First time bacon

[Zalick]

First attempt at smoking bacon. I have no idea how to evaluate a pork belly, but I got one at Costco that looked good enough! Trimmed up the edges and and flaps. I used the trimmings to make some delicious burnt ends. I think the belly was about 10lbs.

I cured with salt and prague powder only. I wanted to get a baseline flavor before adding brown sugar, maple etc. I had planned a 7 day cure but life got in the way so it became 14 days. For that reason, I decided to smoke to an IT of 150 for safety.

I don't know if its a dry cure, but I didn't add any liquid. I spread the cure evenly over the belly and put in a plastic bag. Every day I flipped and massaged the liquid.

After 14 days I forgot to rinse and just patted it dry and then in fridge for 24 hours. Realized I forgot the rinse, so I rinsed, dried and another 24hrs in fridge. Michael Symon recipe is 48hrs in fridge, so I figured I was ok!

I smoked for about 1hr on my MAK 2star at smoke setting. Then bumped to 225 until IT of 150. Took about another 2 hrs. (I didn't time it)

I haven't tried it yet. Going to cook up the end pieces tonight with my wife!

 

[Titch]

Congrats, that looks like fine bacon.
little hiccups as you go are Character building

 

[halfcocked]

I think you'll be fine. Looks good.

 

[jzadski]

Whatever you did it sure looks good. So do you have a meat slicer or was that all by hand.

 

[Zalick]

Whatever you did it sure looks good. So do you have a meat slicer or was that all by hand.

The picture is deceptive. It's vacuumed packed in three large pieces, not slices. I wish I had a slicer!

 

[thirdeye]

First attempt at smoking bacon. I have no idea how to evaluate a pork belly, but I got one at Costco that looked good enough! Trimmed up the edges and and flaps. I used the trimmings to make some delicious burnt ends. I think the belly was about 10lbs.

I cured with salt and prague powder only. I wanted to get a baseline flavor before adding brown sugar, maple etc. I had planned a 7 day cure but life got in the way so it became 14 days. For that reason, I decided to smoke to an IT of 150 for safety.

I don't know if its a dry cure, but I didn't add any liquid. I spread the cure evenly over the belly and put in a plastic bag. Every day I flipped and massaged the liquid.

After 14 days I forgot to rinse and just patted it dry and then in fridge for 24 hours. Realized I forgot the rinse, so I rinsed, dried and another 24hrs in fridge. Michael Symon recipe is 48hrs in fridge, so I figured I was ok!

I smoked for about 1hr on my MAK 2star at smoke setting. Then bumped to 225 until IT of 150. Took about another 2 hrs. (I didn't time it)

I haven't tried it yet. Going to cook up the end pieces tonight with my wife!

You are solid with just Cure #1 and salt (in the proper amounts) because salt and water diffuse into meat, it's what they do. Sugars also do to a lessor degree, and their main job is to knock the edge off of the salt. So unless you went with a high percentage of salt, you are good.

Even though your curing was in a bag, it's a dry cure. The alternative is a curing brine like in a bucket. I add a starter tablespoon of water to the bags, but as long as the belly looked moist when you overhauled it (turned it), everything is good.

Bacon is 'cured' after 5 or 6 days because of it's thickness. As long as you stayed inside some equilibrium percentages you can go longer. I dry cure bacon for 14 days. The safety net of Cure #1 plus refrigeration gives you a lot of flexibility. Longer than minimum cure times give me texture and background flavor is more to my liking.

Rinsing (and/or a short soak-out) removes the briny liquid and salts from the surface. Your pause or interruption in the rinse/soak step is no problem at all.

Your choice of hot smoking works just fine. And guess what...., at 150° finish temperature, your bacon is technically "ready to eat", the fat has an immature texture, but you are safe to cut some thin slices and make some appetizers like you would with Italian dry cured hams like Coppa or Prosciutto. But it will be much better when fried or baked because the fat will render a little further. Be careful though, don't overcook it. Watch the color like a hawk and sample along the way. It won't behave like store bought bacon.

Let us know how it works out. It's likely 2 times (or 5 times) better than store bought bacon.

 

[thirdeye]

The picture is deceptive. It's vacuumed packed in three large pieces, not slices. I wish I had a slicer!

Good point. Bacon likes to 'bloom' and gather some color as is cools down. Usually in the next 12 to 24 hours in the fridge, you can opt to slice or vacuum seal a slab.

 

[scp]

You're ruined for life...store bacon just won't cut it anymore.