Makin' Bacon

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hroth521

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5 lb pork belly split into two pieces.

1 piece -kosher salt to cover
1/4 cup maple syrup

Put it into a plastic bag and turn it every day for 6 days.

2nd piece - 2 tbl kosher salt
2 tbl brown sugar
1 tbl coarse black pepper
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 clove garlic - crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary - minced
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme - minced
Put it all in a plastic bag and turn it every day for 6 days.


SWMBO got me a Smoke E-Z converter (http://www.smoke-ez.com/index.php/ )for my Weber grill for my birthday. So in 6 days I'm gonna fire that sucker up and smoke 5 lb bacon for 2 - 3 hours until internal temp is 150.

MMmmmmmmm. Bacon. :rockin:
 
5 lb pork belly split into two pieces.

1 piece -kosher salt to cover
1/4 cup maple syrup

Put it into a plastic bag and turn it every day for 6 days.

2nd piece - 2 tbl kosher salt
2 tbl brown sugar
1 tbl coarse black pepper
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 clove garlic - crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary - minced
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme - minced
Put it all in a plastic bag and turn it every day for 6 days.


SWMBO got me a Smoke E-Z converter (http://www.smoke-ez.com/index.php/ )for my Weber grill for my birthday. So in 6 days I'm gonna fire that sucker up and smoke 5 lb bacon for 2 - 3 hours until internal temp is 150.

MMmmmmmmm. Bacon. :rockin:

You are my hero. I never tried to make it before. Now I have a recipe and a hankering to make it. Thank you very much!!:rockin:
 
Making bacon is similar to beer, it doesn't take alot of time, but you have to do some things each day. We butcher our own stock, so we cut out the bacon and cure it. Then smoke it after a week or so. The most important part is rotating the belly's daily and draining out the liquid that is pushed out by the salt.

Here is a couple pictures of one the slabs from the last smoke in March or April.


 
So it's taken me a while to report back because, well, I didn't like it very much. I couldn't cut it thin enough, and the flavors of both cures were, ok, but not great. Too salty, the herbs weren't there, couldn't taste the maple syrup, etc. it was just,... not worth it.

I didn't throw it out, of course, I cut it into chunks and froze all of it. Took some out yesterday to thaw and chopped it up, threw it into the fry pan until crisp, drained most of the fat and made some eggs. Sprinkled the crispy bacon bits over the eggs. Very good really.

I think my initial impression was because of the thickness, just couldn't get it to fry right when it was so thick. But also, I'm going to try something else the next time... I've since read that I should have drained the liquid off every day during the cure (see previous post above from onthekeg, for example) . I'll also add much more herbs, less salt and more maple syrup. Prolly wait til the spring to try again.
 
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