SmokerKing
is One Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2010
- Location
- Sunny AZ
8.50 lb. Costco Pork Belly, dry brined for 10 days, warm smoked with Rockwood, Hickory and Apple....
Looks good, what are your initial thoughts? The formulation percentages are very straight forward and easy to tickle, but techniques can really vary with finish temps, blooming etc.
Looks great! I'm doing 9 lbs of Costco belly for bacon Saturday.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
For my first attempt, I thought it turned out great. Next time I'll adjust the brine ingredients and back off the salt, add more black pepper, brown sugar and chili powder to tweak it a bit.
I ran the warm smoke to 180 degrees until the bacon hit 150 internal. Smoke permeated well.
The majority of people will adjust the salt down after their first batch, but that is the beauty of home curing. I'm with you on the black pepper. I use it during the cure, then re-apply after rinsing. Then mix up the aromatics from batch to batch.
I still do about a 1-hour rinse (it's an old habit that is hard to break), but I base my calculation on 1.5% salt. This is actually a 1.75% because there is some salt in the Cure #1, and I run my numbers longhand. If you are using an online calculator this is all factored in for you.
Don't be afraid to come off the 150° internal temp. Your bacon is technically fully cooked but the fat benefits from an easy frying. In the fall and winter I'll cold smoke in several sessions and my internal never gets above 55°.