Black Forest Maple Bacon

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TasunkaWitko

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Black Forest Maple Bacon

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2014.jpg


I love bacon. I’ve always loved bacon. It is inconceivable to me that there are people out there who do not think much of bacon; in fact, to me, hating bacon is almost as big a sin as hating America. - but that’s just me. If you are reading this, then I will assume that you feel somewhat the same, and invite you to consider that there is a whole new world open to you:

What if I told you that you can cure and smoke your own bacon at home?

One truth that is nearly universal is that once you cure and smoke your own bacon, you will never be satisfied with “store-bought” bacon again. I found this to be very true recently as I set out to learn this art, and was amazed at how little effort it took to produce such wonderful end product. All that is needed is the patience to “do things right;” by using that phrase, I mean that if you want bacon that has that wonderful, deep-smoked, olde-tyme aroma and flavour, then you need to use a method that will achieve the desired result. This will necessitate a little extra time and attention to detail, but the results are very much worth it.

This method will teach you to produce a maple-cured, cold-smoked, dry-aged bacon that will be rich, deep and savory, without the cloying sweetness of the “maple bacon” that is found in the grocery stores. Maple sugar is the perfect medium by which to achieve this goal in that it provides just enough sweetness to balance the salt that is in the bacon, without overpowering the entire profile. It also imparts a tantalising, caramelised depth that is hard to describe, yet easily appreciated for its subtlety. This ingredient was completely out of my reach just a few short years ago, but thanks to online sources such as Amazon, I was able to obtain this wonderful product with little trouble, and highly recommend that you do the same.

Since this was my first time making bacon of any kind from pork belly, I naturally sought assistance and guidance from several trusted friends and acquaintances here and elsewhere, and they all have my sincere appreciation. Darko (AK1), whom I’ve known for years, was particularly inspiring with the description of his eastern-European method, which couples a long, cold smoke with dry-aging of the salt-cured bacon for amazing aroma and flavour. Rich (RichTee) has been very generous in passing along his substantial knowledge of curing meats and the ways that the various components interact and relate to each other. John (BearCarver) was also very helpful where bacon itself is concerned, especially with his easy-to-follow method for determining the curing time. Marty (MossyMO) provided the best way for me to get wonderful cold smoke onto my cured meats. The final, critical piece of the puzzle presented itself when BriCan presented his method for making bacon, which was very much in-line with my goals regarding the maple profile. He also introduced me to his “Black Forest spice mixture” and quite generously shared the recipe with me. Together, the spice mixture and maple sugar work together to produce exactly the flavour profile I was hoping to achieve. The following step-by-step method comes directly from him, and is only slightly modified to accommodate my equipment and circumstances. If you go with it and stick to the fundamentals, you will produce top-quality bacon that is only slightly short of a religious experience.These friends - and a few others - were a huge help and inspiration with this project - thanks to you all!

This pictorial represents the “finished” product, and outlines the ingredients, steps and method that I used in a detailed fashion. As such, it might be a bit tedious, but it will teach a complete beginner about making bacon and will follow my journey as I learned to make it, including a few lessons learned. I always do my best to include all pertinent information about the process from beginning to end; having said that, it is a distillation and summary of a project that had a lot of input. For further details, discussion and comments about the evolution of this project, you can follow this link:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...oject_topic4181.html

Note - The art of curing and smoking meats is easy to learn, and a worthwhile skill to have. The curing agent that I used for this project was TennerQuack, which is available from www.madhunkymeats.com:

http://madhunkymeats.com/openc...roduct&product_id=56

It is a clone of Morton’s Tender Quick and either product is highly recommended by me. Both of these products (abbreviated TQ) contain the necessary amount of curing agent per pound of meat, along with the salt needed per pound of meat; in other words, when you use TQ, you have your curing agent and your salt for your project together in one product. There are many different curing agents out there that work just as well, but all have their own unique and often proprietary formula. If you use any curing agent other than TQ, follow the directions on that package of cure, and add the amount of salt (if any) appropriate for the cure you are using and the meat you are curing. Not following the specific directions on your specific package of cure can leave you with an inferior (from a quality perspective) or dangerous (from a food safety perspective) end product.

Here is all that you need to produce this wonderful bacon at home:

A slab of pork belly
Salt and cure in an amount appropriate for your type of cure and weight of meat
Maple sugar
BriCan’s Black Forest spice mixture (recipe below)

Here’s how to make enough of BriCan’s Black Forest spice mixture to fill a pint-sized jar:

Black Forest Spice Mixture:

125gm White pepper
25gm Ground nutmeg
25gm Ground mace
15gm Ground cardamom
200gm White sugar

Mix thoroughly, then store in an opaque jar out in a cool, dry place.

That’s pretty easy to make, wouldn’t you say? But it certainly pays huge dividends, to be sure; when BriCan told me about it, I immediately saw the possibilities; on a leap of faith, I mixed some up, using freshly-ground spices, and immediately fell in love with it. I came up about 30 grams short on the white pepper, but made up for it with ground black pepper, and it seemed to turn out just fine.It has an essence that was precisely what I was looking for. It was almost as if someone put southwestern Germany in a jar, and I could immediately detect a compatibility with my ideas regarding the maple. The best part is that I now have a nice supply of it in my cupboard, waiting for any number of projects.

