What did I do wrong?

Nothing wrong with the cut. Smoking at 200 cooked the fat right out of the belly, too Hot. It will eat fine just be leaner than cool smoked, 100 to no higher than 170, or Cold smoked, ambient up to 100°F...JJ

Hi there and welcome!

Now when you say you did a basic cure, did you use curing salt #1/instacure/prague powder or the alternative TenderQuick curing product?

I haven't done much bacon in my life but that looks like it was oven roasted pork and isn't very red'ish or pink like a curing salt would help produce.

Are you also using a 3rd party Thermometer to verify your temperatures at the grate level?

I ask because the MES smokers are notorious for being off temp from what the temp probes are reporting.  My MES smoker probe was usually 30F degrees low from what it was reporting.

Finally, I think JJ is right about 200F being too high.  Most try to smoke bacon around 165F-170F and usually no more than 180F to avoid "fat out" which is the rendering of all of the fat from solid form into liquid form which then just runs off and drips out of the bacon.

Anyhow, I hope it came out edible and worse case (as long as it is still safe to eat) you can throw some BBQ sauce on it and grill it up like it was bbq ribs or something  :)

fsa317 said:

 
It was a cure using #1 prague powder.  I think it was just too hot.  After slicing it wasn't bad, just not as juicy as I would like and too salty.  I'm doing a soak to try and remove some salt, but don't think there is much I can do to get back the fat.

Click to expand...

Here's a detailed post on my 1st attempt to do bacon earlier this year.  It may be helpful for you :)

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...ng-some-bacon-mysteries-solved-qview-included

Slice a small piece off and pan fry it before you smoke it to check saltines.
I do it all the time.
If after soaking it's still too salty soak it again but slice a raw potato in 1/4s and add it to the water with the bacon...the potato will help draw out more salt.

Walt.