The Bacon is Here!

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Max1

Head Chef
Joined
Dec 13, 2011
Messages
1,543
Location
Detroit, Michigan
Well on my last thread about a week ago, I posted I had a surprise for you all. Well more of a surprise for me, and you all get to watch me eat it. HA :p

Well here is what I did. I have been wanting to make some bacon for a while so I finally did. Here are the steps that I used.

1. I made the cures that I wanted for my bacon. The first one is a Black Pepper Cure. The second is a Sweet, Brown Sugar, and Maple Syrup Cure.
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2. Next I got the pork bellies ready by washing them off and drying them.
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3. Now I added the cure's to the bacon. I did not have any large freezer bags, so I left them in a couple of casserole dishes for a few hours, until I got some bags.
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4. Next was the "The Great Long Wait." I cured these for 8 days, Flipping them once a day.
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5. Finally after the 8 longs days in the fridge. Out for the smoke. After I took them out of the refrigerator, I washed them off thoroughly, and got them ready to place on the smoker.
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6. This is an hour in.
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7. Here is my Brother-In-Law, and fellow smoker checking the temp, before we had to leave to keep helping my buddy move, took 2 days to move my friend should have only been a few hours, but nothing was really packed up. So in one of the trips to the storage unit, we stopped off and checked the temp.
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8. 12 short hours later, We Have Bacon! (sorry the picture is blurry, the camera was focusing on the smoke.)
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9. Off the smoker and cooling to get to room temperature before slicing.
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10. Ready to Slice.
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11. Slice that bacon.......
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12. Nothing could be better than a bowl full of bacon, than of course 2 bowls full of bacon.
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I had a good experience doing this, and I will be doing this instead of buying bacon, costs less, tastes a whole lot better. I would encourage everyone to try this, that is if you have access to pork bellies.
 
I will gladly second the Wow. That do look mighty tasty. Hopefully you can get the inlaws loaded back up onto the short bus. Just trying to cover all the bases here.
 
Thanks, I vacuum sealed what we did not eat last night and threw it in the freezer. Going to be doing a batch of jerky here shortly too.
 
Wow, thanks for posting this.



My wife is a sucker for bacon, especially when I cook it.

Knowing how to make my own, may save my marriage someday. ;)
 
Watched a cooking show last night where this Chef fella was making his own bacon and cutting it five slices to the pound. Spread it out on a sheet pan and covered with black and red peppa..then a layer of brown sugar..baked in the oven for four hours. Not sure the temp but it sure looked good. Anybody see that one?
 
Apple and cherry wood. Do not really use much other wood, have to use what is available in your area, we happen to have alot of orchards around us, so most of the time they just give the wood away to get rid of it.
 
I got apple and cherrie trees in the back yard max. I asked the misses if I could cut them down to use for smoking, had to sleep with one eye open for a month :shock:
 
I seem to be currently blessed with more peecan than a person can shake a stick at along with apple and plum. Them things are always needing a little pruning..giant dead branches falling in the yard etc. Course I just need a little to go in my modern electrified cooker..lol.
 
I seem to be currently blessed with more peecan than a person can shake a stick at along with apple and plum. Them things are always needing a little pruning..giant dead branches falling in the yard etc. Course I just need a little to go in my modern electrified cooker..lol.

Got a new smoker coming to MI from a place called Humble?
Any chance of you filling it up with peecan? :cry:
 
Hey may have a deal for ya. Got one nice pesky peecan which overhangs the cement pond which the Warden say has to go. Do you know how to cut down trees without tearing stuff up by any chance? Or maybe you got some cash to pay the Tongan I was fixng to hire to come cut it down. Let me know..lol. I think we might could do bidness..:)
 
Max, the bacon looks great. Just wondering if u have tried Buckboard bacon? Mine will be ready to smoke this weekend. Cant wait to try it out.
 
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