That’s about all there is to this bacon, except for the cold-smoking and dry-aging, which we will discuss later on, so let’s get started!

For my first bacon, I used a 6-pound slab of area-grown pork belly that I acquired from our local butcher:

BlackForestMapleBacon-1.jpg


My meat lady did a great job - this slab was exactly 6 pounds, according to my digital kitchen scale!

This particular slab had had the skin removed, and that’s alright with me as it increases my yield. There are pluses and minuses to having the skin on or off, and it is not my purpose here to debate them; it suffices to say that you can make very successful bacon either way. The slab can be cured and smoked whole, but for my purposes, it seemed better to divide it into four equally-sized 1.5-pound smaller slabs:

BlackForestMapleBacon-2.jpg


This worked very well for me, but it is not the only way to do it. As I said, the slab could have been left whole, or it could have been three 2-pound slabs; or two 3-pound slabs, or whatever. I liked the way these 1.5-pound slabs turned out, and will probably continue to do them this way.

The first thing you want to do is to apply your salt and curing agent to your bacon; as stated before, I use TQ, which combines the salt needed with the appropriate amount of cure into one product. It is user-friendly and fool-proof, and I’ve never found a reason not to use it. For dry-brining whole cuts of meat, the amount of TQ needed is 1 tablespoon per pound. Since each of the four slabs were hovering within an ounce or two of 1.5 pounds, I rounded my measurements slightly upward and used 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons (1.667 tablespoons) of TQ per slab, taking care to place each slab into it’s own zip-lock-type bag first, then adding the cure fairly evenly to each side. Doing it this way ensures that all of the cure remains with the meat, which will be rotated each day for even curing. Note that due to my rounding up, I added slightly more TQ than was actually needed; this is not too big a concern as you cannot over-cure meat, and it is better to have a little too much than not enough, keeping in mind that you still want to be as close as possible with your measurements in order to keep your finished product from being too salty. This bacon turned out just right to my taste, but The Beautiful Mrs. Tas found it to be just slightly too salty, so I will be more precise with my measurements next time.

Thanks to BriCan, I also have the amounts of salt and cure to be used if you are using Cure #1: you want to apply salt at 2% and Cure #1 at 0.25% of the total weight of meat.

Important Note: These measurements from BriCan are for Cure #1, and my measurements above are for TQ. If you are using any other type of cure, be sure to use the appropriate amount of cure and salt according to the directions on the package of cure that you have. Each type or "brand" of cure has its own instructions that must be followed specifically, as they are not interchangeable with others; any cure will work fine, but each must be used according to its own instructions. If you have any questions at all about using any cure, please ask, and someone here on the forum will be able to help you. If you cannot get an answer, please send a private message to me, and I will bring the question to the attention of someone who can get an answer for you.

After applying the salt/cure, I gave each side of each slab a dusting of BriCan's Black Forest spice mixture (recipe/formula above), followed by a similar dusting of maple sugar. For this first attempt, I used 1 tablespoon of each (Black Forest spice mixture and maple sugar) for each 1.5-pound slab; results were good, and the flavours came through fairly well, but I do intend to use more of each (probably double) next time, in order to enhance the wonderful qualities that were imparted to the bacon.

Here are the bagged slabs of pork belly, with cure, spice mixture and maple sugar applied:

BlackForestMapleBacon-3.jpg


A note on the maple sugar: I had a bit of trouble finding this product locally, so I ordered some through Amazon.com. When I ordered it, it seemed a little pricey at 78¢ per ounce for a 25-ounce container; however, once it arrived and I sampled it, I quickly judged that it was worth every penny. I found the maple sugar to have a deep, earthy, caramelised flavour; something that is unique and wonderful without being overly-sweet, and I immediately perceived a difference between the flavour this product versus the flavour of other “maple-flavoured” meats. It is something that really must be experienced in order to appreciate it, and I highly recommend making the effort to use true maple sugar. Some folks have reported very good results using genuine maple syrup as a substitute, and I am sure that it works well; however, I can say without reservation that the maple sugar is outstanding, and will be using maple sugar exclusively on any appropriate future charcuterie project.

Moving along, I placed the bagged slabs of pork belly into a glass baking dish, to contain any leakage that might occur:

BlackForestMapleBacon-4.jpg


As it turned out, there was no leakage, but there’s nothing wrong with taking precautions right?

I then placed the baking dish in the refrigerator for the duration of the curing time, rotating the slabs top-to-bottom as well as flipping them each day, for even curing and flavour distribution.

When curing with TQ, there is a lot of information out there about curing times, with several different methods that all pretty much add up to a similar result. Morton’s own curing guide is a little vague and has changed a bit over the years; the current recommendation for curing bacon is for 7 days with a 2-day period tacked on for equalisation of salt, and I am sure that this advice is reliable. Another noted expert recommends a curing time of 1 day per quarter-inch of thickness, as measured from the center-out. This might be the most precise advice of all, but it is rather complicated and can lead to confusion. After reading through a lot of knowledgeable material on the subject, I have settled on using the method employed by my friend John (BearCarver), because it is easy to remember and easy to follow:

I use [a curing time of] one day per half-inch of total thickness, and then add a minimum of 2 days for safety. Then, I usually add 2 more days.

