Making Bacon


 
Dustin Dorsey

Dustin Dorsey

TVWBB Hall of Fame
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Got my cured slab. I used 2% salt 1.5% sugar and .25% cure #1. Cured in the fridge for 7 days.

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Other side of the slab.

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Snake setup with peach Fruitwood chunks that I cut down smaller and B&B charcoal.

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Ran the WSM at around 150 and gradually increased temp after 6 hours to get an internal of 140.

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Slicing the bacon.

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A big pile of bacon.

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Vacuum sealed.

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Gotta try it out.

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Overcooked it a little but it was delicious!
 
I've never tried it other than with cheese I guess and then I just tried to keep the temp under 90. Someday I might. This setup is the same I use with some smoked sausages so I roll with it. I fantasize about having a smokehouse sometimes.
 
Fine looking bacon!
How well does the B&B do? Like for lighting off each other, but not burning up too fast?
 
Bob Correll said:
Fine looking bacon!
How well does the B&B do? Like for lighting off each other, but not burning up too fast?
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It actually worked really well. I was worried about it because I usually use KBB for snake method, but I just happened to run out. I had quite a bit of charcoal left at the end of the cook.
 
Your bacon appears tasty. 8))

Using the minion method described at this forum, I've made bacon since '08 in my 18 inch WSM and the surface never finished as light as yours. Mine was darker. I kept the temperature as low and the rise as slow as possible, starting at just after the charcoal was lit (room temp) all the way to around 160-175F ambient) and my bacon finished at an internal temperature of 135-145F after four hours give or take.
 
I thought mine seemed a little light in color. I used pear wood so maybe that's why. The spot where I usually wind up taking a lot of pictures has a really bright fluorescent light right overhead and that can do some weird things to my pictures.

The WSM 22.5 likes to run hotter than the 18. I can't control the temp that low using minion method. I might be able to with the billows. I had the Thermoworks Billows hooked up on this cook but it never went up to temp right so I opened another vent a little and it cruised perfectly around 150. Well, I bought the little yellow damper you can get for the Billows and found out after the cook that I accidently had it completely closed. I'm sure it was blowing some, but I just instinctively set the vents where they needs to be and didn't think more about it and the cook turned out fine. I'm an idiot.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
I thought mine seemed a little light in color. I used pear wood so maybe that's why. The spot where I usually wind up taking a lot of pictures has a really bright fluorescent light right overhead and that can do some weird things to my pictures.
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I've always used apple, white oak, birch and hickory woods for smoke and that could be the reason for my darker color.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
I thought mine seemed a little light in color. I used pear wood so maybe that's why.
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You said peach in your original post. Inquiring minds want to know. I'm a big fan of peach with pork. I think they complement each other in ways I don't think the other smoke woods I've tried do quite the same way.

Unsolicited cooking advice... One of the issues I've noticed with cast iron cookware is the uneven heating, demonstrated here by the darker, extra crispy sections in the middle of the bacon combined with the perfectly cooked ends. I felt silly doing it but a couple years ago I bought a 8"x1/4" aluminum disc on ebay. Delivered price was $25. (Probably a lot more today.) I use that thing all the time, even with some of the thinner aluminum pans I have. It spreads the heat out much more evenly, moving the hot spots to the perimeter of the pan rather than the center. I find this a lot easier to deal with than the hot center. It has turned out to be among the best money I've spent on kitchen gadgets. There are a lot of specialty cookware items that are geared toward the same purpose, but this seemed a much sturdier, industrial approach and the price was in the same ballpark.

Just checked on ebay. The price hasn't gone up much at all. $27.25 delivered for 8"x1/4" disc.

BTW, the bacon looks delicious.
 
That's true about cast iron. Part of the problem with the ends are that the pan is probably too small for that size bacon and the bacon is often going up the sides of the pan on the ends ( not so bad in this case). I also had the pan too hot. Preheating can kind overcome the uneven heating. Part of it also is we have kind of older crappy stovetop that has gas burners where the heat all is concentrated in the center and those thin cast iron burner grates. Your solution is cheaper than buying a new stove but I can still dream.
 
I'm in the same boat as far as crappy old stove with a very simplistic gas distribution pattern and grates that want to skitter off in all directions whenever you try to move a pot. Seriously, the aluminum disc has been a game changer with my cast iron. With the Dutch oven I used to always have to stir whatever was simmering every 10-15 minutes to be sure it didn't burn to the center where all the heat was going. Now I can leave things on very low and not have to worry about stirring for an hour or so. I also get a perfect heat distribution for long simmering sauces.

It's probably not that huge a deal for something like bacon where you're going to be watching it closely anyway, but for chili or pasta sauce it's made a world of difference.
 
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