Keeping up with the Corrells..

[G Dechaine]

Bob, you've posted a few bacon and Canadian bacon pics in the last little while. You got me motivated to make my own. I had two big bellies from pig I bought last year. Took one and cut it into two to make pancetta. And the other, I made into slab of bacon.

On the left is pancetta. Right is bacon. Pretty much same cure, but I added maple syrup to the bacon. I'm Canadian, after all!

Here's the bacon. Overnight in the fridge to dry out.

Here it is after a few hours smoking over a mix of cherry and apple.

Vac packed and ready for the next big breakfast.

And here's the pancetta. I wrap mine in cheesecloth. cover in chili flakes. Gotta hang it for a couple week.s

I'll do a follow up email when the pancetta gets taken down.

By the way Bob...thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Ron... L.]

That's a great looking slab of bacon there, G.

I smoked a half-slab of bacon yesterday and it was about 90% fat. I ended up just cubing about a third of it to save for Boston Baked beans. j Biesinger advised another member to find a source of locally grown hogs because you rapidly grow out of what you can get commercially. My experience yesterday made him look smarter than ever.

I also have a chunk of pancetta curing...but it is part of the same belly (although the better part) and I have lowered my expectations.

Wanna trade?

Ron

 

[j biesinger]

That's some beautiful belly. Its one more reason to get a whole pig.

I've been really enjoying the pancetta I make, you're going to love it.

 

[Shaun R]

Wowie G! That looks incredible! I may try that sometime, looks like fun and I love pancetta. Thanks again.

 

[G Dechaine]

I've made both before...but I had a few bellies in the freezer and I was procrastinating. Finally got down to it.

BTW, this might have been my best bacon ever. I did it on the Performer for the first time. I was surprised at the low temp it could keep. Very good (i.e. not too much) smoke and I have a lighter hand on the salt.

Buying a pig from a real farm is great. But...I think the bellies are better suited for pancetta. I picked the least fatty piece for the bacon. I like my bacon about 50/50 meat at fat. These were close to 75% fat in some spots.

 

[Bob Correll]

Thank you G for the kind words!
But I just draw my inspiration from others here on the board.

Very fine looking bacon!

I really like a fairly heavy smoke on bacon, but the slabs I recently smoked in the WSM was a bit light.
I want to smell smoke when it first hits the cast iron skillet.
The jowl, and CB smoked on my kettle were more to my liking.

Several years ago I tried dry corn cobs for smoke, not too bad as I recall, but I really like a hickory/apple mix.

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Buying a pig from a real farm is great. But...I think the bellies are better suited for pancetta. I picked the least fatty piece for the bacon. I like my bacon about 50/50 meat at fat. These were close to 75% fat in some spots. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I hear you. The belly is a pretty different piece of meat from end to end. I'm trying to figure out the ideal way to use a whole belly. It seems like I'm going to want to do something different with each third.

 

[JimK]

G:

Mind sharing your bacon cure/method? I just picked up a piece of belly this morning and am looking to make some bacon for Christmas. I like the maple concept, and think I'll cook over hickory and sugar maple. Thanks!

Jim