Started making my own bacon bout a month ago. Local meat shop gets vacuum packed porkbellies from Poland, dandys, 12-15lbs. I rub pepper, and cinnamon on em, brine em in molasses, brown sugar, white sugar and apple juice, with a bit of pink salt, smoke on my treager for 6-8 hours, damn good!!

Yum!

Do you have a meat slicer?

That looks good.

Yes, slice er thick...

Those pics are killing me. It looks great!

Looks great.. might need to give that a shot.

That looks like pig pastrami!

I am trying this this Fall. Unfortunately, we just had 2 pigs butchered and processed and we should've just gotten bellies to make into bacon ourselves and save the money.

Will have to buy some bellies and experiment.

I use Alton Browns recipe, I triple it due to size of the pork belly. I also ad the cinnamon, and let brine in a 5 gallon bucket in my beer fridge for a week.

Ingredients


1 cup sugar


1 cup salt


8 ounces molasses


1/2 gallon (2 quarts) water


1/2 gallon (2 quarts) apple cider


2 tablespoons course ground black pepper


1 (5 pound) piece raw pork belly from the loin-end



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Directions


In a large non-reactive pot, bring half the water, 1 cup of sugar, salt, and 8 ounces molasses to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour into a large container with the remaining water, and the apple cider. Place in the refrigerator and cool to 40 degrees F.

Press the black pepper into the pork belly. Once the brine has cooled place the peppered pork belly into the mixture until completely submerged. Refrigerate for three days.

After three days have passed, remove the pork from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Lay on a rack over a sheet pan and place in front of a fan for 1 hour to form a pellicle. Lay the pork in the protein box of a cold smoker and smoke for 4 to 6 hours. Chill the meat in the freezer for 1 hour to stiffen for easy slicing into strips of bacon. Slice what you need and keep the remainder in a freezer safe bag in the refrigerator or freezer.

Place the strips of bacon onto a sheet pan fitted with a rack and place into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees F and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your bacon. Remove from rack and drain on paper towels. Enjoy

I need to get a smoker in the worst way... looks outstanding...

The next batch I make I am going to substitute apple cider for the water. Slowly, I am refining the recipe I use to fit my taste. I haven't yet found any that is less than wonderful.

Copy that. I use Apple juice when I can't find cider. Apple's are ripe, gonna break out the cider press here soon...

Picked another up today....

een

Judman,

I have been adding a couple ounces of Cafe Granitas, an espresso liqueur to each 1/4 belly (~10"x12") I brine. It add a little something I like, but not quite enough that it stands out as coffee.

looks good.

Looks like you're leaving the skin on while you smoke. What are you doing with the skins once they're removed? Pork rinds?

Nope skins off..

How much per pound does that belly set you back?

Try using boneless shoulders for Cottage Bacon. Cure and smoke same way and slice. Fat from shoulders has a different favor. Barry

$2.00 lb....

Just pulled that last one off the smoker, slice er up tomorrow...

Sliced and vacuum packed... stuff is like candy