Bacon made easy


 
Travis,
Sorry I didn't see your post earlier.
Your loin should be fine, but I would give it several rinses with cold water, since it might taste more salty than usual.
Soak/rinse for a couple of hours, dry very well, then smoke to 140 internal.
 
It's nice to see this thread being turned into a "Sticky"
I've totally enjoyed seeing the 1st time baconeers get their bacon on! :D
Thanks Bob for kicking this off!
 
I haven't stopped drooling since I've started reading this thread! I bought my 6lb belly yesterday and will start the cure on Friday. I'm going to shoot for temps around the 160 range with my Stoker. I've never smoked with temps this low and am planning on using the snake method to achieve this. Has anyone used an ATC device to smoke at low temps before? I'm assuming it would work great but not for sure. Thanks to all for adding to this thread and helping me plan this smoke!

Tim
 
Tim D. said:
I haven't stopped drooling since I've started reading this thread! I bought my 6lb belly yesterday and will start the cure on Friday. I'm going to shoot for temps around the 160 range with my Stoker. I've never smoked with temps this low and am planning on using the snake method to achieve this. Has anyone used an ATC device to smoke at low temps before? I'm assuming it would work great but not for sure. Thanks to all for adding to this thread and helping me plan this smoke!

Tim
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I've not used an ATC to do it but I have used the "C", fuse, snake, etc (whatever you wanna call it) to acheive very low temps naturally aspirated.
 
I read all the posts here and didn't find the answer to this question (at least I don't think I found it)......

Does it matter which side is up when smoking the belly?
 
Bit too salty

I smoked a 3.3lb pork belly that had been curing since the previous Friday evening, with turning the belly every night in the fridge. I used about 3 1/2 tablespoons of Morton Tender Quick and rinsed it what I thought was good and let air dry in the fridge for about 4 hours. After the rinse I put a light amount of brown sugar and black pepper.

I pulled the bacon once it hit 145F and rapidly cooled it in a ziplock bag dunked into ice water.

This was the lowest I've tried to keep my WSM at and didn't do very well. I tried the C method and had to add lit charcoal because the temp dropped quite a bit. I'm thinking of getting the small charcoal ring for my 22.5" and using that next time.

Overall the bacon was decent. My wife and I both thought it was too salty. Made BT on Ciabatta, I don't like lettuce ;) , and with the tomato, mayo and bread mellowing out the salt it was at least as good as store bought.

I'm open to ideas to cut down on the saltiness, it might be the roughly .2 tablespoons extra TQ I added, or maybe I didn't rinse well enough. I'll be trying again since it was good, just not as good as I was hoping for.

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Tim D. said:
I read all the posts here and didn't find the answer to this question (at least I don't think I found it)......

Does it matter which side is up when smoking the belly?
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Skin side up so that any fat rendered liquid-like will drip away.
 
A very nice person from UPS delivered four pounds of Mortons Tender Quick to our house today - I see bacon in the near future!! Just got to find some side/belly and a Butt or some loin. Really missing the back bacon from back home.

 
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When you people season the belly after it's cured and before it goes on the smoker, do you season both the top and bottom or just the top??

Also, when do you season, while it's drying or just before it goes on the smoker??

Finally, is it possible to rinse too much after the curing process?? I plan on rinsing and then frying up a slice to check the saltiness.

Thanks for all the help! My curing process is almost finished and I plan on cranking up my smoker first thing Saturday AM so I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row so I can impress my family!

Tim
 
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Tim,
I seldom season with anything after the cure, but when I do, it goes on all sides right before smoking.

How much to rinse depends on how salty you like bacon.
Change the cold water often, and after a few rinses, as you stated, test fry a piece.
I'm sure it will be great!
 
Ditto's with Bob - if I do want to flavor after the initial cure/smoke, say if I want to make some maple bacon, etc. I just cut from the final result and let sit in some salt and the flavor agents for awhile, say 8 ours o so then use as typical. That method works good for me with this recipe or even store bought product. This way you have a "mother recipe" for the 5 lbs or so but don't have to dedicate all of it to one style/flavor if you don't want to.

JMHO

Ray
 
Thank you guys so much for the advice! I'm like a little kid the night before Christmas :) I just can't wait to get my bacon on!!
 
I will be starting my first bacon, hopefully tonight. I have a couple of questions.

1. You said cure for 7 days. Would 10 be okay?
2. You say to cool smoke. Uhm. Can you elaborate on that? Are you saying just get the temp down as low as possible?

TIA
 
Darren,
10 days is fine, just be sure to rinse very well after the cure, and before drying in fridge.

Smoking temps should be kept to 175 to 200F.
A good way to do this is with the snake method.
If not familiar with it, below is a pic from Jim Lampe that should explain how to set it up.
Good luck, I'm sure it will be great.

IMG_3243.JPG
 
Awesome. Thanks. I found pork belly in town at an oriental restaurant/grocery store for $3.69/lb. That's both cheaper and more convenient than anywhere else I've found. Now, if I can just get off from work soon, I could go pick it up and get started.
 
Beats the $3.99/lb price I paid yesterday for 2 pieces, weighing a total of 5 lbs.
I skinned one, and scored the skin on the other.
Both are now being cured with MTQ, and maple sugar only.
 
Well, it's been rubbed. I was a little unsure about rubbing very much TQ on the fat side. It just seemed like it wouldn't penetrate so much on the fat side and I should be putting it on the meat side. Never the less, I dispersed the TQ as evenly as possible on all sides. They were nearly two 5 lb pieces. So, I used 5 tbs of TQ and then I went back with about 5 tbs of brown sugar. I guess I'll pepper it and add any other recommended seasonings when I cook it.

The meat that I got was frozen. By the time I got the skin off, they were getting pretty soft. But, I figured frozen was a good thing in my case because that should just add a day or two extra to the curing process and I need the extra day so that I can start cooking on a Friday or Saturday.
 
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