Maple Cured Belly Bacon (Q-View heavy)

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navigator

Meat Mopper
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Oct 11, 2007
167
139
Ashland, WI
After a successful buckboard outing I gave the belly bacon a try.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Kosher salt

• 1 tsp. Cure #1 (aka pink salt, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1) (edited typo)

• 1/4 C. Maple sugar or packed brown sugar

• 1/4 C. Maple syrup

• 5 lb. fresh pork belly

(Makes enough for a 5 lb. belly)

I live in the boonies but did find a frozen 1/2 slab at the local meat market, seems a little more than I see others paying but its 75 miles to the nearest Sams Club.

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Removed the rind.

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Applying the cure:

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They were too long for gallon Zip Lock bags so I vacuum sealed them, I didn't suck all the air out just the majority. 
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After 10 days of flipping them over daily I pulled them rinsed and tested a few slices, they were a little salty so I soaked them in ice water for a few hours and then they were good. Put them in the fridge overnight to form the pellicle. 
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Brushed with maple syrup.

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Put them in the #55 with a AMPS full of apple pellets. 

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Burned up 5 rows in the AMPS Temps stayed between 75º and 110º had to leave the latches open and bungy the door closed so the AMPS would get a little extra air or it would go out in about a half hour. 

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Finished.

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Fried up some for BLT's, very good, maybe just a little bit too sweet. I will probably just skip the brushed on Maple next time. 
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Sliced them up with my Craig s List Hobart Slicer that I picked up today and then vac sealed the extra. I wrote the 19th on for the date, I don't know why I thought it was the 19th today :) 

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Last edited:
Hey Diggy    For a dry cure I estimate he should have 6.5 g of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly and 10 g of Cure 1 for 7.74 lbs of belly (as the meat is packaged).    One reason I never use volume measurements for cure is because a level teaspoon of cure1 is about 4 grams and a heaping teaspoon is about 7 grams. These amounts are calculated for rind on belly

If Navigator used 2 level teaspoons of Cure 1 for 7.74 pounds of rind on belly he is fine.   If he used 2 heaping teaspoons he is considerably over

If Navigator used either 2 level or 2 heaping teaspoons of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly as the recipe called for he is considerable over.

Navigator   everything looks great and the Qview is awesome but as you posted the recipe I think you may have used more cure then you should have.   I am posting this to let anyone attempting to use your recipe and procedure know that they should adjust the amount of cure.
 
Prior to making my post I see you adjusted the amount of cure you used.  Thanks for clearing that up.  I think you did a great job and like I said before the Qview is fantastic
 
Good deal!!!
How do you like your Weston vacuum sealer?
I can see he corner of it in one of the pics.
I love it, I wish I had purchased the Weston first not the  two Foodsaver's that died on me if I deduct the price of them I would only have about $125 into this one :)
 
Awesome Color!

Maple flavor is tough to get

I use substitute Maple Sugar in the cure

I've also brushed on Maple Syrup, after the pelicle is formed, and before it's smoked

TJ
 
Hey Diggy    For a dry cure I estimate he should have 6.5 g of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly and 10 g of Cure 1 for 7.74 lbs of belly (as the meat is packaged).    One reason I never use volume measurements for cure is because a level teaspoon of cure1 is about 4 grams and a heaping teaspoon is about 7 grams. These amounts are calculated for rind on belly



If Navigator used 2 level teaspoons of Cure 1 for 7.74 pounds of rind on belly he is fine.   If he used 2 heaping teaspoons he is considerably over



If Navigator used either 2 level or 2 heaping teaspoons of Cure 1 for 5 lbs of belly as the recipe called for he is considerable over.



Navigator   everything looks great and the Qview is awesome but as you posted the recipe I think you may have used more cure then you should have.   I am posting this to let anyone attempting to use your recipe and procedure know that they should adjust the amount of cure.

Thanks!
I'm familiar with recommended levels of cure.
Due to a typo, the OP originally had 2 tsps. of Cure #1 per 5 lbs. of bacon.
 
Looks real good! I'm surprised it's not darker than that after 5 rows of pellets. I haven't made maple yet. I guess I'm too stingy lol!
 
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