John has cured a lot of meats over the years, including a great deal of bacon, so I trust his method as his results have always been exemplary. At its thickest point, my pork belly was a little over 1.5 inches, so I decided to cure as if the slabs were all 2 inches thick. which would give a total of 8 days by John’s calculations.

When curing with Cure # 1, BriCan reports that the curing time should be 1 week for bacon.

Due to some scheduling issues, my bacon ended up curing for a total of 14 days. This is longer than necessary, but it is not a significant issue due the the fact that meat cannot be over-cured. Once the curing time has passed, you want to rinse off your slab(s) of bacon with cold water in order to remove excess cure, salt etc. Do not worry about “washing off” any flavour - it’s in there, so no worries! Once your bacon is rinsed, hang it or place it on a rack of some sort and pat it dry with paper towels. Here’s how my bacon looked after rinsing:

BlackForestMapleBacon-5.jpg


As you can see, there is some pretty good colour here, and things are proceeding very well. The slabs of bacon retained the clean, fresh aroma of the Black Forest spice mixture that I made, giving them a nice, Old-World quality. The earthy, subtle tone of the maple sugar was indeed present without being overbearing, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

At this point, it is desirable to give your bacon a few days for the salt content to equalise throughout the thickness of the meat and fat; you also want to give your maple sugar some time for the flavour to really infuse into the soul of the finished product. To do this, let the bacon dry a couple of hours, then apply a dusting with the maple sugar on the meat side (no need to add the Black Forest seasoning this time, just the maple sugar). Here, you can see that I started with the bottom-right slab, then worked my way clock-wise to the top-right slab:

BlackForestMapleBacon-6.jpg


Once again, I used a tablespoon of maple sugar for each slab; and once again, it was good - however, I will most likely double this amount the next time I make this, and then compare the results.

Once I applied the maple sugar, I bagged the slabs again and returned them to the refrigerator:

BlackForestMapleBacon-7.jpg


You want to leave the bacon in the refrigerator for another week, in order to achieve the salt and flavour equalisation mentioned above.

When the equalisation period has passed, you are ready to proceed to the smoking stage of the project. Without rinsing, remove your bacon from the refrigerator and hang it over-night so that it can dry a bit and form a pellicle, which allows it to accept the smoke in wonderful fashion. At the time, I had no practical way to hang it, so I set it on a rack over-night, flipping and rotating the slabs periodically for even drying. At this point, you are ready to smoke your bacon.

When it comes to the smoking wood to be used, There are many, many choices out there, and it is not my purpose to debate the merits of each. My advice is to choose one that you like, and go with it. For this project, I used a blend of apple, maple and oak as that was what I had at the time. Next time, it will probably be just oak, or maybe just maple - or maybe beech. I might also try a blend that BriCan uses, which is maple, beech and birch, with occasional softwoods or juniper berries added in the Black Forest tradition. My main point is that while each wood probably does has its unique and subtle characteristics, the main thing about smoking meats is that the hardwood that was available is primarily the wood that was used, and you can’t really go wrong. With that in mind, I’ll leave it to you to decide what wood you want to use; if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

For products such as bacon, cold-smoking is a fundamental point that results in a far better end product with a deeper, more enticing aroma and flavour. There are also advantages - in my opinion - where appearance and colour are concerned. Dry-aging the bacon during and after smoking allows the bacon to mature and fully develop its properties in ways that are hard - for me at least - to describe, except to say that a level of sophistication is reached that goes beyond mere deliciousness. Cold-smoking, when coupled with dry-aging, will play right into the flavour profile that is provided by this method and give your bacon so many wonderful layers and dimensions that you will probably never buy bacon at the supermarket again.

Cold smoking is nothing mysterious or magical - it is simply subjecting your cured meat to a moderate amount of smoke - with good air-flow - at temperatures below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a process that takes a goodly amount of time - days, weeks or longer in some cases. In other words, it really is smoking in the old sense of the word; part of the process of preserving meats and “laying food over” for winter, which were the lean months where food was concerned. In modern times, too many people confuse the term with smoke-cooking meat, which is a whole other story, and not within the scope of this project. In order to engage in this activity, a smokehouse was used in the days of yore, and is still used today in many cases; our past is littered with examples, both in history and in literature, of “the old smokehouse” where many wondrous things were created, and the connotations are indeed quite nostalgic. Perhaps one day, I’ll be able to build a proper smokehouse and be able to capture some of that olde-tyme, comfortable nostalgia.

But in the meantime, it’s 2015, and I need to make do with what I have at this stage of my life. Luckily, there are many, many modern-day alternatives that work very well; it is not my intention to discuss them all, but rather to tell you what I used, which is a product called the “A-MAZE-N” Pellet Smoker (also known as the AMNPS), which is available from Marty and Tanya Owens at www.OwensBBQ.com:

http://owensbbq.com/smokers-and-pellets.html

This wonderful little unit uses pellet or sawdust to produce sweet, aromatic smoke for a variety of purposes, and is especially suited for cold-smoking; all that is needed is an enclosure to perform the dual purpose of containing the meat and providing airflow. There is literally an endless supply of options for this, but I chose to use the shell of my Big Chief smoker:

Big%20Chief%20Smoker.jpg


Two notes regarding the photo above:

1. The photo above is obviously not of my own personal Big Chief Smoker, and I am not claiming that it is; I “borrowed” it off the internet somewhere and will replace it sometime in the future.

