Finished our first bacon for 11/12 winter. We got two bellies and two jowls from our butcher. One set we did with the hi mountain buck board bacon and the second set we did with maple cure that we got from the sausage make website. Cured for 10 days, rinsed and dried for a couple of hours. Hung in our vertical gasser with no heat and smoke from a-maz-n smoker, We cold smoked for 48 hours, took that long to get the color change we wanted. Then let it sit in the fridge for a day then quick freeze and sliced and bagged...
Picture of one of the bellies.
Side shot of the belly, nice streaks of meat through there!
Sprinkling the cure on this half. We actually cut each belly in half and the four halves were all within 2 oz of each other. Weighing right about 4 lb's. After smoking they weighed approximately 3 lb's 2 oz.
Trimming the bone out of the jowl.
Trimming the skin off the jowl.
Putting cure on one of the jowls
All cured up and going into the fridge for a rest.
Done with the cure rinsed and resting to let pellicle form.
Put on the hangers to let pellicle continue to form.
Put into the smoke to do a cold smoke with the a-maz-n smoker.
Smoked them for 48 hours until we had a good enough color change. Brought them in and let them rest in the fridge for a day. Then got them on the slicer!
Picture of one of the bellies.
Side shot of the belly, nice streaks of meat through there!
Sprinkling the cure on this half. We actually cut each belly in half and the four halves were all within 2 oz of each other. Weighing right about 4 lb's. After smoking they weighed approximately 3 lb's 2 oz.
Trimming the bone out of the jowl.
Trimming the skin off the jowl.
Putting cure on one of the jowls
All cured up and going into the fridge for a rest.
Done with the cure rinsed and resting to let pellicle form.
Put on the hangers to let pellicle continue to form.
Put into the smoke to do a cold smoke with the a-maz-n smoker.
Smoked them for 48 hours until we had a good enough color change. Brought them in and let them rest in the fridge for a day. Then got them on the slicer!
