Bacon made easy


 
Curing for less time may help. You can also soak it in plain water after removing from the brine and rinsing. I think someone else suggested cutting off a small piece and cooking it, so you can taste for salt level. If it's too salty, soak in water for 24 hours and test again.

Once you have your cure recipe, cure time and soak time nailed down, you should be pretty close with every slab.
 
Bacon got done this weekend. I went lite on the cure by 1/2 a tbs and only cured it for 6 days but it still came out pretty good.
My slice skills were terrible so I ended up cutting the slab in half then slicing and that seemed to work at least a little better.
Pics below.

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That's the way I've always made it Rich.
Here's what Morton has to say, they recommend only a 3 to 5 day cure time.



Ingredients1 boneless pork loin
1 tablespoon Morton[SUP]®[/SUP] Tender Quick[SUP]®[/SUP] mix or Morton[SUP]®[/SUP]Sugar Cure[SUP]®[/SUP] (Plain) mix per pound of loin
1 teaspoon sugar per pound of loin

DirectionsTrim fat from pork loin. Mix Morton[SUP]®[/SUP] Tender Quick[SUP]®[/SUP] mix or Morton[SUP]®[/SUP] Sugar Cure[SUP]®[/SUP]
(Plain) mix and sugar. Rub mixture into the loin. Place loin in "food grade" plastic bag;
tie open end. Refrigerate and allow to cure for 3-5 days. Remove from cure.
Soak loin in cool water for 30 minutes; pat dry. Refrigerate uncovered to dry
slightly before cooking.
Cut into 1/8 inch thick slices. Preheat skillet; brush with oil. Fry over low
heat, turning to brown evenly, about 8 - 10 minutes.



 
Just sliced up a slab of smoked belly... a hair under 3 lbs...

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once again, this recipe / method Bob came up with is IDEAL!
and makes PERFECT Bacon!

Thank you again Mr. Correll!
 
Started my bacon journey last night. Picked up a 10.70 pound belly from Costco. Used 10 1/2 tablespoons of Morton's TQ. Cut the slab up into three sections and rubbed them down with the TQ. Put them in ziploc bags and then into my fridge. Hope this turns out well.

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Very Good Andy!
Yeah man, just follow the simple/easy instructions Bob outlined on page one and your belly will be bacon in no time!

And the best part is: You'll NEVER have to BUY bacon again, because NONE of the commercial bacon makers will be AS GOOD AS YOURS!

I like that price too: 2bucks & 79cents a pound? AWESOME!!
 
I'm starting my 4th batch of bacon and as Jim says you will never want to buy bacon again. I've given some of my first batch to friends and they all were amazed at how much better it was from store bought.
Just follow Bob's directions and you won't have any problems.
 
So I pulled it out of the cure last night. I'm doing one chunk with black pepper, another with brown sugar and the other plain. Going to smoke over apple wood tonight.

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OK, so I smoked the bacon for five hours around 170 degrees over apple wood until the bacon hit 145 internal. I fried some up of all three kinds and couldn't really tell any difference at all. One slab is slightly too salty, but still very edible. Will do a longer soak time next time. I think all in all it turned out great and can't wait to do it again.

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Andy Erickson said:
OK, so I smoked the bacon for five hours around 170 degrees over apple wood until the bacon hit 145 internal. I fried some up of all three kinds and couldn't really tell any difference at all. One slab is slightly too salty, but still very edible. Will do a longer soak time next time. I think all in all it turned out great and can't wait to do it again...........................

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Click to expand...

For cooking bacon, I recommend placing the slices into a sheet pan and baking in an oven preheated to 300-350F for ten to twenty minutes. It's flavor is stupendous that frying just doesn't do justice. I mean it! 8)
 
Anyone ever try some sort of Christmas themed bacon? Just got a slab and trying to decide what to do with it. Peppermint instead of maple flavored? Eggnog:p, something...
 
Ray Jey said:
Anyone ever try some sort of Christmas themed bacon? Just got a slab and trying to decide what to do with it. Peppermint instead of maple flavored? Eggnog:p, something...
Click to expand...
I've made cinnamon bacon a few times.
Guess a touch of nutmeg could be added too.

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After reading all 38 pages here, I started my bacon cure last Sat. The biggest complaint I read was that sometimes it turned out too salty. I also read either here of on another site that reducing the amount of Tender Quick from 1 TBS to 3/4 TBS seemed to help so that's what I went with. I used 3 TBS on a 4 lb chunk and have been flipping it every day.

I was planning on letting it dry today and then smoke it tomorrow but I'm not sure it's ready. There's virtually no juice in the bag and I don't see any sign that the belly has gotten firm. Now, I don't know whether to add more cure and let it go a few more days or simply let it sit a while longer.

Is there any way to tell if it's cured enough?
 
Got a pork loin curing for the first time doing Canadian bacon. Using Mortons recipe will cure 4 days right in the middle of what they recommend 3-5 days. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I will post some pictures when it's finished.
 
First time making bacon, have reviewed this entire thread but still have a question. Today was Day 7 of my 6lb belly curing in the fridge with 6T of Morton's TQ. I rinsed it and then for ease of smoking split the belly into two pieces. I noticed the meat firmed up a bit, but it doesn't look all that different from raw meat. Should it be firm all the way through? It's sitting in a rack in the fridge and plan to smoke with apple or hickory tomorrow.
Thanks!
 
I let mine go "a few" days longer and it didn't seem to firm up much so I threw it on the smoker Sat. It turned out fine and oh so delicious!
 
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