2. Please disregard the electrical cord that is snaking out from the back of the smoker above - for this cold smoke, I did not use the heating element that the Big Chief is equipped with.

For the actual smoking, there was no reason to tie/hang the slabs as they were able to simply lie flat on the top rack of the Big Chief Smokehouse that I waS using as an enclosure for my AMNPS. I gave the bacon two smoking sessions of about 11 hours (give or take), for a total of 22 hours over this cold smoke; I could probably have gone another 12 or 14 hours, but I was concerned that the (very) sub-zero temperatures we were experiencing might have some affect on the humidity, airflow and other factors going on in the small-ish enclosure that I was using, and figured that the concentration of smoke in the relatively small Big Chief would be adequate. As it turned out, it seems to me that there was plenty of smoke coverage, but I do intend to experiment with a longer smoking time and look for ways to ensure better airflow for my next attempt. Sooner or later, I'll try doing the cold smoking in a much larger area (such as the smoking chamber of my offset smoker, with the AMNPS sitting in the firebox), and will compare results.

Once the smoking was completed, I allowed the bacon to hang and dry-age in our front porch, which was sealed off for the winter and still quite cold and dry. This step allows the bacon to mature and develop flavours that simply will not happen otherwise, and is well worth the time invested for top-quality results. I didn’t know the exact temperature on the porch, but it doesn't matter too much; as I did know that it was quite cool as it would be if the slabs would hang in any larder at a country home during the winter. The timeframe involved for dry-aging bacon largely depends on temperature humidity, air-flow and other factors, just as when smoking. I left my bacon to hang and dry-age for three days, and to be honest, I probably could have gone at least couple of days longer, if not several days longer. This is another area where I definitely intend to experiment with my next bacon; while I certainly noticed benefits from this relatively short dry-aging period, I am more than willing to bet that a longer aging time will result in even deeper maturity of the finished bacon next time.

Somewhere between the smoking and dry-aging, it occurred to me that, rather than improvise some kind of hooks in order to hang the bacon, I could simply tie them with a simple vertical/horizontal wrap of kitchen twine, so that’s what I did. Once the bacon was hanging and aging, I deliberately avoided any contact with the bacon during the hanging and aging, so that I could see the results in an un-biased manner; three days later, I took a peek and fell in love with what I saw:

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%208.jpg


It sure looks great to me - what do you think?

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%209.jpg


The cold smoking and dry aging resulted in some real depth of colour, as well as a very enticing aroma that had me wanting to dig right in. I chose a slab at random and sliced off an end:

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2010.jpg


This was my first project, so I'm not sure how the bacon was "supposed" to look inside, but to my amateur eye, it looked incredible - much better than I should have been able to hope for. But I wanted to taste this bacon - not just look at it, so I sliced the opposite end off and diced both of them into "bacon bits" for the pan:

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2011.jpg


Then - in the name of experimentation, of course - I collected a few samples in sliced format for the family and me to try:

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2012.jpg


One thing about dry-cured-and-aged bacon - especially if it is on the thick side - is that you want to cook it at lower temperatures, so that the fat has a chance to render as the bacon crisps a bit before the heat scorches or burns it. This is no big deal, if you are aware of it. Also, note the way that the bacon quickly went from a deep, dark red to the lighter, more-familiar pink as it heated up:

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2013.jpg


Another option is to cook it in the oven, which I've found to work very well.

Results were extremely good - almost perfect, in my opinion! The bacon had a very nice, very deep smoke tang and wonderful texture - even the fat was a joy, with that slightly-crisp exterior and rich, melty interior. The bacon might have been just a bit salty - at least according to The Beautiful Mrs. Tas - but if it was, it wasn’t by very much. Also, the smoke seemed to be mostly on the exterior, and a bit stronger than expected. More on both of those points in a moment. Those issues aside, it was excellent for a first try - and was definitely much, much better than any bacon I've ever paid money for.

After the family and I enjoyed those sample bits and slices, I packed the rest away in the refrigerator, along with the other three slabs. I could have hung the bacon back up on the porch to continue dry-aging, but this didn’t occur to me at the time. In any case, a week later, we tried a few more slices from the original slab and I noticed that the flavour seemed mellower and deeper this second time, as if both the salt and smoke had had a chance to penetrate the bacon and equalise throughout. It seemed to me that the bacon had matured very nicely, and I was very encouraged by the results.

I put the remainder of that first slab into the refrigerator, along with the rest of the slabs; because it was a busy day, I promptly forgot it as I rushed here and there trying to squeeze a dozen things into the weekend. A week after that, I made breakfast again, and the bacon seemed to be even better than before - more developed - and I was even more impressed with it, as was The Beautiful Mrs. Tas.

By now, the first slab was gone, and I decided that I had what I was looking for in terms of flavour, for now. I individually vacuum-sealed the remaining three slabs and put them into the freezer, there to await some time in the future when I could enjoy them again.

The passage of time that happened in the refrigerator amounted to a controlled aging, albeit not a dry-aging, because the slabs were in ziplock bags. I am sure that this same effect could have been accomplished by continuing to hang the slabs in the front porch, and will experiment more with this in the future to see the effect of extended dry-aging.

