Attempting some bacon

[RolandFinland]

Hi all!

I'm attempting some bacon, I have salted by weight using salt and cure no.1 and it's now just curing for two weeks before I start drying it, after which I plan to cold smoke the larger piece. The smaller piece is a test using liquid smoke extract, want to see how they turn out.

I have a question about the drying phase, I think if it was autumn or spring I might attempt to hang dry them outside inside some protective netting. But since it's winter here and below freezing it wouldn't be good. So I am relegated to my fridge.

My question is how do I prevent the bacon from soaking up smells from the fridge while allowing it to dry out? If I put something over it it'll prevent air circulation after all.

This is 1.2kg (2.6lbs) of pork belly from a local farmer, wrong side up but it has plenty of fat!

I've only used curing salt + black pepper here. I am making bacon in the local style where we don't use anything sweet like maple syrup. Then it's cold smoked with alder (or rather smoke extract for anything storebought).

 

[ModelMaker]

It appears you have already vacu-sucked them so there will be no smell keeping you from keeping in the house fridge.
Ed

 

[airedale]

Why the drying phase? I just take them out of the cure bags, rinse off the cure, wipe them down with paper towels to dry the outside, and onto the smoke. It works fine.

Edit: I usually smoke for about 20 hours which, I guess, involves some drying. But I have never had any reason to think about it or any issues with the final product.

 

[rexster314]

"Drying" is not needed. After the curing time, cut a small piece off and cook it. Judging by the saltiness will tell you if you just need to rinse the meat off or soak the meat for a spell to get rid of the excess saltiness. Afterwards, lay the meat out on the countertop and let the meat form a pellicle (dry, somewhat sticky surface) then put in the smoker until you get the color you want. Hot smoking or cold smoking? There's a difference and each way has it's benefits.

 

[airedale]

More heresy, I am not a believer in pellicles either. I see no difference between immediately hanging the slab in a cold smoker and holding it in similar-temperature room air before moving it. I don't hot smoke bacon, but it seems to me that if there is a pellicle to be formed it should form just fine in the smoker as well. YMMV of course.

Maybe salmon could be a little different due to shorter smoke times, so maybe getting the surface dry and sticky before adding the smoke makes sense. I have not done enough salmon to know.

 

[RolandFinland]

It appears you have already vacu-sucked them so there will be no smell keeping you from keeping in the house fridge.
Ed

Well this pertains to after I've taken them out of the vacuum bags.

Why dry them, well most recipes I've seen said to do it that way so I figured I'd go by the book on my first go.

The plan is to cold smoke the bacon afterwards.

 

[JRDINCC]

I usually dry in the fridge overnight. Never had an off flavor.

 

[thirdeye]

I have a question about the drying phase, I think if it was autumn or spring I might attempt to hang dry them outside inside some protective netting. But since it's winter here and below freezing it wouldn't be good. So I am relegated to my fridge.

My question is how do I prevent the bacon from soaking up smells from the fridge while allowing it to dry out? If I put something over it it'll prevent air circulation after all.

Ah, I see you have done some bacon homework, and you are approaching this project as an art form... from a charcuterie point of view. You mentioned only using salt and Cure #1, what is your salt percentage? And I'm assuming you are using 0.25% of Cure #1 based on meat weight? By the way, cracked pepper is my go-to 'signature' seasoning on my bacon too.

I also use an equilibrium cure, and 14 days +/- is my sweet spot for curing times (I overhaul daily). And I use a drying step of at least 24 hours, and have gone several days if the weather is not ideal for cold smoking. I have a second refrigerator in my garage for overflow items and beer, so it works for brining or curing too. Normal refrigerator odors are not a factor with my set-up, and I use a portable (battery powered) fan to circulate air. I also mellow my bacon after cold smoking for 2 or 3 days, and use the fan for that too.

Personally, I would not worry about any refrigerator odors, but from a safety point of view, I would make sure your refrigerator is cold enough to survive the 14 days of curing, plus whatever drying time you want before smoking. Keep us posted on your progress and especially your results. Home curing bacon is a great hobby.

 

[RolandFinland]

Hi, my salt percentage was based on 3% and the cure was 0.25% by weight as you said.

I find I like the saltier charkuterie more so I went over the 2.5% by a little, I did read abou some people using even 4-5%. We will see how that turns out in the end, but I've had earlier chark attempts where I ended up using too little salt (wet brine then leeching it out) and it was terrible so I figure rather a little too salty than not enough salt.

My fridge should be fine, I am quite sensitive to drinks not being cold enough. But I'll plop in a thermometer to verify.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Will be interested how this turns out

 

[thirdeye]

Hi, my salt percentage was based on 3% and the cure was 0.25% by weight as you said.

I find I like the saltier charkuterie more so I went over the 2.5% by a little, I did read abou some people using even 4-5%. We will see how that turns out in the end, but I've had earlier chark attempts where I ended up using too little salt (wet brine then leeching it out) and it was terrible so I figure rather a little too salty than not enough salt.

