First Bacon try... will be pic heavy.

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mattsican

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2013
13
11
Bremerton, WA
So before all my ribs, butts and salmon the real reason i bought a smoker a couple months ago was to make bacon. So i bought the smoker, amazen pellet tray, a lot of different pellets, made mailbox mods for cold smoking, thermometers, digital scale, bacon hangers and a bunch of other random smoking paraphernalia and today finally bought some pork belly. Not sure where to get bellies at i talked to several ppl and they all said the same place. I got about 6 lbs of it for $4.49/lb. Seemed pricey for sure but i'm still looking around for places to get stuff from. It's fresh though, never frozen. I ordered it a week in advance so when they do their butchering i can get a specific amount fresh. So anyways, I've got it. Gonna start curing it tomorrow. 
 
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I'm in. I agree 4.49/lb is pricey. I paid 3.00 - 3.49 What cure will you be using? What will you be smoking it in? Remember we wanna see some pics.

Happy smoken.

David
 
I'm going to use Pops Brine to do the curing. I'm going to leave it in 14-18 days to make sure it's all cured nicely. After that i'm going to hang it up in my modded Master Forge vertical smoker and hit it with some applewood overnight. Its averaging 80 degrees here during the days and 55-60 at night so i don't want it to get too warm. I've done a lot of reading on all of this and it all seems pretty idiot proof as long as you follow the brine directions. Best case scenario, i have bacon. Worst case scenario, i have bacon. Seems like a win win situation. I'm about to go make the brine and get everything started... i'll take some pics. 
 
Mattsican,

$4.49 lb? Ouch. I get my belly from Cash & Carry, it's a lot cheaper. There is one in Bremerton at 5011 Auto Center Blvd.

It is frozen, but I don't think there's much difference in quality; we're talking bacon here, not prime rib.

Mike
 
Mornin Mattsican, I'm with mneeley, you can do a whole lot better buying your pork belly at Cash & Carry. I buy mine at the cash & Carry in Lacey, and before I moved to Ocean Shores I was buying mine at the south Tacom cash & Carry there on 12th and Pacific ave.

Yes its frozen, but I paid $2.49 a pound and have made some darned tatstey Bacon.

Check out Cash & Carry.

Rich-
 
Not had a chance to get on the computer but here is some pics ingot from my phone. Kinda reverse. I used pops brine. Cut my slab into two 3lb chunks. The top pic I just took on day three. Everything else is just eye candy from day 1.
 
Looks like you are off to a great start. Pop's brine is a great way to go.

As Mike said above Cash and Carry is the way to go, especially for bulk meats. If you have the freezer space you can save a bunch of money by repacking into smaller portions. When I do Canadian bacon and Buck Board Bacon I get all of my meat from C&C. I also get my tri-tip and prime rib from C&C.
 
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