Wampus
somebody shut me the fark up.
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2009
- Location
- Mooresvi...
So a while back we got a line on a whole hog, which we shares SOME of with other families we know, but I had a special request for both of the fresh pork bellies!
After coming here for same recipe help, I'm proud to say I've officially home cured some BACON on my own! I wanted to try different things, so I went with FOUR different recipes, one for each 5 lb slab of trimmed belly I ended up with.
Here's the WHOLE story.....
So here are the 4 recipes I settled on.....
Cowgirl's Backloin and Pea Meal Bacon
Brother Bourbon Barrel BBQ (Drew)'s Honey Cured Bacon
Mr. Christer's Recipe that he offered in my recipe search thread
And finally, a recipe from one of my favorite books "Charcuterie": Maple Cured Smoked Bacon
I started off with a nice big bag of untrimmed bellies (the hog was literally walking just 2 days prior to this)....
...so that's just above 26 lbs for those that may think "WOW....that's a LIGHT buncha belly!"
Here, my cute little assistant was helping me weigh them separately:
So, I didn't get photos of the actual curing PROCESS, but after I followed each of the above four recipes, I had everything double bagged with 2 gallon ziplocks and ready for the long 7 day nap in the garage fridge.....
Here's what one of the 5 lb slabs looked after trimming, but before curing....
BONUS! Now I have a couple of packages of PORK BELLY TRIMMINGS in the freezer now too! :thumb:
So I got this pork on a Saturday, Started curing it on Sunday afternoon, gave it 7 full days in the cure, after which I took the slabs out of the cure, rinsed off the cure, patted dry and set up on cooling racks and kept them apart and let them develop a nice pellicle on the outside. This helps smoke adhesion.
By then it was Wednesday......and here's what they looked like...
And YES.....I kept track of which one was which. It wasn't easy....but I'm a pretty smart fella.
:becky:
At this point it was time for a salt taste test.
If, at this point, the bacon is too salty, you can always soak it overnight to remove some of the saltiness. Once smoked, there's no going back, so I checked. HAD TO TASTE ALL 4 SLABS TOO!
....which didn't suck.
TIME TO SMOKE THE BACON!
It was a nice cold winter day on the day I decided to smoke these, which made COLD SMOKING much easier!
I tied up all the slabs with some heavy butchers twine for hanging....
...removed all the lower racks in my gravity fed smoker and hung em.....
Set up my new A-MAZE-N smoke maze in the bottom of the smoke chamber, all filled up with cherry pellets......
I used the guru just to keep fresh air moving through the smoker so as to prevent stale smoke. I let them cold smoke at about 45-50 degrees for 11-12 hours. Battery died in the camera and I didn't get a smoked photo hanging. FAIL.
BUT, here's what they all looked like after smoking and an overnight rest in the fridge......
...and on the cutting board....
And then the slicing happened.....
....and then the BEST PART.....the TASTING!! :clap::clap::clap::clap:
......then the inevitable portioning and vacuum sealing.....
FINALLY last weekend I was able to actually cook some of the finished product for breakfast. I did a lb of Drew's and a lb of Cowgirl's.
What I found particularly interesting is how much the flavors changed with the addition of the smoke, and it wasn't JUST the smoke that was the difference in the flavors. The smoke would enhance some flavors and tone down others it seemed.
Drew's, of instance, tasted pretty salty after curing. I didn't soak it because it wasn't too far over the line I didn't think. After smoking, the saltiness had leveled out a bit. It seemed to me that after sealing and freezing, the saltiness returned a bit, though still not overly so.
This was a great experience and something I've wanted to do for YEARS.
After all that work of doing 4 different recipes, keeping things straight and separate......I can't decide which one I like better! HAHAHA!!!!
Mr. Christer's seemed a pretty classic bacon taste, well balanced.
Drew's had more of a sweet note with the honey in the cure and a little more salty finish.
Polcyn's recipe also had sweetness, but more complex due to the maple I think.
Cowgirl's recipe was the most interesting to me. It wasn't quite as sweet and had more savory notes due to the garlic and onion powder. I skipped the cayenne in her recipe this time, but I'll be that's good.
I know that one thing you can do just before smoking is to add some more black pepper. I didn't do this because I wanted to keep things simple and, because this was my first go, wanted a base line to build from.
