Hit the Bacon Motherload!!


 
T

Tim Mulvihill

TVWBB Fan
So after reading Bob Correll's post "Bacon Made Easy," I finally decided to pull the trigger and try my hand at making bacon.

After several phone calls I found a place that sells pork belly & another that sells MTC. The butcher said they had to order the pork belly & it would come 8-10 lbs @ $2.99/lb. I went to pick it up last night & it was 11.5 lbs!!!! I was a little nervous buying that big of pork belly in case I srew it up, but bought it anyway.

Got home, cut it into 3 big slabs, teased the wife with the pig nipples, and coated with MTC, black pepper, & brown sugar & placed in the fridge in 3 separate bags.

Here's my questions when it's done curing:
1) Can I rinse them pretty hardily when they are done curing? I've seen other people mention how salty the bacon can be.
2) When I let them air dry in the fridge, is that covered or uncovered?
3) I was going to leave the skin on for smoking because I saw the it peels easily when the pork belly has been heated up. However, can I just as easily pull the skin off @ let's say 100 F internal? I was just wondering so I can get smoke flavor on both sides of the belly.

Thank you ahead of time in helping me turn this 11.5 lbs of pork belly into delicious, edible bacon.
 
Hi Tim,

I just got done doing about 15 lbs of bacon myself, and I've been giving a lot of it away as Christmas gifts to friends and family. Given it's popularity, I'm thinking I should have actually done a few pounds more! To answer your questions though:

1.) I would rinse it as thoroughly as possible. The first slab that I did was a bit on the salty side, so I soaked the remaining two slabs in cold water for a while after rinsing thoroughly. This seemed to help cut the salty taste.
2.) I would let them air dry uncovered in the fridge.
3.) I've heard people argue both in favor of and against smoking with the skin on. Those that like to leave the skin on will often use it afterward to make their own versions of pork rinds/cracklins. Those opposed to the idea claim that you will lose a lot of the smoke flavor once the skin is removed after the cook.

That being said, I've only smoked with the skin off prior to the cook, so I have no means of direct comparrison. The smoke flavor has always been just right.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
 
Rinsing and soaking are not the same things. Rinsing after dry curing is necessary to rid the belly of surface cure. Soaking, i.e., immersing the belly in water for a period of time, often changing the water once or twice in the process, helps to lessen saltiness. Brine cured belly does not require either step - provided the cure/salt ratio was not excessive to begin with. If it was on the high side, soaking helps to remedy this.

I don't bother drying in the fridge myself; takes too much room. One can though. One can also pat dry then lay on racks on the counter for further drying (speeding it up with a fan if desired, or one can pat dry then load into the smoker, starting with low heat, allowing the meat to dry in the cooker before smoke is applied.

I often leave the skin on - but I leave it on after smoking as well. It crisps nicely when the bacon is cooked in a pan. Many people are unfamiliar with skin-on bacon so for gifts I remove it. For bacon that will be spice-rubbed, I remove it before or after curing but before smoking as I apply the rub at that point.

If your bacon ends up too salty for your taste simply simmer the slices in plain water for 2-3 minutes before patting dry and cooking. This will lessen saltiness - and it will cause the bacon to crisp more quickly. (This can be done even if the bacon is not too salty when quicker crisping is desired.
 
Rinsing and soaking are not the same things. Rinsing after dry curing is necessary to rid the belly of surface cure. Soaking, i.e., immersing the belly in water for a period of time, often changing the water once or twice in the process, helps to lessen saltiness. Brine cured belly does not require either step - provided the cure/salt ratio was not excessive to begin with. If it was on the high side, soaking helps to remedy this.

I don't bother drying in the fridge myself; takes too much room. One can though. One can also pat dry then lay on racks on the counter for further drying (speeding it up with a fan if desired), or one can pat dry then load into the smoker, starting with low heat, allowing the meat to dry in the cooker before smoke is applied.

I often leave the skin on - but I leave it on after smoking as well. It crisps nicely when the bacon is cooked in a pan. Many people are unfamiliar with skin-on bacon so for gifts I remove it. For bacon that will be spice-rubbed, I remove it before or after curing but before smoking as I apply the rub at that point.

If your bacon ends up too salty for your taste simply simmer the slices in plain water for 2-3 minutes before patting dry and cooking. This will lessen saltiness - and it will cause the bacon to crisp more quickly. (This can be done even if the bacon is not too salty when quicker crisping is desired.
 
What Mr Wagner just said. If you dont wanna have the rind on the final sliced product remove it before smoking. Even before brining. Not that hard if you have a decent knife. a 1 min work/slab...If your bcn is to salty the salt % in the brine is wrong. Rinse first is a good one though.
 
Last edited:
When you measure up the salt for your bacon, be sure to be very accurate.
As an example, a bit over 2% of salt on two pounds of bacon is a type of bacon that is less salty than what you will get in a supermarket. 3% is quite salty.
Measured in grams, not to make things difficult, but to get things accurate, the difference is actually very small. As an example, if your are curing two pounds of bacon, the difference between 2 and 3 % is a tad more than two teaspoons of salt when dry brining, to give you a picture of what we are talking about.
Making bacon is very easy, but if you want to hit your target regarding saltyness, you will have to do your homework and have a accurate scale to succeed.
 
Tim - the MTQ recipe is a salty one. I'd suggest slicing off an end and frying it to check first, but I would think you'll need an hour soak in water before you dry. You can check the salt level after the soak, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top