Making Bacon (Up Date) Another Update 3/10/2007

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cleglue

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I picked up the pork belly this afternoon. I asked the man who slaughters hogs how he made bacon. I just salts the bellies down for a few days then either washes the salt off or just brushes the salt off then uses brown sugar and black pepper as a rub and lets that sit for about a week.

I decided that I'm going to use the same seasoning but I used a cup of salt and 4 tablespoons of cure and sprinkled the entire contents on the belly which I cut in half. I wrapped in plastic wrap and it is now sitting in the refrigerator until may late Saturday or Sunday then I'm going to remove the salt then rub down with the brown sugar and black pepper and let that sit for a week then smoke the following weekend.



 
Update on Making Bacon

Today I took the bellies out of the plastic and rinsed the salt and cure off. On one side of the bellies there is still skin and that started turning green. I've only made bacon one other time and there was no green on the bacon. I cut the skin off that side of the bellies today. I then sprinkled with pepper and then patted with dark brown sugar. I wrapped the bellies back up in plastic wrap and put back in the plastic tub and back to the refrigerator for another week. I plan on smoking the bellies next weekend. I cut a piece off (plus little bits) today and fried it up. It was very salty. I may need to wash very well next weekend before smoking the bellies. Here are the pictures.

This is my 500th Post!




 
Oh yes I have the bellies in the smoker. They are in the drying stage. I'll add the smoke in about 30 minutes. I have some pictures but I don't have time to post right now...but I will later.

Wittdog,

How do I slice the bacon. With the grain or against? It looks like that I can pick any side. I had a pretty large belly and I cut it in half when I started the making process.

Thanks in advance.
 
I washed the bacon after coming out of the plastic. I let hem sit in front of a fan for about 1 1/2 then placed them in the smoker for about an hour at 130 to 135 degrees until dry. I started smoking with hickory chunks (that is all I had) and apple sawdust (really it looks shredded). Here are the pictures so far today.

Before washing.


After washing.


Getting ready to be dried in the smoker.
 
Brian,

They should be coming off about 7. This is my second time doing bacon. I'm trying to get them to 127 degrees. One is at 125 the other is at 122. They have been on 6 hours at this point.

Craig
 
I took the second slab of bacon out of the smoker at 7:30. The first slab come out at 6. Here is the picture. I'll post again when I fry some up. That will probably be tomorrow evening.

 
Those look great nice color....I cut mine with the grain...pop em in the freezer for a few hours to firm them up...they will cut a little easier that way...and have the fat side facing you...the bacon won't slip around on the cuttting board as much. ;) Last time I did mine I did it on the little slicer I have..but I had to cut the bellies in half :cry:
 
Bacon Update 3/10/2007

I finally got a chance to slice up one of the slabs of homemade bacon. I'll slice the other one after breakfast. Here are the final pictures. The bacon is VERY salty but otherwise it is good. My wife says it seems to be a lot of work and would I do it again? Of course I said YES! :D

I'm going to freeze quantities for frying for breakfast.

There are pieces (chunks) left over from slicing that I'll use for seasoning.







 
Great Job that bacon looks great...glad to see the low heat worked out for you.... ;) As for the saltieness..next time you could soak the bacon a little longer or....u can safely cut back the recipe by 1/4 of the salt...
 
That looks awesome!

When I was a kid we would cure our own hams and bacon and besides coating them in salt or sugar, depending, we would make a thick slurry of the cure and inject the meat. We never refrigerated any of it, just hung it in the shed with all the other hams.
 
Rinse the salt off then soak in water changing the water a couple of times.
Remove from water and dry cover in brown sugar and pepper, you will find it less salty that way.

Jim
 
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