I can tell you one thing for sure.....this won't be the last time I cure and smoke my own bacon!
Thanks for looking!
After coming here for same recipe help, I'm proud to say I've officially home cured some BACON on my own! I wanted to try different things, so I went with FOUR different recipes, one for each 5 lb slab of trimmed belly I ended up with.
Here's the WHOLE story.....
So here are the 4 recipes I settled on.....
Cowgirl's Backloin and Pea Meal Bacon
Brother Bourbon Barrel BBQ (Drew)'s Honey Cured Bacon
Mr. Christer's Recipe that he offered in my recipe search thread
And finally, a recipe from one of my favorite books "Charcuterie": Maple Cured Smoked Bacon
I started off with a nice big bag of untrimmed bellies (the hog was literally walking just 2 days prior to this)....
...so that's just above 26 lbs for those that may think "WOW....that's a LIGHT buncha belly!"
Here, my cute little assistant was helping me weigh them separately:
So, I didn't get photos of the actual curing PROCESS, but after I followed each of the above four recipes, I had everything double bagged with 2 gallon ziplocks and ready for the long 7 day nap in the garage fridge.....
Here's what one of the 5 lb slabs looked after trimming, but before curing....
BONUS! Now I have a couple of packages of PORK BELLY TRIMMINGS in the freezer now too! :thumb:
So I got this pork on a Saturday, Started curing it on Sunday afternoon, gave it 7 full days in the cure, after which I took the slabs out of the cure, rinsed off the cure, patted dry and set up on cooling racks and kept them apart and let them develop a nice pellicle on the outside. This helps smoke adhesion.
By then it was Wednesday......and here's what they looked like...
And YES.....I kept track of which one was which. It wasn't easy....but I'm a pretty smart fella.
:becky:
At this point it was time for a salt taste test.
If, at this point, the bacon is too salty, you can always soak it overnight to remove some of the saltiness. Once smoked, there's no going back, so I checked. HAD TO TASTE ALL 4 SLABS TOO!
....which didn't suck.
TIME TO SMOKE THE BACON!
It was a nice cold winter day on the day I decided to smoke these, which made COLD SMOKING much easier!
I tied up all the slabs with some heavy butchers twine for hanging....
...removed all the lower racks in my gravity fed smoker and hung em.....
Set up my new A-MAZE-N smoke maze in the bottom of the smoke chamber, all filled up with cherry pellets......
I used the guru just to keep fresh air moving through the smoker so as to prevent stale smoke. I let them cold smoke at about 45-50 degrees for 11-12 hours. Battery died in the camera and I didn't get a smoked photo hanging. FAIL.
BUT, here's what they all looked like after smoking and an overnight rest in the fridge......
...and on the cutting board....
And then the slicing happened.....
....and then the BEST PART.....the TASTING!! :clap::clap::clap::clap:
......then the inevitable portioning and vacuum sealing.....
FINALLY last weekend I was able to actually cook some of the finished product for breakfast. I did a lb of Drew's and a lb of Cowgirl's.
What I found particularly interesting is how much the flavors changed with the addition of the smoke, and it wasn't JUST the smoke that was the difference in the flavors. The smoke would enhance some flavors and tone down others it seemed.
Drew's, of instance, tasted pretty salty after curing. I didn't soak it because it wasn't too far over the line I didn't think. After smoking, the saltiness had leveled out a bit. It seemed to me that after sealing and freezing, the saltiness returned a bit, though still not overly so.
This was a great experience and something I've wanted to do for YEARS.
After all that work of doing 4 different recipes, keeping things straight and separate......I can't decide which one I like better! HAHAHA!!!!
Mr. Christer's seemed a pretty classic bacon taste, well balanced.
Drew's had more of a sweet note with the honey in the cure and a little more salty finish.
Polcyn's recipe also had sweetness, but more complex due to the maple I think.
Cowgirl's recipe was the most interesting to me. It wasn't quite as sweet and had more savory notes due to the garlic and onion powder. I skipped the cayenne in her recipe this time, but I'll be that's good.
I know that one thing you can do just before smoking is to add some more black pepper. I didn't do this because I wanted to keep things simple and, because this was my first go, wanted a base line to build from.
I can tell you one thing for sure.....this won't be the last time I cure and smoke my own bacon!
Thanks for looking!
:grin:
