• It's Bacon time again! (a LOT of pr0n!!)

SmokinAussie said:

Phrasty, you never cease to amaze me. I'm definately gonna try that cold smoke stage before going for the heat. You've got some beautiful colour there and I'm really impressed with those spice mixes in the cure.

Cheers Mate!

Bill

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Thanks Bill! The cold smoking REALLY helped out a lot! Give it a go for sure Brother!

boatnut said:

wow..all i can say is...that's a bacon lovers dream! Oh, what's up with the concertina wire around your smoking area? LOL

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It's to keep the pesky neighbors out of my Que... :heh::heh: I keed I keed.

Garyclaw said:

Awesome bacon pron Phas!!! But.................

.....do you live next to a prison?

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LOL Thanks Gary... Its one of the perks of living adjacent to a prominent criminal lawyer. :wink: :heh: But in all seriousness, it's actually EXTREMELY common In Jamaica to have your house fully grilled up (burglar bars) and to have fences or walls with some form of theft/invasion deterrent. It comes with territory unfortunately. Where there's smoke there's always fire & with crime comes defense! A necessity really. :tsk:

Ron_L said:

Great job on the bacon and the pictures, Phrasty! Can you please fry a few slices along with a couple of eggs for me? :-D

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Done deal... It's in the mail brother Ron. :thumb:

gtr said:

Another farking fantastic post! :clap2:
I've got 10# of pork belly in the freezer I'm about to go to town on. I've only made a couple batches of bacon so far, but I think I'm hooked.

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There's absolutely NO mass produced commercial bacon out there that can compare to even a half decent home-made batch as far as I'm concerned. It's just soo good!

Cheers!

Gore said:

You are one of the cruelest posters I know. There is very little worse than a bacon craving. Absolutely beautiful, from start to finish.

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I've been called quite a few things but that's a first... :heh: I appreciate the *uhm* kind words Gore! lol Especially coming from such a lover of fine things... :thumb:

10_Bears said:

That is such good looking bacon, I can only imagine the flavours!!!!!

Can someone please explain 'cold smoking' to me please, I'd like to try this one day.

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Thanks Bears, Cold smoke is simply smoking food with no heat. Usually it's used to smoke cured fish or meats that are going to be air dried and not "cooked". I used it to add a little more smoke flavor to my bacon (lychee is a light wood to smoke with) before bringing it up to temp.

BBQ PD said:

I'll need to book me the first plane to Jamaica, so don't eat it all :becky:.

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:thumb: Plenty to go around brother...

Cheers

Why not share the love... You know what they say... "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day... Teach a man how to make bacon and he's living the good farkin life!!!" :wink::wink:

This is based out of Ruhlmans book I believe...
Here's you're basic bacon cure... I use pink salt over of TQ or other "bacon cures" out there. Not that anything's wrong with them, it's just what I have. :thumb: **TQ is 1TB per pound of meat, use in place of pink salt AND Kosher salt.

This makes just over a pound and a half of cure. Enough cure to do about 14 lbs of meat using 50g for every 5 lbs of meat.

1lb/450g Kosher salt
8oz/225g Sugar
2oz/50g pinksalt

So that's the base and this is where it gets fun... Put your spin on it. For the sweet, if you want brown sugar use it. Maple syrup? Why not?? Honey... works well too. Whatever you want. You can add whatever spices you like as well. Want a black pepper bacon... just add black pepper. The options are so broad. Garlic, red pepper flakes, herbs, saw someone mention cinnamon recently... you get the idea. Thats the basic gist of how I make bacon... Everyone that says they want to make it, I encourage you to do so. That first bite will have you wondering what you've been eating all this time.

Cheers.

twinsfan said:

Didn't have your recipe on me when I made the bacon but this post convinced me to buy 3 LB of pork belly... curing right now!


thanks phrasty

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:thumb: Glad to help Brother!