt, real maple syrup, maple sugar, refrigerator thermometer (I bought a $4 Taylor at the hardware store and I am pleased with it....bought one for the freezer also....glad I bought the one for the fridge because my standard fridge setting was around 34-35F and I made a slight adjustment which kept it around 38-40F for most of the week), Charcuterie book, dextrose since I was ordering from Butcher and Packer and thought I might use it in the future, and more food saver bags. I'm sure it put me over the price for store bought bacon, but I'll have everything for the next time....plus it was fun and interesting. Will try some different bacon styles the next time.
One more thing...I removed the skin before smoking on a couple of pieces but gave that up as it was too difficult. After smoking, I removed the rinds (as the book instructs) on the others and it was much easier....I could slide the knife right against the underside of the skin and removed pretty much only the skin and very little fat.
I have a lot of bacon on my hands, but will be giving away quite a bit next week and will still have more than we need (or should eat). It is vacuum packed and frozen so should last at least 3 or 4 months.