It didn’t occur to me to weigh them, but after curing, smoking and aging, it seemed that each of the four slabs - which weighed 1.5 pounds to begin with - ended up weighing just a little over a pound; I’ll say 1.25 pounds for now and keep better track next time. I elected to vacuum-seal and freeze my slabs whole - rather than slicing them first - for several reasons. The first is because much of the reading that I have done on meat storage tells me that whole cuts of meat freeze and keep better while frozen; I am very careful about freezer-burn and the quality of the meat I make, so this seemed to be a natural choice. Another reason for storing the bacon in whole slabs is versatility; with a slab that isn’t pre-sliced, I can cut slices to any desired thickness at any time, or remove chunks and cube them - or cut strips for lardons. The possibilities are many, and considering the various culinary projects that I like to try, the practice simply makes sense.

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Bacon%20-%2014.jpg


All-in-all, my bacon was as close to perfection as I could reasonably expect for a first time - with plenty of opportunity for improvement. After all, it can never be perfect, because what would come after perfect? Either way, as I said above, it was much better than any bacon that I've ever bought at the store; in fact, I've already put in a new order for another 6-pound slab of pork belly, so that I can make some more.

As I mentioned throughout, this was a learning process for me, and as a result I was rather tentative at each step of the process. My bacon turned out very well, and I found it to be absolutely delicious, with every quality that I was looking for; however, the process also taught me that I could take the things I like about this bacon and make them even better. For my next attempt, I plan to build upon what I have learned and jump into the entire process with both feet. I alluded to these plans throughout the process, and will of course report on results. My hope is to apply what I have learned from this experience, and transform delicious bacon into an example of fine craftsmanship in the art of charcuterie.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this, and I do hope that it has motivated you to try some of the methods outlined here. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them, in order to develop some constructive discussion about this most wonderous of cured and smoked meats.

Enjoy!

Ron
 
Nice post, Ron! Very thorough and looks delicious. I've been meaning to do this project and I appreciate the photos in particular.
 
Good morning, EMF, and thanks for the kind words!

There really is no time like the present for something like this; I put it off for quite a while, simply because the project seemed intimidating, and lost out on a lot of good bacon-eating sessions. This stuff is guaranteed to be good, as long as you pay attention to your curing fundamentals and follow the procedures outlined.

If you want to give it a go, and have any questions at all, please feel free to get in touch any time ~

Ron
 
You had me at Black Forrest Maple Bacon...good LORD that looks good.

Terrific write up Tas, very much appreciated!
 
Thanks, HJ - I feel duty-bound to inform you that it tastes even better than it looks!
 
I just finished my second batch, making it essentially the same as my first, except for these differences:

a) I dialed in the cure/salt amounts more precisely.

b) I used a bit more maple sugar and Black Forest spice mix (1 tablespoon of each per pound during curing, and then another tablespoon per pound of maple sugar on the meat side during the week of equalisation).

c) I added a few juniper berries to the blend of maple/apple/oak pellets that I used for smoking.

d) I smoked for a longer period of time (closer to 30 hours, on and off).

e) I dry-aged for a longer period of time (closer to 4 days - high humidity prevented any further dry-aging).

I have not sampled the bacon yet, as it is is sitting in the refrigerator a few days until I have some time, but I am expecting really good things. This batch is darker than the first, possibly due to the juniper berries added to the smoke.

I smoked this batch in my new MES 30, which required a bit of a learning curve, but I think I got it mostly figured out. I might hang these to air-dry a bt longer as they seem a bit moist still, but that's something I can do over the course of the next couple of evenings, if I choose.

The only "glitch" in this attempt was that the smoking temperatures got a little higher than I intended for a few hours - close to 100 degrees. This was probably a result of using the broken-up bits of charcoal in the bottom of the AMNPS; there is little to no noticable effect during the winter months when temperatures are below zero, but during warmer periods it appears to bump the temperatures up a little too high. This is no big deal, as the bacon is perfectly fine - but it is something to be aware of for the future.

That's what I have for now - I am thinking that I need one more third batch to have a good store of bacon in the freezer, so I ordered one more pork belly this morning. I will continue to use this method, as it gives me exactly what I am looking for when I think of making my own bacon. The only "tweaks" that I plan to apply for this third batch are:

a) A slightly-longer smoking time (closer to 40 hours, if feasible).

b) Using a blend of oak and beech, with juniper berries added yet again, for smoking.

c) A slightly-longer dry-aging time, if feasible.

More as it happens, etc. &c.....

Ron
 
Wow, what a great post. Thanks so much for sharing. I was looking at doing this, and you have inspired me to now take the plunge. I have a Smoke Daddy cold smoker I'm going to install on my Marshall. The 40 hours of smoking time is a lot, I'm wondering if I'll be bale to do that, but will give her a go. This should be a "Bacon Sticky". Again, Thanks for sharing.
 
Wow, what a great post. Thanks so much for sharing. I was looking at doing this, and you have inspired me to now take the plunge. I have a Smoke Daddy cold smoker I'm going to install on my Marshall. The 40 hours of smoking time is a lot, I'm wondering if I'll be bale to do that, but will give her a go. This should be a "Bacon Sticky". Again, Thanks for sharing.

G'morning, caster, and thanks much for the kind words -

Good luck when you give this a try; it really is easy and as long as you stick to a few fundamentals, all will be good. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask them on this thread, or send me a PM.

