Bacon on the WSM


 
S Wagner

S Wagner

TVWBB Member
Hello everybody,

I'd like to smoke a couple of pork bellies and make bacon to give to family/friends for the holidays. I've never done bacon before, and I know there are numerous ways to cure, smoke, etc... Anybody have any good tried 'n true methods?
 
Thank you both for the links! Both recipes/methods look good, and should give me a good place to start.

Just as a follow-up, after reading a few threads I came across one dealt with skinning the belly. The consensus in this thread seemed to be that most people preferred smoking with the skin removed, but I noticed that both of the method's you'd sent to me called for cooking with the skin on.

Do either of you have any thoughts or preferrences one way or the other?
 
S Wagner said:
Just as a follow-up, after reading a few threads I came across one dealt with skinning the belly. The consensus in this thread seemed to be that most people preferred smoking with the skin removed, but I noticed that both of the method's you'd sent to me called for cooking with the skin on.

Do either of you have any thoughts or preferrences one way or the other?
Click to expand...

that is definitely a personal preference. Some people like to remove it prior to smoking so the smoke penetrates the meat more. I usually leave it on during smoking because it's easier to remove afterwards (yeah....call me lazy). I just did a few slabs this weekend without the skin. Too bad I'm giving them away to the in-laws and relatives :(

My wife uses the smoked rinds when she makes stock or beans. Gives a nice smokey flavor to it.
 
The big problem with removing it after the smoke is that smoke doesn't really penetrate much. If you pull off the skin at that point you've removed half the smoke that you went to all that trouble to put on there.

Anyway, those links are very helpful. The big thing is just to do it already - it's not at all difficult and you'll be amazed at the results. It's very rare that somebody is disappointed and it usually means they didn't do a test strip after curing and it came out too salty. They could have just done some more rinsing/soaking and they would have been good.
 
Neal's approach....or his wife's.....is what I do (leave rind on, remove after smoking, and throw in beanpots, etc). I personally don't think the rind acts as a "smoke shield;" my bacon is plenty smoky.
 
Just an update; I cooked the first batch of the finished product this morning for breakfast, and it was definitely a hit. Thank you all for the advice and help. I will try to post some pictures soon.
 
I'm having trouble posting pics to the site. I have them saved on my computer, but the thread is asking for a specific URL, which I can't seem to find at the picture's location. Any thoughts?

Like I said, it turned out great, but was a tad on the salty side. I'm thinking I may just need to rinse/soak the next slab a bit longer before smoking.

On a side note, I took the rendered fat from the frying pan this morning and added it to a bottle of bourbon. If you let it sit for 7 -8 hours at room temp., and then put the bottle in the freezer for another hour or two, the fat will solidify and can be strained out of the bottle. Your end product is bacon-infused bourbon (great for Old Fashioneds and Manhattans!) This also works well with vodka if you want to add a bit of flavor to your Bloody Marys.
 
S Wagner said:
I'm having trouble posting pics to the site. I have them saved on my computer, but the thread is asking for a specific URL, which I can't seem to find at the picture's location. Any thoughts?

Like I said, it turned out great, but was a tad on the salty side. I'm thinking I may just need to rinse/soak the next slab a bit longer before smoking.

On a side note, I took the rendered fat from the frying pan this morning and added it to a bottle of bourbon. If you let it sit for 7 -8 hours at room temp., and then put the bottle in the freezer for another hour or two, the fat will solidify and can be strained out of the bottle. Your end product is bacon-infused bourbon (great for Old Fashioneds and Manhattans!) This also works well with vodka if you want to add a bit of flavor to your Bloody Marys.
Click to expand...

You have to host your pictures at another website. I would use Photobucket as it is easy and free. Once you upload the pictures to photobucket you will notice a dialog box on the right side of the middle of the screen Just click on the URL in the direct box and it automatically saves the URL. You then just paste it in the pop up window from VWBB. Super easy. If you have both sites open and reduced to half screen on your monitor you can do this very quickly. Hope it helps.
 
S Wagner said:
I'm having trouble posting pics to the site. I have them saved on my computer, but the thread is asking for a specific URL, which I can't seem to find at the picture's location. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

You can't upload photos directly from your computer to the discussion forum. You need to host them on a photo sharing website, then include links to your photos in your post. See this thread:

How do I upload pics? Are there instructions anywhere?

Regards,
Chris

P.S. Look like someone beat me with a reply. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top