Morning all!
Decided to try my hand at making bacon. The cure time is supposed to be over today, so I thought I'd better run everything by you guys before I get too far.
Here's the process so far:
Bought a 9lb belly at Costco. I didn't pay much attention to picking out the 'best looking' one, I grabbed the cheapest since it's my first attempt. After cutting it in half, it looks a little light on meat, but should still be better than the store bought stuff.
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I used this to calculate my cure. Comparing what I had to spread on my belly to the photos I see on here, it seemed like I didn't have enough. I've seen photos on here where it looks like there's a 1/4" of rub covering the entire belly; I had to apply mine very carefully to make sure I could cover everything. I did use brown sugar instead of regular sugar, and everything was weighed out on a scale to within half a gram.
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The instructions I am following state to use 2/3 of my rub initially, then do the fridge flip/flop thing for 3-4 days, then drain the bags and apply the balance of the rub. Then back to the fridge, flipping every day, for another 10 days for a total of 14 days (7 days per inch of belly thickness, right?). When I pulled them out after 4 days, there wasn't enough liquid to pour out. I'm not necessarily worried about this as I know every belly has a different moister content, but I expected more.
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It's now day 14. Still not much moisture. No smell though.
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So now the instructions state to let them sit on a rack for 3 days to form the pellicle. My question here is can I let them sit longer? 3 days means I'd have to smoke them on Wednesday. Being a work day, I'd only be able to smoke them for a couple of hours. Can I let them sit for 5 days so I can smoke them on Saturday? Also, should I do the taste test for saltiness today, or after they've rested?
I'll be smoking them with Cherry wood in my Bradley, probably for 12 hours or so. I'm excited! Thanks for looking!
Aaron
Decided to try my hand at making bacon. The cure time is supposed to be over today, so I thought I'd better run everything by you guys before I get too far.
Here's the process so far:
Bought a 9lb belly at Costco. I didn't pay much attention to picking out the 'best looking' one, I grabbed the cheapest since it's my first attempt. After cutting it in half, it looks a little light on meat, but should still be better than the store bought stuff.
View media item 527788
I used this to calculate my cure. Comparing what I had to spread on my belly to the photos I see on here, it seemed like I didn't have enough. I've seen photos on here where it looks like there's a 1/4" of rub covering the entire belly; I had to apply mine very carefully to make sure I could cover everything. I did use brown sugar instead of regular sugar, and everything was weighed out on a scale to within half a gram.
View media item 527789
View media item 527790
The instructions I am following state to use 2/3 of my rub initially, then do the fridge flip/flop thing for 3-4 days, then drain the bags and apply the balance of the rub. Then back to the fridge, flipping every day, for another 10 days for a total of 14 days (7 days per inch of belly thickness, right?). When I pulled them out after 4 days, there wasn't enough liquid to pour out. I'm not necessarily worried about this as I know every belly has a different moister content, but I expected more.
View media item 527791
It's now day 14. Still not much moisture. No smell though.
View media item 527792
So now the instructions state to let them sit on a rack for 3 days to form the pellicle. My question here is can I let them sit longer? 3 days means I'd have to smoke them on Wednesday. Being a work day, I'd only be able to smoke them for a couple of hours. Can I let them sit for 5 days so I can smoke them on Saturday? Also, should I do the taste test for saltiness today, or after they've rested?
I'll be smoking them with Cherry wood in my Bradley, probably for 12 hours or so. I'm excited! Thanks for looking!
Aaron