Any Bacon Makers Here?

[ericbw]

I love making bacon, either belly (streaky in the UK, or hotel bacon as a friend of mine calls it) or back (Canadian) bacon. I tend to cure in salt, sugar, herbs (garlic, thyme, oregano, juniper...all good!) and a tiny amount of salt petre for 5-7 days before smoking.

What cut is the first pic? Back?

 

[Homercidal]

I'm excited! Butcher is calling me back next week when our half a hog is cut up. I'm getting belly so I can make my own bacon. I gotta dig up that recipe that guy in the uP used to make his. It was phenomenal!

I might try a couple of different recipes though.

 

[Fishpig]

What cut is the first pic? Back?

Yup, back AKA loin. MY first attempt so just a cheap supermarket tied roasting joint, opened out, hence the slightly funny shape. Now Winter approaches in the UK my local butcher will be getting some more business...

 

[ericbw]

Yup, back AKA loin. MY first attempt so just a cheap supermarket tied roasting joint, opened out, hence the slightly funny shape. Now Winter approaches in the UK my local butcher will be getting some more business...

It's kind of a different looking cut than we get here.

 

[Melana]

last years bacon

 

[Melana]

And pancetta. YUM.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Bought some bacon at the asian market not long ago. Didn't really pay attention to what I got.

Turns out it was uncured pork belly and sliced like bacon. Thing was the skin was still on and being sliced so thin you could even see hair follicles. (shudders)

I fried and tried it anyway. Won't do that again. It was very bland and the skin was far too firm and chewy.

 

[chudsonvt]

I am yet to make bacon but it is on the list of things to try doing very soon. I am cooking homemade sausage for dinner, tonight, that I stuffed over the weekend in natural casings. I also have supplies on the way for making pepperoni. Next year, house will be purchased ==> Then it will be everything from building my ideal in-home brewery and growing hops to building a smoker, raising pigs and curing everything under the sun.

 

[ericbw]

Bought some bacon at the asian market not long ago. Didn't really pay attention to what I got.

Turns out it was uncured pork belly and sliced like bacon. Thing was the skin was still on and being sliced so thin you could even see hair follicles. (shudders)

I fried and tried it anyway. Won't do that again. It was very bland and the skin was far too firm and chewy.

Uncured belly should be cooked low and slow. Could be the base for a pot of beans.

But I don't know why it would be sliced if it's raw.

 

[brewandbeast]

Uncured belly should be cooked low and slow. Could be the base for a pot of beans.

But I don't know why it would be sliced if it's raw.

Quite common in the asian markets in the Vancouver, Canada area. It really is meant to be cooked low and slow or in a soup.

In Canada I can get belly(side pork) through the superstore chain. Just have to call ahead.

We use it all the time for testing new recipes since it's the cheapest and if our cures work on this, we know it's going to be awesome on the nicer cuts and qualities you get from your local butcher.

 

[Hello]

Man, I need to do this. I need to learn what it takes to prepare the shoulder for curing. Go go gadget Google!

 

[ericbw]

Man, I need to do this. I need to learn what it takes to prepare the shoulder for curing. Go go gadget Google!

Same as any other curing - get off most of the fat and skin, as well as any silver skin on the outside. It takes longer, of course, because it's thicker. It's as easy as belly!

 

[Hello]

Same as any other curing - get off most of the fat and skin, as well as any silver skin on the outside. It takes longer, of course, because it's thicker. It's as easy as belly!

I've never cured meat before, so this would be very interesting. I'm kind of excited to try it.

 

[Melana]

I've never cured meat before, so this would be very interesting. I'm kind of excited to try it.

You can do it!

 

[ericbw]

I've never cured meat before, so this would be very interesting. I'm kind of excited to try it.

Oh! I didn't mean to give such a quick answer. It is pretty simple. You should check out some reliable resources to get an idea of how much pink salt you need for the amount of meat. And then it has to cure for like a week per inch of meat - but that's measured from the center out. So a shoulder is probably no more than 3 inches.

Good info here: http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2055/ANSI-3994web.pdf

 

[ctufano]

Before your cure, are you supposed to trim down the fat at all? Or is it skin? I dunno, never bought a pork belly. Or do you cure it as it is from the butcher?

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

We call home made bacon from pork belly Hamcon because it is so much better than store bought.

 

[ericbw]

Before your cure, are you supposed to trim down the fat at all? Or is it skin? I dunno, never bought a pork belly. Or do you cure it as it is from the butcher?

You can cure it with the skin on, then you remove the skin after smoking. It is a lot easier to cut the skin off when it is still warm. No need to trim too much fat off. It's pretty much like it is from the butcher

 

[TrickyDick]

Getting ready to order my bellies (if I can track down a source!) Got some extra racks for smoker now have room for probably 12-14 of the #12ish slabs of belly. Wondering what the heck I'm going to use to cure all those as far as containers.

Great tip on the skin trimming AFTER smoking.

Here is a great site with lots of well formatted information about curing, especially the top "sticky" threads.
http://www.pelletsmoking.com/searching-cure-26/

I think someone had commented about wanting to cure a shoulder (ham). I think that you should read up on the process before trying to make ham. It is generally recommended to inject the cure solution into these larger pieces. It has been some time since I myself have read about the process, but this isn't the same as making beer (no pathologic organisms are known to live in beer) and you can get very sick if you don't know what you are doing. There are a few books which are rather good discussing many aspects of the process, and my personal favorites are written by Marianski if memory serves.

TD

 

[Fishpig]

... Wondering what the heck I'm going to use to cure all those as far as containers.... TD

I've started using heavy duty double zip ziploc bags. They're properly air/water proof when closed carefully, and if you squeeze them between two cushions with only a small opening remaining you can get most of the air out so they take up less space.

 

[ericbw]

I've started using heavy duty double zip ziploc bags. They're properly air/water proof when closed carefully, and if you squeeze them between two cushions with only a small opening remaining you can get most of the air out so they take up less space.

I was going to suggest this. If you can get the 2 or 2.5 gallon bags, a 5+ pound piece will fit. But put them on a tray of some kind in case of leaks.

 

[banesong]

I was going to suggest this. If you can get the 2 or 2.5 gallon bags, a 5+ pound piece will fit. But put them on a tray of some kind in case of leaks.

Does curing in vacuum bags work?

 

[Fishpig]

Don't see why not; they fix the volume available in the bag, and my feeling is that water takes up the same volume whether it's in the meat or outside it! There may be more to it though, if the inside of the bag is at negative pressure compared to the outside, will it speed up curing?
This is the first time in twenty years the phrase "osmotic pressure" has appeared in my thoughts, and I do not thank you for it... ;-)

 

[Homercidal]

Bought a half a hog this fall. Made sure to get the belly uncured so I can make my own bacon.


AAAAANnnndd.... My smoker broke.

 

[ericbw]

Does curing in vacuum bags work?

I have no idea. I suppose it would allow the pores in the meat to open more, which might speed it up. But I don't know that there is an advantage. It might make it saltier.

 

[TrickyDick]

Vacuum bags would suck the cure solution out at the point when a vacuum would be generated, so no, they would be no different than a regular ziplock except in cost perhaps. You would need to stop the vacuum once the air is removed, but you won't be able to generate negative or vacuum pressure and retain the cure solution in the bag. I suppose a vacuum canister if large enough might work, but not a bag.

TD.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

 

[ericbw]

Vacuum bags would suck the cure solution out at the point when a vacuum would be generated, so no, they would be no different than a regular ziplock except in cost perhaps. You would need to stop the vacuum once the air is removed, but you won't be able to generate negative or vacuum pressure and retain the cure solution in the bag. I suppose a vacuum canister if large enough might work, but not a bag.

TD.

It's a dry cure for bacon.

 

[TrickyDick]

You can wet cure too, but, in the case of dry cure, I suppose you could do vac bags in that case, but I'm not sure what the benefit would be.

 

[krackin]

Dry rub is best. I doubt vacuum pack would make much difference at all except that the idea of dry rub is to drain fluids away where a vacuum pack would act as one of those marinade packs. I wouldn't waste the effort large scale out the door but an experiment would be worth it. A brown sugar, grade B maple syrup application after dry rub works well. I'm using this more on my sweet corn finish hog bellies.

I raise hogs on a custom order basis, FWIW. I do my own curing and smoking. I take hogs to a couple of different processors for slaughter, they do a better all around than I care to bother with. Sides range from 15 to 30 pounds, the rib end being leaner than the belly end. You can see that in Ooga's pics above. Nice job.