1st Bacon Q-View

rstr hunter · May 4, 2010

This weekend I tried my hand at bacon as I had a 4# half of a slab of bacon in the freezer. I used Rytek Kutas dry box bacon recipe scaled back for a 4# slab. Rubbed it on the bacon.

Vacuum Sealed it and put it in the fridge for 4 days according to the recipe.

Took it out rinsed it out and smoked it using maple chips at 135 degrees until it reached 127 degrees internal. Took about 16 hours. Next time will probably raise cooking temp to 140-145 to try to get this done a little quicker. Used the new MES which had a little trouble keeping such a low temp consistantly but did OK otherwise. Good color when done.

Here is the cut after the first slice or two.

And pics of it sliced up.

Wife used some to make some filet mignons for supper last night and they were tasty. Thanks for checking this out.

rbranstner · May 4, 2010

Great looking bacon. Doesn't look like your first time at all!

adiochiro3 · May 4, 2010

Wow. been wanting to try that myself. Nice work!

rbranstner · May 5, 2010

I was also going to say don't bother buying anymore bacon from the store as you will never go back. Well I guess I still buy the cheap stuff to wrap on meat. You can't waste your good bacon on that.

shooterrick · May 5, 2010

Looks great . Good job!

rdknb · May 5, 2010

wow that look perfect

rstr hunter · May 5, 2010

Thanks guys. It turned out well thanks to all the ideas I've seen here. Really liked the vacuum pack idea. Worked great. Missed the actual smoke pics will do next time. Glad you enjoyed.

hounds51 · May 5, 2010

Yea if you vacuum pack the bacon, it doesn't take as long to marinate. Looks good, I guess you will be makin more of that. Congrats to you.

caveman · May 5, 2010

Dude, not even on the fattie???

jjwdiver · May 5, 2010

Great looking bacon - nice job especially for it being your first time. Makes me want to try it myself too!

caveman · May 5, 2010

Here comes three of those stupid questions.

1. Is bacon supposed to have smoke rings or does the smoke just permeate the meat with flavor??

2. Do you still smoke it using the TBS philosophy??

3. And why the internal temp of 127°??

pantherfan83 · May 5, 2010

1. I don't think fat takes on a smoke ring. Belly is mostly fat.
2. Yes, but at low temp. You don't increase the temp as much as you would when say smoking sausage.
3. You don't take bacon to fully cooked/smoked temp, because it would render much of the fat out of it. It will be fried later.

rstr hunter · May 6, 2010

The bacon did have a ring around it where the smoke was most in contact, but it was a orangish-yellowish as it's fat not meat.

Did go for and got TBS, however as the idea is to cold smoke this to add flavor not cook it through like you'd want to do with a hot smoke like ribs, chicken, pork butt, etc, the temps are much lower. Was cognasant to try to keep this down as I didn't want to render the fat (if I remember correctly this happens at 155 degrees, someone correct me if this is wrong). When you do brisket, pork butt, and ribs, you spend the whole time rendering the fat into the meat to add flavor.

That's what the recipe called to take it to. See previous answer. Also remember that you cook the bacon in the frypan not on the smoker (at least not the first time around). Although I have seen posts here that do smoke the bacon to a precooked level, but it appears they rendered some of the fat out to do it. Different people different methods.

Those are my best answers to your questions. Hope that helped.

walle · May 6, 2010

Very nice, Rst H.!

Hard to find bellies around here. Can't wait until this fall....

Great turn out, you'll enjoy that.

Bearcarver · May 6, 2010

I've made quite a few Bacons, and have taken the internal to anywhere from my lowest (128˚) to my highest (145˚). They were ALL GREAT. Others have said the same thing about their "Cold-Smoked" Bacons, so I would have to say, "Keep the Internal Temperature of Bacon in between 50˚ and 145˚, and it will be GREAT!", except you can take Canadian Bacon up to 160˚, so you can eat it cold, without any further preperation.

Bearcarver

scarbelly · May 6, 2010

Man you are hooked now. I have made 3 batches so far and each one gets a little better as I learn the process. That is some great looking bacon and when you fire it up after sitting in the freezer for a few days and the whole house smells like bacon and smoke you are gonna be loving live even more!! Congrats and points on your first bacon success

bill in mn · May 6, 2010

Nice .I think it just a hoot making your own bacon.But 4 lbs. would just start a fight at our house.I have to give the guy I use his slicer a pound and my vegeritaian neighbor who realy likes my bacon a pound and that don't leave much left.Looks great.

Bill

Bearcarver · May 6, 2010

Shoot, I forgot to give you these well deserved --------->>

Bear

hernando · May 6, 2010

My thoughts exactly.

Looks real good. I will get there one of these days.

tjohnson · May 8, 2010

Keep practicing, it's the only way to get it perfect.....

I'm think BLT

Next on your list should be BBB. Easy and very tasty.

Todd

1st Bacon Q-View

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