Made my First Bacon! ....Finally!


 
Luke P

Luke P

TVWBB All-Star
Wrote a whole long thread on finally making my first bacon. Details and all.... then it erased.

Here's the short version: Thanks to Bob and many others on here for their path-forging and advice. Lots of belly for a 22.5 kettle, but you make due with what you've got. Little too salty, but that story's too long for the "short version". Excited to make more of this delicious stuff. Enjoy the pics!

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Lots of details and explanations left out. Please feel free to ask why some looks like ham ;)
 
Glad it all worked out in the end, Luke. Looks fantastic. Looks like you're set up with pork for a few days, at least!!
 
Good looking bacon. I'll have to try it.

As far as starting & replying to threads & getting timed out.... I have found that after I have entered my lengthy manifesto that if I do a control a (select all) & a control c (copy all) & it is copied to memory. So when I post & the forum has dropped me... I log in again... either start the thread all over or a reply & control v (paste). I am then good to go & post my thread or reply. I suppose I could also do the write-up in Word & then copy & paste.
 
Ive got two more full bellies for in a few months when we run low! Next time I will do a few things differently...

1. A little brown sugar with cure to lightly sweeten.
2. Trim bellies to be less fatty. These were pigs raised on friend's farm and the fat is DELICIOUS, but want a little less on the bacon.
3. Stagger my cure/smoking over a few days to be able to easily fit less slabs at once.
4. I wasn't able to fry-test this batch. Theyre a tad salty. My wife had a stomach bug over these few days and fried bacon would have made her ill. I chose happy wife over perfect bacon.
 
Bob Correll said:
Great looking bacon and your photos are knockouts too Luke!
Click to expand...

Thank you, Bob! Thanks to you and so many others I had the knowledge to make this happen.
As well, thank you and the members for making this a community of sharing and learning. Lets us all try new things and proudly share.
 
Luke that is a awesome job on the bacon and I'll take a plater full anytime. I wish we could find some pork belly, we sure would love to try it, no one in our area sells it. Maybe when we go to Cal. we can find some.
 
Man that bacon that you made looks good. Don't know if I would have the will power to stop eating it if I made some.
 
Luke P said:
Ive got two more full bellies for in a few months when we run low! Next time I will do a few things differently...

1. A little brown sugar with cure to lightly sweeten.
2. Trim bellies to be less fatty. These were pigs raised on friend's farm and the fat is DELICIOUS, but want a little less on the bacon.
3. Stagger my cure/smoking over a few days to be able to easily fit less slabs at once.
4. I wasn't able to fry-test this batch. Theyre a tad salty. My wife had a stomach bug over these few days and fried bacon would have made her ill. I chose happy wife over perfect bacon.
Click to expand...

My last batch I also didnt use the brown sugar with the cure and it came out just a little to salty but still edible. Thanks for pointing that out. I was thinking it might have been not soaked and rinsed enough.
 
M Crooks said:
My last batch I also didnt use the brown sugar with the cure and it came out just a little to salty but still edible. Thanks for pointing that out. I was thinking it might have been not soaked and rinsed enough.
Click to expand...

Crooks,
I barely soaked at all. Just a super thorough rinse. I think a little brown sugar in that cure woulda evened everything out.
But like I said...I couldnt fry-test to determine to soak or not.
 
Had my first bacon sandwich the other day. Had to take a pic to share. Like I said before, little salty for my taste upon first piece, but really not noticable as you continue to eat a half lb ;)

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Threw cold cheese on there. I don't know why.
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