My First Bacon Attpemt with Q/View

[blue]

So I decided to attempt curing my own bacon. Since it was my first attempt, I did not want to invest too much money into screwing up several bellies because of inexpierence so I just cured one smaller belly.

After trimming the bellly, I ended up with 5 pounds so I made a simple cure of:

5 tablespoons Tenderquick
5 tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper

I cut the belly in half, rubbed on the cure, wrapped and set in the fridge for 2 weeks.

After a pretty good bath, I smoked the belly for 8 hours at 150* using hickory.

I don't have a meat slicer (yet) so I cut each half in half and put in the freezer for about 6 hours to stiffen up. Then I brought out the vegetable mandolin to get some uniform slices. I sliced at two thicknesses: This is what I got from 1/4 of the belly.

The extra trimmings were made into bacon bits for salads and pizza toppings

The bacon was the best I ever had

I want to give a hearty thank you to all the people who posted their previous bacon expierences on the forum. If it wasn't for you, I would have not have the guts or the know-how to even pull this off. Next time, more bellies for sure. For those of you thinking about doing this...it was not hard at all...you just need a lot of patience. Those two weeks waiting for the belly to cure was two of the longest weeks of my life...but well worth it.

 

[rod guy]

Thanks for the post, bacon it on my to do list as soon as hunting season is over. Looks really good.

 

[oneshot]

Nice job and good qview on the bacon!!!!

 

[blue]

Thanks guys. The whole family was in hog heaven all weekend. We had bacon with breakfast, bacon sandwiches and pizza with bacon in it.

 

[got14u]

Great job....Where did you get the cryovac belly from ? Nice idea on the slicer

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks like a success to me... Great Qview too...

 

[blue]

There is a meat wholesaler here in Detroit called Kaps. They got a meat market attached to their place where the public can waltz in and buy stuff. I took the smallest one being my first attempt, but there were bigger.

The only problem with the mandolin was that as I sliced, the heat from my hand was thawing the bacon and of course as I got closer to the end, there was more risk in losing my knuckles.

 

[fire it up]

Bacon is one of those things I have yet to try, one because there is only one butcher shop around and they are kind of expensive and two, I don't have a slicer but it looks like you did a great job!
Definitely moved bacon up several notches on my to-do list.

 

[blue]

I had the same problem with finding the belly. The last place I went was the only place that I could find it. As a matter of fact, it was recommended by several other meat markets since they didn't have any. The belly was $1.88 a pound for 7 pounds. I ended up paying about $15 total for the meat and the cure (the Tenderquick was pro-rated because I only used 5 tablespoons) and it yeilded 5 pounds of bacon. That is about $3 a pound. Not to shabby since the cheap stuff in the supermarket runs us about $2.50 for about 12oz.

 

[Bearcarver]

Great job Blue.
Belly bacon was the first meat smoke I did, and I agree it was a lot easier than I thought it would be (except for the waiting---LOL). The previous bacon smokes on this forum showed how. I hope my posts helped too, as I try to give back.

I have one question for you:
I thought about making some "bacon bits" like you did, mostly for salads, but I don't know how you would store them. Would I just put them in small packs & freeze them that way. The little bits I used to buy came in a jar & stayed in the fridge for a loooong time, but I'm not even sure they were actually bacon----probably 90 % chemicals.


BTW: Now you have to do a pork loin for Canadian Bacon. Everybody I gave samples to liked that even better than the belly bacon (melts in your mouth). I think it's actually even easier than the belly bacon. My next bacon will be Buckboard Bacon. Soon I hope!


Thanks for showing Blue,
Bearcarver

 

[blue]

I just toss them in a zip lock and freeze them. They don't really last long enough to food-saver them or store any differently in my opinion. By the way, I have found myself snacking on the frozen bacon bits all weekend. They are fantastic cooked and cold.

That is actually second on my list of things to do after pastrami

 

[fatback joe]

Great job! You can't beat the homemade stuff.

 

[alx]

Very nice.Need to get to restaurant depot and smoke some more...

 

[Bearcarver]

Thanks again Blue--Good point.
LOL,(cooked or cold) Now I just caught myself trying to think of a way bacon wouldn't be good.


BC

 

[pignit]

Shweeeeeet!

 

[cruizer]

Great job Blue. On my to do list for sure.

 

[DanMcG]

Excellent looking bacon and great Q-view, thanks for sharing it Blue.

 

[blue]

I didn't even think about checking restaurant depot. I don't think I ever saw them there....

 

[alx]

The one outside baltimore has them,but talking with other folk that use different restaurant depots, they all do not stock the same meats etc.....

Worth a look.They are cheap at my store...

 

[blue]

Thanks ALX, I am checking it out at lunch today. If they got em...I'm buying some. Even if they don't I can still pick up something to smoke this weekend.