theTastyCat
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2014
- Location
- Nashville, TN
Hey all! Doing my first ever pork belly and began smoking today. I did the maple-cured bacon recipe from Charcuterie and, being an idiot, decided *not* to smoke with a tried-and-true wood like apple or hickory and instead ordered maple sawdust from A-Maze-N. Well, put 5 hours of smoke on the belly and some mozzarella today; I was planning to smoke the cheese for 30 minutes because it absorbs smoke so much quicker, but even after 5 hours the smoke flavor wasn't overwhelming - even after no time to chill! I had a wheel of brie in there too but chickened out after 1.5 hours and vac-sealed it to try in a month.
BUT...now I'm a little worried about how the bacon is going to turn out. The flavor of the mozzarella was really nice, but what I'm tasting there is a far cry from the wonderful bacon smokiness I'm after with the bacon. Fortunately there is a Bass Pro Shops here in town and they've got Traeger pellets in stock, so I could easily run by there tomorrow afternoon and pick up a bag of something.
My question is this; has anybody smoked pork belly with maple wood? Seems my AMNPS is putting off a thin enough stream of smoke that it will take several smoking sessions to get it where I want it, so it wouldn't be too late to jump to a different wood if maple isn't really going to turn out that great.
I covet your opinions - as always!
BUT...now I'm a little worried about how the bacon is going to turn out. The flavor of the mozzarella was really nice, but what I'm tasting there is a far cry from the wonderful bacon smokiness I'm after with the bacon. Fortunately there is a Bass Pro Shops here in town and they've got Traeger pellets in stock, so I could easily run by there tomorrow afternoon and pick up a bag of something.
My question is this; has anybody smoked pork belly with maple wood? Seems my AMNPS is putting off a thin enough stream of smoke that it will take several smoking sessions to get it where I want it, so it wouldn't be too late to jump to a different wood if maple isn't really going to turn out that great.
I covet your opinions - as always!