I have never used the Smoke Daddy, but there's no reason at all why it shouldn't work just fine. As for the smoking time, I've found that it works well to smoke a few hours, then allow the bacon to hang and dry-age for a little while, then smoke again; in other words, stagger your total smoking time over multiple sessions. You don't necessarily have to go the full 40 hours, but you will most likely need more smoking time than you think, as the smoke works its way into the bacon during the dry-aging.

Once you are finished smoking, hang the bacon out for a couple of days at least in order to finish the dry-aging process. Temperature and humidity are factors, but don't be too shy about it. Remember that the meat is cured; in Italy and other climates, cured meats hang out for months.

The smoking and dry-aging times are subjective, as you can see - so start with baby steps and work your way into them. My first batch of bacon, I had about 22 hours of smoke and 3 days of dry-aging (along with some extended time in the refrigerator), and this worked pretty well.

Hope this helps - if you are new at it, there might be some clarification that is needed, but it's pretty instinctive and as long as you follow the process, you are going to produce some really good bacon. The "extra steps" are intended to make great bacon even better, so you can work your way up to them and find the level that works best for you.
 
Agreed. Great bacon is quite easy to make. And I will never be satisfied with commercial "bacon" again. I also learned the trade from some of the folks you mentioned above. Nice post.
 
I started a new project based on this theme last night, and I hope that it goes well.

A while ago, I bought a pig; when I had the butcher go to work on it, I asked him to save some parts that would normally be ground into sausage or used for other purposes. One of those cuts was the jowl...well, both jowls, actually.

Last night, I began the process of making pork jowl bacon, using this "Black Forest Maple" process, which has become my go-to method.

Black%20Forest%20Maple%20Pork%20Jowl%20Bacon%20-%2024APR17%20-%201.jpg


The two jowls were each just under 0.85 pounds, so I adjusted the amount of cure ("TennerQuack", from Mad Hunky Meats), backing off the amount by 20%, as discussed above for bacon. This will work out well, since the jowls are on the thin side, and I'll be curing for nearly 2 weeks, if not three. Once I applied the cure, I dusted the jowls with a tablespoon each of maple sugar and a Black Forest spice blend, made according to BriCan's authentic family recipe that he generously shared with me.

The jowls are curing now, and will be until at least the weekend of 6/7 May, possibly a week longer. Once the curing is complete, I'll continue with the dry-cure, cold-smoking procedure, as described above.

I also have a couple of pork bellies from this same pig; when I am able to, I will be giving them the same treatment.

I'd like to take a moment and sincerely thank BriCan for sharing what he knows about curing and charcuterie; thanks to him, I am making better bacon than I ever could have made on my own!

Ron
 
Tasunka, those bacon pics have me drooling onto my keyboard! Another awesome write-up! This rivals the lacquered ribs write-up; I've yet to try those, but they're on my list, as is this bacon. My smoking experience is limited to my Weber grill with inserts, but I recently got a Masterbuilt charcoal vertical water smoker & have yet to break it in; so those ribs & the bacon are definitely on the list of things to do! Great pics, and I love how you make it simple enough for any n00b to follow & get it right. Thanks for sharing this!
Regards, GF.
 
Good morning, GF - I hope you are doing well on the West Side!

This bacon is good. Really good. I am sure that I mentioned this fact a time or two in my post, but I can't stress it enough. It is also pretty darn easy to make, as the curing agent, the spices, the smoke and simple time do all of the real work.

The two fundamentals of this process are dry-curing and cold-smoking, with the dry-aging bringing up a very close third, as this bacon only gets better with time.

To put a finer point on it, I was rummaging around in my refrigerator over this past weekend and found a half-pound of this bacon (un-sliced) sitting in there, wrapped in Saran Wrap. Because of the way it was packaged, I knew for a fact that the last time I touched it was last August (2016). It looked about the same as it did when I packaged it, and a cautious whiff revealed that it smelled very fine, so I sliced it up and cooked it in the oven for breakfast. Everyone agreed that it was the best tasting example yet of the bacon that I'd made; I am assuming this has a lot to do with the aging process and the flavours coming into perfect harmony, much like decent home-brewed beer or home-made wine.

If/when you'd like to give this a try, I am very confident that you would like it. The idea behind the dry curing is very simple and makes perfect sense, but one of the main challenges - for me, at least - was to force myself to smoke it longer and let it dry-age longer (at room temperature, no less!) than your instinct will allow. Believe me, the bacon will benefit from both. I am guessing that you have access to fresh spices and maple sugar; but if not, there are some good online sources. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions, and please do keep me updated on the process. This of course goes for anyone else who might be interested in giving this a shot.

Enjoy!

Ron
 
I was out of town over the weekend, but luckily my #2 son Mike has been flipping the packages containing the bacon daily, so all is well. Truth be told, I am sure that the bacon would have been just fine anyway, but it is nice to follow a procedure, so as to produce the best, most consistent results.

I will continue the flipping and massaging of the packages for the remainder of the week, then will move to the next stage of the process, which involves rinsing the bacon in cold water, re-applying the maple sugar, and allowing the salt content to equalise before smoking. I expect to smoke this bacon on the weekend of 14/15 May, but if for some reason I am unable to, I will do it the weekend after.

These jowls are fairly thin, so I expect that realistically, the curing process is nearly complete; however, since I did back off on the cure/salt a bit, and because of my scheduling issues, I am happy to extend the timetable a bit. The bacon will not suffer because of it.

