My first belly bacon

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gearjammer

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Apr 6, 2015
1,472
173
Central New York
My daughter bought this pork belly, she got it at a small

local market.

So it just came in a plastic bag, no label with the 

weight or anything.

Well as you can see it was much to large in this form.

So I sliced it into six fairly equal size pieces.

                 
I then weighed each piece and did the figuring for the cure.

I Used TQ and brown sugar.

             
           
I weighed out the TQ for each piece one at a time.

Then I rubbed in the TQ and put on my brown sugar after that.

Then put them into one gallon ziplock bags, scraped up all the TQ

and sugar that fell off and put them into the bags too.

Then all went down to the basement fridge for a long cool rest.

           
  I measured the thickest piece, it was about two and a half inches.

So that comes to five days plus a couple for safety, so seven days.

Well I didn't get a chance until nine days had passed.

Smoking day I pulled them up, soaked  'em in cold water for half an hour.

          
Did the fry test, very delicious

         
Dried them with paper towels.

Then put onion powder, garlic powder and I started with fresh cracked black pepper.

Turning my old hand pepper mill got old real quick.

So it turned into McCormick's ground last year pepper.

Also you may notice that there is now eight pieces of bacon in there.

Well I had bought some bacon in a store that was so bad I was going to feed it

to my dog as treats.

So I decided to season and smoke it, see what would happen.

       
I laid it on, I thought pretty heavy.

I had the smoker all warmed up, brought it to 120* and held it there

no smoke for one hour.

Filled the AMNPS with Hickory lit her up, going good put it in there

Let the temperature go down to 110* and let 'er rip. 

       
I left it in there for eleven and a half hours.

My AMNPS ran out of smoke at about nine hours.

It didn't go out, I opened the door to check it.

Knew it was getting close, caught it perfectly.

There was about an inch of pellets left in there, so I just tapped the ashes

down, poured in a row right on the coals.

Didn't even have to relight it.

I was getting tired at about eleven and a half hours.

So I pulled it. 

      
     
Let it cool, put it into bags again and back into the fridge

for a couple of days.

Stuck it into the freezer, not long enough the first time.

Back into the freezer about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.

Sliced and bagged it, waiting to be vac'ed.

     
    
Got 10.8 pounds of bacon out of it.

Not counting the store stuff, which also turned out quite decent.

Everyone who has tasted it, says and I say it is delicious.

There are no cooked pictures yet, it goes away to fast, BLT's tomorrow night

I take no credit for this recipe.

I got it from the Bearcarvers step by steps and for which

I wish to thank him.

Thank you to everyone for your time to look

    Ed

  As promised, here's the BLT's

The first picture is the best.

   
   
   
Whoa man, were these delicious.

I think the best I've ever had.

Ed
 
Last edited:
Looks like you did it right! It's hard to go back to store bought after making your own. Also, there are so many different ways to flavor it!

Points for your first!
 
Good looking bacon Ed. Points

One question. Why did you soak them for 30 minutes in cold water before smoking?
 
Ed That looks great I found a store last week has whole bellies,may have to pick one up. points for you

Richie
 
Thanks Cranky,for looking and the point too.

Dang, that stuff is great.

Can't really see me going back to the store for bacon.

  Ed

Hey Al, thank you for looking and for the point.

It is very good.

  Ed

 Hi Wade, thanks for the point.

I thought I was supposed to soak to wash off

some of the salt.

Was I not supposed to?

  Ed

  Hey Richie, If you haven't tried bacon before go ahead

and do it, it's really quite simple.

It seems to be improving with age too.

I did some BLT's last night, oh my goodness.

I want to thank you for looking and for the point.

  Ed

I want to thank you all for taking the time out of

your day to look.

Ed
 
Hi Wade, thanks for the point.

I thought I was supposed to soak to wash off

some of the salt.

Was I not supposed to?
Hi Ed

With dry curing, if you have used one of the calculators, you have actually calculated the total amount of salt that you want to end up with in your finished bacon. During the curing time that salt will have been diffusing throughout the meal along with the cure. Once you have finished the curing period you usually just need rinse off any salt or herbs that is remaining on the surface under a running tap. If there is still a higher concentration of salt at the surface this will continue to diffuse inwards during the resting and smoking. Soaking will not have done any harm other than to remove some of the flavour at the surface of the bacon that you are actually trying to develop. During the resting and smoking period the cure will diffuse back from the middle of the meat though.

You really only need to soak if, either the recipe you are following calls for it (but even then you should question why) or you are not using a calculator and have cured the bacon in excess salt - as usually described by celebrity chefs who do not want to use Nitrite in fear of possible litigation. Some old traditional recipes do it this way too.

There is no single "right" way to cure and what you have done is not wrong. I was just interested to know why you soaked it.
 
Wade, Thank you for the explanation.

I certainly don't want to soak any flavor off this bacon.

I do appreciate it.

  Ed
 
What a great success, Ed. That is beautiful bacon. You are doomed though. You will be making it all the time now.

Points!

Disco
 
Hi Disco, thank you for looking and for the point too.

My daughter bought the pork belly and asked me to do it for her.

When I got it done she gave me half of it, that gave me about five pounds.

Between giving some away and usage, I'm ready to make more already.

It is great stuff.

   Ed
 
points.gif


Looks-Great.gif


Fine looking bacon there.  I may have to try this, as store bought is horrible.  There is a place at my parents that makes the best bacon I've ever had.  I've been spoiled after that.  We normally bring two coolers with us when we go home and bring back 30-40 lbs.  Making good bacon at home will save me some gas $$. 

Where do you buy your bellies?
 
Hi wbf, this was my first time.

My daughter bought the bellie at a little local

market, it's a family owned deal and there is just the one store.

I've never asked at any of the chain stores yet.

But I will, soon.

I would like to thank you for taking time from your 

day to look and for the point too.

  Ed
 
Last edited:
 
Hi wbf, this was my fist time.

My daughter bought the bellie at a little local

market, it's a family owned deal and there is just the one store.

I've never asked at any of the chain stores yet.

But I will, soon.

I would like to thank you for taking time from your 

day to look and for the point too.

  Ed
​No problem Ed.  thanks for the inspiration.  I have a few mom and pops type places nearby, one does their own hogs.  I will have to go check to see if they'll sell me some belly.
 
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