Sweet molasses cured smoked bacon & Smoked pancetta (savory bacon) pic heavy

Hey everyone! The other day I got a nice 10+lb belly cut and I decided to make 2 types of bacon with it. One was a sweet molasses bacon cured for a week then smoked with almond & Lychee wood. The other was gonna be a savory (Garlic & Herbs) cured pancetta to be hung and air-dried but my drying fridge is down right now so I went ahead and smoked it the same time as the sweet bacon! So I guess its basically a rolled smoked savory bacon. Both came out Great. So Here's what went down. Both were cured in vacu-bags, I didn't get pics of that. Sorry.

Raw Pancetta rubbed:


Pancetta out of cure:


Molasses cured bacon out of cure:


On the smoker 1 hour in:


About to come off:


Smoked Pancetta chilled & sliced (packaged the other half for a gift):


Sweet bacon chilled & sliced:


Had to have a sample:




Thats it. Thanks for looking. :thumb:

Cheers

Miguels244 said:

I'm bummed out. A buddy was going to broker a hog for me...all organic etc. but the source flaked out.

I was SO looking forward to makin' bacon.

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No reason not to make it. Go grab a slab of belly from your butcher and do tha damn thing :thumb: I guarantee the belly you get from the butcher will still be better than the bellies commercial bacon manufacturers use anyway. I lived my whole life loving what I thought was "bacon" only to find out once I started making my own that I had never known what bacon really was! It was a sad time in my life. Now go make your own! :heh:

jasonalan724 said:

i know what i am doing next week! it seems around this time every year everyone starts making bacons and such, it's on now, i'm done putting it off.

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Yeah I have been curing a lot of hams for the Christmas (like 150 lbs worth) and since I already have the insta-cure1 on hand I did up a batch of bacon for myself (selfish mod :bow. The molasses recipe I have is actually turning out so damn nice each time I'm thinking of producing some bacon on a small small scale, about 25-50 lbs a batch in 2011 to distribute locally. I'll see how that turns out though. :thumb:

KnucklHed BBQ said:

Oh yeah! Very nice lookin meaty meats! how'd your pancetta turn out? I've made a pancetta thingy out of a rolled up butt, but not belly - Let it air dry for 4 months and cold smoked several times - I'm curious to see if you think it would have been better dried, or if you were happy with the way it is?

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The pancetta turned out really nice. It has all the notes of the herbs, garlic spices & chilies, but its all absolutely mellowed out into this fatty, porky goodness. Im sure the flavors would have been more concentrated if it were air-dried. But I wanted it for use in the kitchen when cooking. Instead of using store bacon in dishes, this pancetta adds a whole new depth of flavor with all its herbs & spices. The almond and lychee smoke is nice and mild on the meat as well, so it by no means overbearing. I Did fry up a thin piece bacon-style and it was awesome... but so were the mushrooms I sauteed with the pancetta cubes tonight :thumb: lol But yes, overall it came out very much to my liking! I do recommend doing it if you dont have the means or time to air dry.


Cheers

Wrench_H said:

Wow, that looks amazing. I really need to try this soon, or at least come down to Jamaica and try yours . You mentioned that your drying fridge was down, what do you use, something you made or modded(is that a word?), or something you bought?

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Hey Wrench, I have an adjustable wine fridge that I use. I can get mine as high as 68˚*and the humidity usually sticks around 50-60. Mine's just a bit small, looking for a slightly bigger one now.



Cheers