My fridge should be fine, I am quite sensitive to drinks not being cold enough. But I'll plop in a thermometer to verify.

It sounds like you have your salt preference close to nailed down. If you use a cable thermometer or probe thermometer to check refrigerator temp, try putting a glass of water in, and give it an hour or more to come to temp. Then take the temperature of the water. This is more accurate than just taking the temp of the air. Good luck, and let us know how it turned out.

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

It sounds like you have your salt preference close to nailed down. If you use a cable thermometer or probe thermometer to check refrigerator temp, try putting a glass of water in, and give it an hour or more to come to temp. Then take the temperature of the water. This is more accurate than just taking the temp of the air. Good luck, and let us know how it turned out.

Very solid advice.

 

[SmokinEdge]

The drying, at least to me, is a crucial step to concentrate the flavors. I actually dry rub my bacon and then lay that on a rack and that onto a lined cookie sheet pan and into the refrigerator. No plastic bag at all. Cure for 12-14 days then I hot/warm smoke because my humidity is very low, 20% or so. The final flavor is in my childhood, butcher bacon, it’s delicious.

 

[jham0077]

I've never dried mine. It comes straight out of the cure, gets a rinse and dry, and in the grill with a smoke tube for 6-7 hours. I usually vac mine back down after the smoke for a few days to a week before I slice it.
The best thing about making your own is tweaking on the recipe. If it happens to be too salty, I bet a pot of beans wouldn't mind it.

 

[RolandFinland]

OK I took the bacon pieces out of the bag today and dried them off!

They did not come out evenly dark red all over, some places look lighter in color. I am not sure if they should all come out as dark as the darkest areas. It's kinda what I had hoped for. But perhaps it will still come as they dry and then are smoked. I have them on a plate in my fridge on the top shelf now, hoping they won't absorb funk.

I built a small smoking "shed" for the cold smoking part, but we're having colder temps now, nearing -10C and next week -14C so not good smoking weather... I had hoped for a spell of mild weather.

I cut off a small slice and fried it up! It's a bit on the salty side so in the future I think I'll aim for 2.5%! But still perfectly edible!

Tiny smoke shed, sorta looks like an outhouse, made from cut offs from another project:

 

[snadamo]

Looks good to me. I have done 2 slabs via equilibrium brine. I flipped and massaged the bacon daily. The first one I did, there was a last minute scheduling issue, so I ended up drying in the fridge an extra day. The second one I did not dry an extra day. I smoked the same way on both, same apple wood, and really couldn't tell a difference. Neither slab had a "funk" either. Which is good because it tastes freakin great! So from my experience, it's a "you do you" scenario if you wish to dry or not. I am sure there are some scientific pros and cons to either but my personal real-world experience says the taste difference is negligible

 

[thirdeye]

They did not come out evenly dark red all over, some places look lighter in color. I am not sure if they should all come out as dark as the darkest areas.

On the saltiness, since you will be waiting for the weather to warm up, you could always soak the bacon in icy water, this can lesson the saltiness a little. So maybe soak it for 4 hours, then dry and back in the refrigerator overnight and then test fry another sample.

No problem on the different colors because different muscles (even next door muscles) can have different amounts of myoglobin... and they take the cure differently. And for some bacon trivia, cure #1 does not have any affect on fat because fat contains no myoglobin. BUT... when you cure bacon 14 days, the salt makes the fat more tender. In parts of Europe it's popular to salt back fat and refrigerate for around 20 days to soften it.

And look at all the muscle colors on this loin ham.

 

[RolandFinland]

The bacon has been ready to start getting smoked for some time already! But the weather has been so bad. I've put the bacon in containers to prevent it drying too much but I need to start smoking soon.

Last night I tried starting up the cold smoker, bought an electric cold smoke generator, it did not generate enough heat to keep temps above freezing. I tried adding some heat generating candles but no luck there either, warmer than outside temp but below freezing.

Temps dropped to nearly -14C this morning or 7F, no good.

I think though I will have to start smoking the bacon tonight even in the cold. I suppose I will just have to smoke for a few hours and return it before the meat freezes and do multiple short smokes.

 

[RolandFinland]

Finally weather is going better, just kept getting colder all week, down under -20C. Now today it's been -5 and going up to -1C (6F) and I took the chance to smoke the meat.

I used charcoal in small quantities to keep the warmth up, it hovered between 5 - 18 C all day. I replaced the pile with a 8" pipe with a grille inside it, I put charcoals in that and it kept a light much better, like a small starter chimney. Also tossed smoke wood in there from time to time to get extra smoke.

Tastes like bacon too! All in all I am happy with it, I dunno if I should smoke it again tomorrow, smoked it 10 hours today.

 

[RolandFinland]

By the way, what's the best way to keep it after it's smoked? Can it be frozen whole, or should I slice everything and vacuum pack the slices in suitable packages?