Pork Belly is on the smoker


 
Bob Hunter

Bob Hunter

TVWBB Pro
Last year sometime I decided to try my hand at some buck board bacon. I cured a pork shoulder and a pork loin. While the results were pretty darn good, my wife was not impressed. From the name and delious aromas coming from the smoker she was expecting a more traditional form of bacon. Heedles of this criticism I shared the fruits of my work with friends at the office. Since then I have been toying with the idea of picking up some pork belly, but never seemed to be able to find a butcher shop in the area that had any, and ordering it always seemd to be a little too much effort.

Anyway a couple weeks ago my buddy found himself in a butcher shop looking for some steaks he was going to dry age. Out of the blue he asked the butcher if he had pork bellies. Lo and behold the next found a 9 lb. pork belly sitting in the fridge at work
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I went ahead and used the High Mountain cure that was left over from my previous atempt. So, now I have finished curing the belly and am in the process of smoking on my WSM. I just hope the finished product meets with the wifes approval, or I may find future atemps to be futile.

Wish me luck
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Good luck.

Should she not, try it again and make your own cure. Maybe try a maple. You'll get much more flavor out of cures you make yourself. (And if she does, try it anyway.)
 
I have been reading all the differnt posts on smoking bacon and there seems to be a concensus that the right temp to pull the meat off the the smoker is around 150°f. What I'm seeing here is that the meat seems to have platued at 145°f and has been there for over an hour. Should I be worried that it dry out if I keep waiting for it hit 150°f? The smoker is running at 188+/- should I up its temp?

Looking for some advice.
 
Bob, 145º is plenty high enough. I pull my bacon off the smoker anywhere between 120-140º. As long as you cook it fully before eating it, no worries.
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Do try the maple bacon as Kevin said, great stuff, right here.
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Ok, I guess I'm gonna need some serious help here.

I pulled the bacon from the smoker let it cool down a bit took a couple slices and fried em up. Wife was not too impressed. Actually it was more like
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"Ackkk too salty". But she liked it better than what I did last time, and suggested I try again, if I can figure out how to not make it so salty. So here is what I did.

9 lb pork belly
Used the High Mountain Buckboard bacon cure.
Cured for 10 days, @ 40° - 45° in the fridge.
Flipped it on day 5.
Today I soaked it for 1/5 hours in cold water changing the water out twice.
Rinsed it and then pat dried and placed in the fridge for 1 hour to dry more.
WSM at 180°, Apple for the wood.
Pulled at 145°.

Any suggestions?
Try a different cure?
Don't cure as long?
Help, I really wanna make my own bacon.
 
Definitely make your own cure.

You can test salt lever (before smoking) by trimming off a piece of belly and frying it up and tasting it. Over-the-top salty? Soak again.

For already smoked bacon that is too salty, put some slices in water and bring to a strong simmer for 2-4 minutes. Drain well, pat dry, then cook. (If still too salty then simmer the next slices longer.) Simmering first will shorten the cook time (and make the slices crisp sooner) once you cook them so keep that in mind.
 
I always soak my bacon after it comes out of the cure to reduce the saltiness. It seems to really help. Soak in enough cold water to cover the meat for 20 minutes then dump water, rinse and cover with fresh water again. I do this 3 times over the course of an hour then put it back in the fridge for 24 hours to form the pellicle(sp?) before smoking. Give it a try, it works great.
 
I've been using the High Mountain cure for a while having bought two boxes a while back. I make canadian bacon 4-5 times a year. Last month, after the curing time, I rinsed the heck out of my two pieces of loin and soaked in the fridge for two hours changing the water every half hour. Then I rinsed them well again. This eliminated the excess salty taste that I got in the past.
 
I like this recipe. It works great, take less than 1/2 the time to cure, doesn't require a soak, and it no fail.

Maybe Kevin can address this question. Can one create a salt solution equal to the desired finished saltiness and brine the meat until it reaches equilibrium? Would this alleviate the need to keep track of brine time?
 
Thanks for all the advice. I mean it. This is something I want to do really well, and all the help greatly appreciated.

I need ot find a source for the Pink salt and I will be on my way.
 
Bob-- I get mine from Butcher-Packer. It's cheap, and a pound will last you quite a while. Pick up some dextrose while you're at it. It is also cheap and dissolves better than table sugar in dry or brine cures.

j-- Yes, you can create a brine so that the need for soaking is obviated. A few points though: A lighter salt concentration means much less of a preservative affect. Though the process of smoking will aid in preservation, standard food safety precautions should be taken, i.e., only use lighter brines for foods that will be taken to safe internals (use time @ temp if you want to keep the internal low) during smoking and will be cooked again more completely for serving (like bacon); chill the smoked meats in a relatively short period of time after smoking; freeze what you're not going to use in a short period of time.
 
j-- Yes, you can create a brine so that the need for soaking is obviated. A few points though: A lighter salt concentration means much less of a preservative affect. Though the process of smoking will aid in preservation, standard food safety precautions should be taken, i.e., only use lighter brines for foods that will be taken to safe internals (use time @ temp if you want to keep the internal low) during smoking and will be cooked again more completely for serving (like bacon); chill the smoked meats in a relatively short period of time after smoking; freeze what you're not going to use in a short period of time.
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thanks. any difference between over-curing/fresh-soaking to achieve proper salt?

I was actually think more along the lines of fresh chicken and pork. I'm sick of fussing with brine times which will vary with the thickness of the meat. I want to find a salt solution that I'm happy with and just let it brine until equilibrium, that way I can brine for longer if my schedule prohibits me from following a normal brine.
 
Will fire up my wsm for the first time tomorrow going for a bit of a higer heat table and its not gonna be backon out of it...will try to get a rub and a high inner temp(work tomorrow smoke starts when i get home )
i will keep u posted.

Sure im a bacon fan,but the meat is just built for a high heat smoke layers of meat and fat.

I might be wrong and u will se it tomorrow live i think(post when doing it)

Bless//Me
 
Have you tried 4 T DC/quart water? My go-to.
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Kevin: please translate. I'm hoping that "DC" means "Diamond Crystal" Kosher salt.

Yes, another lurker trying to figure out his way to achieving the perfect brine.
 
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