"Bone to Bark" BBQ
Full Fledged Farker
Started with a 7.25# pork belly, made up a curing rub, split it into two pieces, rubbed, wrapped and now the hard part.... WAITING! Gonna smoke it after curing with some hickory and apple wood!
Actually, my curing rub was very simple. For a 7# pork belly, I used:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 tbsp. real maple syrup (optional)
Tomorrow is 7 days, and I might have to smoke them by Wed. or Thursday. I can't wait much longer. I will hot smoke them since cold smoking is mostly done during the actual curing process. I will smoke til the IT reaches 150, then cool and they're ready to slice.
No curing salt.... The look isn't much different than store bought bacon, and as far as taste, I just pulled one piece out of the bag and rinsed it really good. Dried it and sliced a couple slices and fried it up. Of course I haven't smoked it yet, so it didn't have that classic bacon taste, but I was mainly checking for the saltiness. I discovered that I need to soak it for an hour or so, which is what I'm doing now, and I'll probably smoke this piece tomorrow with applewood!
I don't think 7 days would be too long, but you could try for 5.That looks real good.
I just started a a pork belly for the first time. I think mine was a lot thinner. Maybe I need to find another place. That looks pretty thick.
I wonder if I shouldn't cure for a full 7 days since seems thinner.