Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation First go at Bacon

When I make it at home I don’t square anything up till after it’s all smoked. Then when I trim it up I use those pieces to make lardones for cooking beans and what not. To each there own on that but I love having that to cook with. I need to make some more in a week or so as I only have 2 to 3 lbs left.

Jim’s right. It’s a very easy process. Just requires a little patience. If making maple flavored always use natural maple syrup.

i'll take five pounds

Looks good Jimbo! Is that a Bradley smoker?



*edit* Disregard. I just saw it in a different thread.

Two batches go into the brine today. First will be apple cider with rum and some brown sugar The second will be plain maple syrup flavor without the bourbon.

For those of you who are curious and would like to try bacon, think of it like this... You have never had bad bacon. Even the most basic bacon, (pork belly, curing salt and canning salt) is still good stuff. A lot of us are old enough that basic bacon is what we had often enough, and smoked bacon was the flavored stuff. For the unwashed among us, a very substantial percentage of bacon is still smoke flavored and not smoked. It gets brined and if you're lucky it goes into an oven.

You can quite easily make passable bacon without a smoker or any kind of magic.

Looks great. I can smell it right through the screen.

Decided to try this myself.

14.5lb of pork belly.



Used one of the recipes from amazingribs.com, like Jim did. Two are maple, two are honey from our bees.



They're in the fridge now. Gonna give them 5 days, flopping and giving each a massage every day.

What I also like a lot is to use bourbon or rum as a substitute for the water. A couple ounces of coffee liqueur is good too.

That should work Steve.


Dont screw up like I did and jump the gun.


I waited the right amount of time the first batch.....and then got cocky!

Yep.


Now try Canadian bacon Jim.
It's easier, a little.
Boneless loins are cheap on sale.
My kids eat it cold from the fridge. (I smoke it to 150°)

If this works out I'll try bourbon next. Thanks!

I read that before and took the advise. Besides 5 days ends on Friday. Rinse off that night. In the fridge to form pellical (I know Amazing Ribs says you don't need to), then in the smoker the next morning.

Out of the brine at five and a half days. Rinsed off and into the fridge for a pellicle. Next stop smoker with apple wood.

Just received my new book. WOW. Gonna have to give bacon a try.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393240053/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I put a couple slabs in the frige to cure yesterday.



Still haven't ordered any good syrup from New York, but found a jar locally to get me through.



You meat looks good Steve.......

Smoked and sliced. Fried some of the end pieces up as lardon. Delicious.

Looks AWESOME Steve !!

Thanks!

Good color.


Looks like you cured it just right.

Color's in the photo is a bit unbalanced, but I think it took the cure pretty well. Had some yesterday for breakfast along with a neighbor's eggs they gave us.

Damn fine breakfast.

I should go flip mine.............


Standby one!