Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Its Bacon Time

Yeah, I have been out of bacon. This is not a good thing. Anyway managed to buy a pork belly from our local Mexican store. Not cheap price $2.29 pound but I got to choose the one I wanted. Well at least the best of the lot. I have been buying pork belly in case lots but you get what ever comes to you. Not always good. I really like thick bacon , not just thick sliced. I do however like thick sliced peppered with the skin on bacon. This is the kind of bacon I grew up eating and still love it. I am doing a dry cure, not like the old time salt cure but a sugar cure. I find that a nice balance between salty and sweet is outstanding. What kind of cure do you like? What kind of taste do you look for with your bacon? This recipe can be multiplied out for however pounds of meat you are curing. My bacon side weighted 14.78 pounds.
Dry Cure Recipe:
Bill’s Homemade Bacon

Ingredients:

One 5# pork belly
¼ cup of salt
1 teaspoon pink salt, (cure #1) “the curing salt containing sodium nitrite, not pink-colored salt”
Flavor:  ¾ cup of Honey, Real Cane Syrup or brown sugar. (I use dark brown sugar)

Mix all flavor ingredients together.

 Rub pork belly with your cure. Be sure and cover completely and rub in good.
Place pork in a large zip lock bag and place in refrigerator. Turn over every day for at least a week. Some liquid will form in the bag, this is good, do not pour off liquid. (I cure for 10 days)
At the end of the week, remove from bag, and rinse under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels. Place back in refrigerator in an open container so that it dries well. It should be tacky to touch. Coat with course ground black pepper.

Smoking Bacon:

Heat smoker to 150° Place bacon in smoker hang or place on grates. Add your smoking wood, your choice, I like pecan or hickory. Fruit woods are nice also. Smoke for color and flavor. When the color you like is reached, increase smoker temp to 200°. When the internal temp of your bacon is 156° remove from smoker. We are not trying to cook the bacon, just trying to kill off any bugs.
Cool before slicing, I put mine back in the refrigerator over night and slice the next day. Package in vacuum bags and freeze.
All rubbed down:



at

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2013 at 5:59 AM

    Looks good Bill.

    I've got my belly in the cure right now. A simple recipe I found on smoked meat forums

    1gal water
    1 cup white sugar
    1 cup brown sugar
    1 cup kosher salt
    1 tablespoon pink salt

    I plan on cold smoking it. Have you ever cold smoked bacon?

    atcNick

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChileFarmerFebruary 10, 2013 at 9:23 AM

    Nick, this is the way I smoke my bacon. I do dry cure I like the flavor better.
    Smoking Bacon:

    Heat smoker to 150° Place bacon in smoker hang or place on grates. Add your smoking wood, your choice, I like pecan or hickory. Fruit woods are nice also. Smoke for color and flavor. When the color you like is reached, increase pit temp to 200°. When the internal temp of your bacon is 156° remove from smoker. We are not trying to cook the bacon, just trying to kill off any bugs.
    Cool before slicing, I put mine back in the refrigerator over night and slice the next day. Package in vacuum bags and freeze.

    ReplyDelete