buck board bacon

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bruce, i am sending this to you because you
started this
i sliced my butt, seasoned for ten days and
smoked to 143 like you suggested
it was wonderful
so lean that i had to put oil in pan to fry
tasted a little hammy, but was still very good
am thinking about trying a pork belly as some
have advised
i am a convert
will not buy any more of that fat tissue that the
stores call bacon
thanks for the info
 
Saturday is day 10 for mine as well! Do yall plan to add any maple syrup and cracked black pepper before smoking?

I thought of tryin some with and some without. I have about 15 lbs. to do.

I'm not happy with my deboning results. I suppose I will put the smaller portions on the bottom grate to keep from overcooking them.

Gonna try to get some pics to post.

Jim
 
I was going to do the maple syrup and black pepper "rub." I plan on using 2 fist sized chunks of apple wood for smoke and firing up using the standard method, 1 chimney of coals.

I haven't decided if I want to use sand or water yet. I leaning toward water because in my experience with my WSM it has been easier to maintain lower temps with water than with sand. For some reason, my WSM loves 260 degrees lid temp with sand. It will plug along at that temp for hours and hours with the vents barely (5%) cracked. That lid temp is fine for most of my smoking, but I want to keep it low (225) for the bacon since it doesn't get fully cooked and the longer in the smoke the better the flavor.

My deboning was not a work of art either. Because of my deboning, I have one half butt that is (in parts) thicker than the other half, so I will be checking the temps in the thinner half and expect it to hit 140 first and then come off. The thicker half will continue smoking until it too reaches 140 in the thickest part.
 
I'm smoking my second batch, one butt, and one pork loin that I got on sale either Friday or Saturday. My first batch I did plain to get a reference point from, but tomorrow I'm going to do a black pepper rub and maybe some maple syrup.

Oh, and by the way, my deboning process was also pretty ugly. Still, you'll get different size slices and some left over chunks that go great in beans or twice baked taters. No worries, you'll find a way to eat them all!
 
You guys say I started this like it's either great or it's all my fault, can't make up my mind. I actually got the idea on another forum and simply threw it out over here.

I do wish I had bought some Hi-Mountain stock though, damn! /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Enjoy
 
bruce
you did start this and from all the responces,
you have given a lot of us something new to use
our WSMs for.
my first trial came out lovely
am going to experiment on next tries
thanks for the info
john hony
 
My deboning process was nothing short of a massacre, but the WSM didn't seem to care. My day 10 was yesterday, so today I took the plunge.

I had 2 good sized pieces of pork butt (and 2 kind of gnarly looking things). Rubbed 'em all in maple syrup, and peppered half of the batch. The other half (as the queen of overkill) got brown sugar on top of its maple syrup.

Smoked 'em with hickory for about 3 hours, then popped 'em in the oven for a finish (not in foil or anything, just on a baking sheet). Foiled 'em and let 'em rest for a few hours, then just a little while ago cut off a few slices from the 2 big pieces and fried 'em up.

I think the result was good overall. It's definitely bacon---especially the parts with fat, those really taste like bacon. One piece tasted alot saltier than the other. Maybe it got more cure in the beginning, who knows.

It's in the freezer now so it'll be ready to slice thinner tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to tasting it again. Mine gave off plenty of fat as it cooked, btw. Tasty!

I too have a pork loin I'm going to try.
 
So Jim Sell - How'd the pork loin come out? Is it reminiscent of Canadian Bacon? Thinking of doing some (got my cure the other day) or wondering if I should just stick to butt.
 
Yes, reminiscent....it's pinker, with less fat obviously than the buckboard. Since the loin I got was bone in, I deboned it myself ( I am not a butcher). The long loin part that you see in stores was just about perfect, looking and tasting almost exactly like Canadian bacon!
The other parts I cut from the bone were darker and more like buckboard bacon...still a plus.

I might say only that while frying, don't take the
loin bacon to as well done a state as the buckboard. While frying to crispy makes the buckboard more-bacon like to me, it has the opposite effect on the loin bacon, makes it more hammy. I haven't baked any yet, but it was good.
The fried got eaten pretty quickly.

The whole thing is whether you want to use pork loin at the prices they charge for that.
 
I got a pork loin on sale for this very purpose, but I keep forgetting to take the darn thing out of the freezer. Do you think you can cure and defrost at the same time?
 
I'm no expert on this but I think not. While the cure is supposed to pull the liquid out, the frozen meat won't let it. I think.
 
Frozen meat will not cure. The curing action vir?tually stops when the inside meat temperature falls below 34?. The ideal meat curing temperature is between 38? and 40?.
 
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