More as it happens, etc. &c....

Ron
 
Oh great, something else I have to try now, you were not satisfied sucking me in with the Bourbon Dubbel I guess. But since bacon is proof that God loves us I will have to source some pork belly.

I have one dilemma, how do I cold smoke in the Florida heat?
 
As soon as I get an answer from my friend who taught me how to make this, I'll let you know.

As far as I know, everything is fine with the smoking and aging as long as it doesn't get above 100 degrees, at which point it becomes hot smoking rather than cold - this isn't going to hurt anything, but to me, cold-smoking is so much better.
 
So I forgot to take a pic before I put them in the bag. They don't quite look as good in the bags but here they are.

IMG_8559.jpg
 
And now the wait as I turn my babies daily.

I am going to pick up maybe another 6 lbs of belly to try a Pepper-Rum bacon recipe I found on a BBQ forum.
 
Thank you for this wonderful thread. I felt a little overwhelmed by the thought of making bacon, but your step by step procedure made it a little less stressful. I will never be buying BF bacon from Whole Foods again. This was absolutely a hit with the family and we went through 12 pounds in no time at all. Bought another pork belly for my 2nd round of bacon. Thanks, again.
 

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Hey, Dcmpres - that looks good...REALLY good!

I am glad that this worked out for you, but even more glad that you gave it a shot. I try to break these "pictorials" down to the point where someone can not only start from Square One (if necessary), but also feel that it is something within their reach...something that isn't nearly as difficult as it might seem. Too many times, I've held off starting a project - including this one on bacon - because the whole idea seemed too intimidating; once I actually tried it, I found out that I had been missing out on a lot of good things...brewing, charcuterie, bread-making and so many others!

Congratulations again, and thanks for the feedback -

Ron
 
I have appx 5 lbs of pork bellies i plan to smoke. Using #1 cure I get appx 1.5 TSP of cure? that seems like a very small amount? Just wondering if that is correct? thanks in advance...
 
Hi, WyoWolf -

I sent this by PM, but will also put it here so that anyone reading can use the information.

Hi -

I have not used Cure #1, but the fellow who taught me how to make this bacon does use Cure #1. He's a British Butcher living in BC, Canada, and knows his stuff. I double-checked the information that he gave me, and his instructions state that if you are using Cure #1: you want to apply salt at 2% and Cure #1 at 0.25% of the total weight of meat.

For instance, if you have 1 kilogram of pork (1000 grams), then you would use 2.5 grams of Cure #1. To arrive at this number, just use the one equation that I found to be useful in Math after high school:

0.25% of 1000g = X

0.25/100 = X/1000

(Cross Multiply)

100X = 250

X = 2.5g

Easy Peasy, right?

I hope this helps -

Ron
 
Hi, WyoWolf -

I sent this by PM, but will also put it here so that anyone reading can use the information.

Hi -

I have not used Cure #1, but the fellow who taught me how to make this bacon does use Cure #1. He's a British Butcher living in BC, Canada, and knows his stuff. I double-checked the information that he gave me, and his instructions state that if you are using Cure #1: you want to apply salt at 2% and Cure #1 at 0.25% of the total weight of meat.

For instance, if you have 1 kilogram of pork (1000 grams), then you would use 2.5 grams of Cure #1. To arrive at this number, just use the one equation that I found to be useful in Math after high school:

0.25% of 1000g = X

0.25/100 = X/1000

(Cross Multiply)

100X = 250

X = 2.5g

Easy Peasy, right?

I hope this helps -

Ron
Yes I got your msg thanks... doing the math i get 1.35 TSP... that just seems like a tiny amount so wanted to double check! thank you
 
Yes I got your msg thanks... doing the math i get 1.35 TSP... that just seems like a tiny amount so wanted to double check! thank you

If you want to cross-check that amount, I would suggest converting everything to metric grams, then check the math. If it comes out the same, then you're good to go!
 
If you want to cross-check that amount, I would suggest converting everything to metric grams, then check the math. If it comes out the same, then you're good to go!
5 pounds is 2278 grams
works to 5.6 grams ~ 1.3 TSP...

must be some powerful stuff!! that isnt very much at all... esp for 3 slabs
 
Awesome - with that in mind, I'd say that things are looking good. Using three slabs, you might want to weigh and apply cure separately to each of them, depending on how you're set up.

Carry on!

Ron
 
Good Morning, I followed this pretty close minus the dry rub you made, i just used salt pepper and maple sugar. cold smoked with pellets about 10 hours and next day tried some... OMG... smoke bomb!! I was wondering if more time is needed for the intense smoke to go away? I know you mentioned 22 hrs, but I only did ten and its smokey as heck...

20181103_233928.jpg
 
Good morning!

First off, your bacon looks great, with very nice colour!

Regarding the amount of smoke: in my experience, after a few days of dry-aging, and then refrigeration (either vacuum-sealed, zip-locked or wrapped in plastic), the smoke flavor does penetrate and work its way through the bacon. Right now, it is almost surely "on the surface" and probably does seem rather intense. My strong guess is that, over time, this will mellow out quite a bit.

