Alright friends, this is my second go at bacon. I'm doing one sweet and one savory. I got 8.67 lbs of pork belly, skin off, for 2.99/lb at Costco and trimmed off about a pound - froze trimmings for sausage later.
SWEET
4 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
3 T cracked black pepper
1/3 C brown sugar
1 T water
SAVORY
3.66 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
4 bay leaves, crushed
3 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp garlic pow
1/4 tsp onion pow
2 T cracked black pepper
3 T brown sugar
Rubbed it down on 4/3/17 and vac packed them, put them in the fridge, flipping and rubbing once per day. Today, on 4/11/17, I pulled them out, rinsed them, dried them in towels and soaked them in ice water for about an hour to get some salt out. Put them on my smoker racks and put them in the fridge to air dry. Plan to leave them there for three days to smoke them this coming Friday (4/14/17) for 12 hours on apple chips at probably 120 or so in my MES 30. I plan to then let them air out in the fridge for another couple days before slicing and vac packing.
Thoughts - I'm thinking I should probably use maple syrup in the future for sweet bacon instead of brown sugar. I bought some Mapleine imitation maple syrup and I'm wanting to try that next time. I also totally shot from the hip on the savory mix so we'll see how that turns out. I also didn't add any more seasoning after soaking them and putting them in the fridge to dry so I'm wondering how much of a difference that makes.
Here are some shots of what I've done thus far:
Savory mix
Sweet mix
Whole belly
Sweet belly in vac pack
Savory belly in vac pack
Bellys soaking in ice water for an hour.
Drying out in towels.
On racks drying in the fridge.
SWEET
4 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
3 T cracked black pepper
1/3 C brown sugar
1 T water
SAVORY
3.66 lbs pork belly
1 T of Tender Quick per pound
1/3 C kosher
4 bay leaves, crushed
3 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp garlic pow
1/4 tsp onion pow
2 T cracked black pepper
3 T brown sugar
Rubbed it down on 4/3/17 and vac packed them, put them in the fridge, flipping and rubbing once per day. Today, on 4/11/17, I pulled them out, rinsed them, dried them in towels and soaked them in ice water for about an hour to get some salt out. Put them on my smoker racks and put them in the fridge to air dry. Plan to leave them there for three days to smoke them this coming Friday (4/14/17) for 12 hours on apple chips at probably 120 or so in my MES 30. I plan to then let them air out in the fridge for another couple days before slicing and vac packing.
Thoughts - I'm thinking I should probably use maple syrup in the future for sweet bacon instead of brown sugar. I bought some Mapleine imitation maple syrup and I'm wanting to try that next time. I also totally shot from the hip on the savory mix so we'll see how that turns out. I also didn't add any more seasoning after soaking them and putting them in the fridge to dry so I'm wondering how much of a difference that makes.
Here are some shots of what I've done thus far:
