The Things We Take For Granted - My Dad's Bacon

Those are great memories. Me not so lucky but my wife was and tells of hog killing time in October. Her Dad was in town this weekend and had all kinds of stories, how they salted the meat and then knocked it off to put on brown sugar. I've got build a smoke house and have him show me.

Old school rules!!!
 
Something else that sticks in my memory about my Dad's bacon was how incredible is smelled before it was even cooked. It smelled so good I remember asking if it could be eaten without being cooked. Of course, I was told real quick that it needed to be cooked first. The smoked pork from our smokehouse had a nice golden brown color on the skin, the lean meat was nice and red, the smell of hickory mixed with the aroma of the pork and the salt and pepper rub covering the entire outside surface is a memory I will never forget.

After about 30 hours of curing, I took a look at the bacon and some liquid had accumulated in the bags. Since my Dad used to hang his bacon I know that it never cured in liquid.

picture.php


So, I removed it from the bags and applied some more salt and pepper to it and put it in new bags and back in the fridge. This pic shows that it is already beginning to pick up some of that great red color.

picture.php
 
The bacon has been curing for about a week in the fridge. This morning at about 7AM I removed a piece of the pork belly from the plastic bag, rinsed off as much salt as I could, patted it dry with paper towels and put it back in the fridge unwrapped in the hopes that it will dry overnight and develop a pellicle.

Tomorrow (Sunday AM) I will smoke this piece of the pork belly with hickory until it reaches an internal temp of about 140-150. I will report the results. I am keeping the other two pieces of belly in the salt/pepper cure for now. I want to see how this piece works out after a week of curing in the salt and pepper.

Now, my Dad's bacon was a beautiful brownish color on the outside, smelled of pepper and hickory, and the lean meat had a dry and reddish appearance. So, we'll see tomorrow night how this one measures up.

picture.php


Thanks for looking!
 
The slab of belly has been sitting in the fridge uncovered since Saturday morning. Here are some pics.

picture.php


This is a pic of the belly using the camera's flash. Notice how the light shines on it. That's not moisture causing that shine. The surface of the belly is pretty dry. What's making that great shiny surface is the pellicle that has formed.

picture.php


The pellicle does three main things. It helps to prevent the fat in the meat from rising to the surface and spoiling; it provides a good surface to hold smoke and it also helps to seal in moisture.

I got a late start today on the smoke process. I will post some pics of it as soon as I can.
 
I have been running the smoker at temps in the 230 to 250 range. The temp rises for a little while immediately after I add a hickory log.

picture.php


Here is an in progress shot. My plan is to get some heavy hickory smoke on it until it reaches and internal temp of 150F.

picture.php
 
It smoked for about 3 hours and reached an internal temp of about 150F. I removed it from the smoker and took it in the house and sat it on the kitchen counter to cool for a few minutes. I then went outside to close down the smoker. When I came back in the house the kitchen was full of an aroma that I haven't smelled for about 20 years. It was like going back in time when my Dad used to smoke pork in his smoke house.

This is very similar to what my Dad's bacon looked like. It was a golden brown on the outside and smelled of pepper and hickory smoke.

I will let it rest in the fridge tonight and I won't cook any of it until tomorrow.

picture.php
 
Wow, very interesting. The cooked meat is not what I was expecting at all but I am very interested to see more. One thing I am wondering about your father's method and even yours is whether he would continue to add the S&P rub or was the initial rub or two enough? I see you transferred and re-rubbed once on the second day. Did you have to do that any more? Thanks for the great story and interesting thread.
 
colonel00 said:
Wow, very interesting. The cooked meat is not what I was expecting at all but I am very interested to see more. One thing I am wondering about your father's method and even yours is whether he would continue to add the S&P rub or was the initial rub or two enough? I see you transferred and re-rubbed once on the second day. Did you have to do that any more? Thanks for the great story and interesting thread.
Click to expand...

Yes, I did add more salt each time I changed out the plastic bags in which it was stored which was about every other day. Now, my Dad's method was a true salt curing method where the salt penetrated the meat to an extent that it perfectly preserved it and he didn't add more. He hung the meat on hooks in his smoke house in the winter time. Once the salt permeated the meat (2 to 3 months) my Dad would smoke the meat with hickory using what nowadays would be considered a cold smoke method. He used a lot of smoke. I remember more than one time seeing smoke flowing out from behind the door of his smoke house.

What I did this time was give it a little bit of a salt cure and then cook it to 150F internal to kill off any possible nasties that can occur because I have a small amount and can keep it in the fridge and freezer rather than a meat house and don't need to let it sit in salt for 3 months. When my Dad cured his pork, he used so much salt for so long that the salt took care of any nasties that may have been able to grow in it.
 
Last edited:
One of the better all time threads here on so many levels. Thanks for keeping us up to date and thanks for the histroy.
 
WOW!!! I loved the story and the progression of your try at the bacon. It looks absolutely fantastic. Now THAT is bacon. Can't wait to see how you cook it up. I'd his that bacon HARD!!!

Bob
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Beef bacon update
Replies
3
Views
295
SmokinAussie
SmokinAussie
N
Meatloaf again
Replies
17
Views
1K
1MoreFord
1MoreFord
J
My Annual Deer Grind.......
Replies
18
Views
650
SmokeOCD
S
Harbormaster
What are you cooking for your Christmas gathering?
2
Replies
30
Views
1K
ModelMaker
ModelMaker
S
Garlic Bombs! :)
Replies
15
Views
545
Bluebird
B
Back
Top