Having said that, this method for making bacon is designed to produce something that is more old-school and rustic than the bacon found in modern supermarkets; the dry cure, cold smoke and dry-aging all work together to enhance and intensify flavours, so it is inherently different from what you might be used to. In the end, after giving it some time to mellow out, it is still too intense for your taste, try reducing the smoking time by a couple of hours with the next batch. See how that goes, and adjust again from there, if necessary, until it reaches a level that you like.

Hope this helps!

Ron
 
Good morning!

First off, your bacon looks great, with very nice colour!

Regarding the amount of smoke: in my experience, after a few days of dry-aging, and then refrigeration (either vacuum-sealed, zip-locked or wrapped in plastic), the smoke flavor does penetrate and work its way through the bacon. Right now, it is almost surely "on the surface" and probably does seem rather intense. My strong guess is that, over time, this will mellow out quite a bit.

Having said that, this method for making bacon is designed to produce something that is more old-school and rustic than the bacon found in modern supermarkets; the dry cure, cold smoke and dry-aging all work together to enhance and intensify flavours, so it is inherently different from what you might be used to. In the end, after giving it some time to mellow out, it is still too intense for your taste, try reducing the smoking time by a couple of hours with the next batch. See how that goes, and adjust again from there, if necessary, until it reaches a level that you like.

Hope this helps!

Ron

I wrapped in loosely in cling wrap and stuck in fridge til i could figure out what to do with it.... should i have left it outside for a few days to age a bit? I also thought of taking a damp clean towel and "washing" the outside of it...then ageing it... thoughts?
 
If it were me, I would not "wash" it with a damp cloth. You're trying to remove moisture, so this would be counter-productive to that goal. Also, in my experience, doing so will not remove any smoke flavor anyway; what I would do is give the smoke time to penetrate - it will!

I'd say that you should be fine if you took it out of the cling wrap and let it dry age a few days - maybe 3 or 4, to start. The dry-aging is a pretty subjective thing. I dry-aged mine until it looked and felt "right," which is pretty hard to describe. The bacon will be denser and more "solid" than bacon from the store, as there is less moisture. If it feels spongy or very soft, then I'd recommend continuing the dry-aging. On the other hand, if you over-do it, then you end up with bacon jerky - which might taste good, but is not what you're going for. I am sure that there are humidity charts etc. that have this down to a science; but my opinion is that they've been making bacon for a long time without such intricate concepts. Experience is the best teacher, here, as far as I am concerned.

Once it gets to a point that looks "right" to you, wrap it back it and put it in your refrigerator for a week or two - try to forget about it, then sample it.

You may have already found this out, but when it comes to cooking the bacon, you are best off either at low heat (on the stovetop) or in the oven.
 
If it were me, I would not "wash" it with a damp cloth. You're trying to remove moisture, so this would be counter-productive to that goal. Also, in my experience, doing so will not remove any smoke flavor anyway; what I would do is give the smoke time to penetrate - it will!

I'd say that you should be fine if you took it out of the cling wrap and let it dry age a few days - maybe 3 or 4, to start. The dry-aging is a pretty subjective thing. I dry-aged mine until it looked and felt "right," which is pretty hard to describe. The bacon will be denser and more "solid" than bacon from the store, as there is less moisture. If it feels spongy or very soft, then I'd recommend continuing the dry-aging. On the other hand, if you over-do it, then you end up with bacon jerky - which might taste good, but is not what you're going for. I am sure that there are humidity charts etc. that have this down to a science; but my opinion is that they've been making bacon for a long time without such intricate concepts. Experience is the best teacher, here, as far as I am concerned.

Once it gets to a point that looks "right" to you, wrap it back it and put it in your refrigerator for a week or two - try to forget about it, then sample it.

You may have already found this out, but when it comes to cooking the bacon, you are best off either at low heat (on the stovetop) or in the oven.
Took it out and put it on wire rack on the counter, its def firmed up, will probably put it back in fridge and wait a few days and see, maybe this weekend will try it again.. sure hope that intense smoke goes away... thanks for the info.
 
If it were me, I would not "wash" it with a damp cloth. You're trying to remove moisture, so this would be counter-productive to that goal. Also, in my experience, doing so will not remove any smoke flavor anyway; what I would do is give the smoke time to penetrate - it will!

I'd say that you should be fine if you took it out of the cling wrap and let it dry age a few days - maybe 3 or 4, to start. The dry-aging is a pretty subjective thing. I dry-aged mine until it looked and felt "right," which is pretty hard to describe. The bacon will be denser and more "solid" than bacon from the store, as there is less moisture. If it feels spongy or very soft, then I'd recommend continuing the dry-aging. On the other hand, if you over-do it, then you end up with bacon jerky - which might taste good, but is not what you're going for. I am sure that there are humidity charts etc. that have this down to a science; but my opinion is that they've been making bacon for a long time without such intricate concepts. Experience is the best teacher, here, as far as I am concerned.

Once it gets to a point that looks "right" to you, wrap it back it and put it in your refrigerator for a week or two - try to forget about it, then sample it.

You may have already found this out, but when it comes to cooking the bacon, you are best off either at low heat (on the stovetop) or in the oven.

Just wanted to update, let it sit on counter for few days then week or so in fridge, sliced it up last night and was MUCH better... still a bit on salty side, but the overpowering smoke flavor has come WAY down... I still cant taste the maple sugar AT ALL :( and I used a good bit more than what you suggested but still came out pretty good! thank you!
 
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