Bacon Question


 
Chris W.

Chris W.

TVWBB Pro
I'm looking at making my own bacon, using this thread as my basis. I have a question about pink salt. Is this pink salt what I'm looking for, or do I need some other brand/kind? I don't want to waste my money on something that might not be what I need. Thanks in advance for the help!

Also, roughly how many ounces are in 2 teaspoons of pink salt? Is the 4.5 ounce bottle enough for the recipe I want to use, or do I need to order a few bottles of it?
 
I order from here. Cheaper, and they have other things one can add to the order (consider dextrose instead of table sugar for your cure; sausage casings for making your own, etc).

You don't need 1 lb but I'd get it anyway. Though a single recipe does not require much pink salt it keeps well, and once you make your own bacon you will never go back.
 
Do you mean to use the dextrose in place of the maple sugar, Kevin? I searched the site you provided for maple sugar (I'd like to stick to the recipe for the first time, at least) and found this. Will this do the trick? Is this the maple sugar I need, or will I be better off with something like this?
 
I use dextrose in place of table sugar. It blends better and is not so sweet.

The former link is maple sugar cure, i.e., it has curing agents in it already. Better to make your own blend. The latter link is pure maple sugar --and that is what you want-- but you can do better price-wise here.
 
Thanks for your help, Kevin! You've helped me out before, and I really appreciate it now. Hopefully in a few weeks (after getting the ingredients and the meat) I'll have my own bacon. This is something I've been wanting to do since before I got my WSM, and I'm excited to get it started.
 
I started my bacon in 2 2lb slabs in Morton Tenderquick based cures on Monday. I will post an update in this thread with pictures once I smoke it on the 25th!
 
I just made some bacon the other day. Here's a pic:

IMG_2039.jpg
 
OK, I'm getting a pork belly tonight, and my pink salt should have already arrived at my house sometime today. I intend to put the cure on this Thursday, and smoke in on Saturday the 6th. I do have a question though: What's the rind I hear everyone talking about? Is it easy to identify? If so, is it easy to remove? I'd like to smoke this without skin (which leads to another question - is the skin easy to remove before smoking?) and without the rind, but, having never even seen a pork belly before, I have no idea what the rind even is.
 
The rind is the skin. The terms are interchangeable.

Par-freeze the belly for 10-15 min or so ahead of time and the skin will be easier to remove.
 
Thanks Kevin! I'll try to snag my wife's camera and take pictures as I attempt this process for the first time. I'm getting really excited to get this started!
 
Well, I didn't manage to get any pictures of last night's bacon smoke, but I sliced it up this morning and man did it taste good! It was the best bacon I've ever had. I've got about a 1/4 pound in the fridge to eat sometime soon, and a little over a pound is going to a friend at work who has five kids. (I give him quite a bit of meat to help out). A little over two pounds is in the freezer for consumption later.

I also noticed something when I fried the bacon in my skillet this morning. Afterwards, my house didn't really smell like bacon the way it does when I use bacon from the store. Could the preservatives in the store-bought bacon cause the smell to linger?
 
Probably not. But most commercial bacon is injected with a water-based cure. The water exudes as the bacon is cooked and flavor volatiles (especially smoke flavoring) become airborne during evaporation, at a greater level since there is significantly more water in injected bacon than that which is dry cured.
 
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