Making Bacon Experiment

Fisty

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Who doesn't like bacon? Decided to take a stab at curing & smoking my own. Been thinking about doing this for a while now...... so much so, that I've literally had dreams about it.

Hooked up with a frozen pork belly this past Saturday. Now that it's thawed, I just started curing it. Decided to go with 3 different types for starters. Had to have been over 6 lbs. when I got it, because once I trimmed off the skin, I ended up with just a smidge over 6 lbs. Got my cure all mixed up (kosher salt, demerara sugar & pink salt #1) rubbed it down, split it into 3 different chunks.

The 3 types I'm trying to pull off this time around is....

1. Peach bacon.
2. Bourbon barrel aged maple bacon.
3. Raspberry chipotle.

I took some freeze dried peaches & powdered them with a coffee grinder. Tossed it in the bag with the bacon during the cure. Once it's cured, I will marinate it with some peach & prosecco preserves for at least 24 hours before I smoke it. For the maple, I just dumped some inside another bag during the cure. Will have to see how that looks after it's cured do decide what I want to do with it from there. The last bag is just a standard cure, nothing else extra was added. That's the one I'm going to use for the raspberry chipolte. I will marinate that at the same time I do the peach.

20200929_104307.jpg


No pic of the raspberry chipotle sauce... hasn't come in yet, should be here tomorrow. Here's a shot of it sitting in the fridge. Gonna let it cure for at least a week, maybe longer depending on the firmness of it.

20200929_104347.jpg


I'll turn it every couple days to make sure it get's an even cure.


Keep you posted!!!
 
Look forward to seeing your results, especially the flavored ones.
I did bacon twice this summer. I just did a pepper bacon and maple as well as regular bacon
I found a lot of instructions call for just a rinse to remove the salt/brine, my advice would be to test a portion after it is rinsed, before smoking. Cut some off and fry it up. I found that I had to do multiple rinses/soaks to get it right for our tastes.
 
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Thanks for the heads up. I was planning on doing a couple soaks after the initial rinse. I'll be sure to test it before the final marinade & smoke. (y)
 
Soooo, it's been curing since last Tuesday. Here's where I'm at so far as of today. It will be done today.

Pulled them out of the bags yesterday and rinsed them off a few times. Gave them a good 2 hour soak changing the water after the first hour. Got them set up on a rack and tossed them back into the fridge overnight.

20201007_072627.jpg


Rolled my lazy ass out of bed, and put the marinades on them & tossed them back into the fridge for a couple more hours.

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Pulled out the beast, got it fired up using apple wood (minus the left over hickory in the auger) set the temps for 180 super smoke mode and tossed them in...

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I'll check up on it in about an hour and a 1/2 just to take a peek..... and drool over the smell.
 
I made 6 lb of Applewood Smoked Bacon last week. I got the recipe off a forum called www.makinbacon.net

Good self calculating formulas on that site for both wet and dry brining - just plug in the weight of your pork belly in grams and it calculates the salts and cure required.

Recipe's for Applewood, Maple, Hickory smoked and other flavors

Recipe's for Pork Belly Bacon, Canadian Bacon and Buckboard Bacon (made from Pork Butt)

Fisty's Peach Bacon does sound good!!!
 
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I made 6 lb of Applewood Smoked Bacon last week. I got the recipe off a forum called www.makinbacon.com

Good self calculating formulas on that site for both wet and dry brining - just plug in the weight of your pork belly in grams and it calculates the salts and cure required.

Recipe's for Applewood, Maple, Hickory smoked and other flavors

Recipe's for Pork Belly Bacon, Canadian Bacon and Buckboard Bacon (made from Pork Butt)

Fisty's Peach Bacon does sound good!!!
I think you want .net on the link
It has some good references and recipes for sure
Thanks for sharing
 
I think you want .net on the link
It has some good references and recipes for sure
Thanks for sharing

You are absolutely correct! Thanks
 
Bacon is done!! Came out delicious.

It smoked for about 4 hours. Was longer then I was expecting, but I wasn't rushing it. I let it rest for about 1/2 hour, then put it in the fridge overnight. Here's the results.

Fresh off the smoker resting period.

20201007_132323.jpg


Here's the peach...

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Here's the maple...

20201008_095518.jpg


And here's the raspberry chipotle....

20201008_100819.jpg



Did a taste test on all of them. While there wasn't a huge flavor profile on them, you can tell what one is what. It's subtle, but that smokey bacon flavor just shines through. The couple soaks before the smoke helped with the saltiness.... it's perfect amount of salt flavor.

I would count this as a complete success. I just bought another 15 lbs. of pork belly this morning. Once it thaws out.... it's time to cure and do it all over again!!! This batch is pretty much gone already. Between co-workers and my neighbor..... GONE!!! Gotta think about what I want to try next.
 
Looks great. Glad it turned out so well for you. I look forward to doing up more bacon as well. Probably not until spring now for me.
 
I have a slab of cured pork belly going into the smoker tomorrow morning. I used the Digging Dog Dry Cure Calculator on the makinbacon.net web site to measure out ingredients. I added a dusting of Meat Church's Honey Bacon rub before refrigerating overnight. Tomorrow I'll smoke it low and slow in SuperSmoke mode over Hickory at 170 degrees until internal meat temp reaches 155-160. Then it goes back into the refrigerator to tighten up before slicing. This is the second time I am making slab bacon, and if it comes out as good as the first time, it will be sure to please!
 
Who doesn't like bacon? Decided to take a stab at curing & smoking my own. Been thinking about doing this for a while now...... so much so, that I've literally had dreams about it.

Hooked up with a frozen pork belly this past Saturday. Now that it's thawed, I just started curing it. Decided to go with 3 different types for starters. Had to have been over 6 lbs. when I got it, because once I trimmed off the skin, I ended up with just a smidge over 6 lbs. Got my cure all mixed up (kosher salt, demerara sugar & pink salt #1) rubbed it down, split it into 3 different chunks.

The 3 types I'm trying to pull off this time around is....

1. Peach bacon.
2. Bourbon barrel aged maple bacon.
3. Raspberry chipotle.

I took some freeze dried peaches & powdered them with a coffee grinder. Tossed it in the bag with the bacon during the cure. Once it's cured, I will marinate it with some peach & prosecco preserves for at least 24 hours before I smoke it. For the maple, I just dumped some inside another bag during the cure. Will have to see how that looks after it's cured do decide what I want to do with it from there. The last bag is just a standard cure, nothing else extra was added. That's the one I'm going to use for the raspberry chipolte. I will marinate that at the same time I do the peach.

View attachment 2692

No pic of the raspberry chipotle sauce... hasn't come in yet, should be here tomorrow. Here's a shot of it sitting in the fridge. Gonna let it cure for at least a week, maybe longer depending on the firmness of it.

View attachment 2693

I'll turn it every couple days to make sure it get's an even cure.


Keep you posted!!!
Keep us posted. This sounds like a great endeavor. Where did you find a pork belly?
 
Keep us posted. This sounds like a great endeavor. Where did you find a pork belly?
You can usually get a good belly at Costco if you’re a member. My local grocery has it from time to time but it’s pretty rare.

My favorite tip when making bacon is to cut off a pound or two before curing and make pork burnt ends! Ummmm!

(BTW - this thread is from Sept 2020).
 
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I have a slab of cured pork belly going into the smoker tomorrow morning. I used the Digging Dog Dry Cure Calculator on the makinbacon.net web site to measure out ingredients. I added a dusting of Meat Church's Honey Bacon rub before refrigerating overnight. Tomorrow I'll smoke it low and slow in SuperSmoke mode over Hickory at 170 degrees until internal meat temp reaches 155-160. Then it goes back into the refrigerator to tighten up before slicing. This is the second time I am making slab bacon, and if it comes out as good as the first time, it will be sure to please!
Thanks for this. I am looking forward to making bacon this spring/summer. Can't wait to give it a shot. Also pork belly burn end are awesome!
 
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