A-MAZE-N-BACON

tjohnson · Aug 5, 2010

Started with 13# of Pork Shoulder and 7# of Pork Cushion. Pork Cushion is too lean for BBB. Taste & texture is more like ham or CB. I prefer Pork Shoulder for BBB, but got a good deal on Pork Cushoin.

Dry Cured with Morton's TQ for 8 days and Rested for 1 day. I added water to some cure mix and injected the larger pieces.

"Cold Smoked" - No Heat for 7 1/2 hours in my MES. Used a 6x8 A-MAZE-N-SMOKER with apple and maple sawdust mix and started both ends.

20# of Pork Shoulder and Pork Cushion Cured for 8 days & Rested for 24 hours, Just Waiting to Go Into The Smoker

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BBB Hanging and AMNS Started - No Heat! I wanted More Smoke, So I lighted Both Ends

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Smoked 7 1/2 Hours and Rested for 24 Hours in Fridge. Ready to slice!

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Test Fry Before Slicing - Pork Cushion Too Lean and Needs Oil to Fry.

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Pile O' Bacon Waiting for the Vacuum Sealer

Thanks for Looking at My "A-MAZE-N-BACON"!!!

Todd

the dude abides · Aug 5, 2010

Nice pile 'o bacon. Congrats on a successful smoke!

beer-b-q · Aug 5, 2010

Dang Todd, That looks Delicious...

Also I have got to ask, What is the welding magnet in the upper left corner for?

Bearcarver · Aug 5, 2010

Nice job Todd !

I told you that A-MAZE-N-SMOKER was Great !

Bear

pops6927 · Aug 5, 2010

Looks.. well... Amaze'n!

Just so anyone wants to know what a pork cushion is, it's off the side of the pork arm shoulder picnic, to the right of the diagonal line:

ronp · Aug 5, 2010

Nice bacon Todd. Good to see you.

bmudd14474 · Aug 5, 2010

Looks good Todd. Glad to see ya smokin.

scarbelly · Aug 5, 2010

Ya know Todd if you practice with that little contraption you might conquer using it

Man that is some good looking bacon - I can not wait till this weekend when the cure you sent me should be ready to smoke my bacon - Great post my friend

dale5351 · Aug 5, 2010

Did the pork drip on your AMNS? I had some cheese that did and IIRC you recommended using a tinfoil pup tent.

BTW, is your MES a new one with a half wide chip tray, or like mine in which the trip tray goes all the way across?

celticgladiator · Aug 6, 2010

great looking bacon! looks delicious!

tjohnson · Aug 6, 2010

Great to be back smoking and posting. Been kinda busy lately as most of you know!

This is the 1st bacon I did not run the internal temps up to 120*-130* and it turned out perfect. Color was a little light, but did not effect the flavor. I really wanted to do a 100% "Cold Smoked" bacon this time.

Todd

Beer-B-Q said:
Dang Todd, That looks Delicious...

Also I have got to ask, What is the welding magnet in the upper left corner for?

Paul, It's the light, but you just gave me an idea for a shelf to hold my little AMNS!!

ronp said:
Nice bacon Todd. Good to see you.

Ron, Good to see you too!!

Scarbelly said:
Ya know Todd if you practice with that little contraption you might conquer using it

Man that is some good looking bacon - I can not wait till this weekend when the cure you sent me should be ready to smoke my bacon - Great post my friend

You would think with all my "Testing", I would know all the tricks by now, but NOOOOO! I learn lots of my tricks from you guys!

tjohnson · Aug 6, 2010

Pops,

Pork Cushion looks and tastes much like a picnic ham. I got a deal on a 60# case for $1.29/lb thru a wholesaler. They work great for pulled pork, but a little disappointing for BBB. They have a texture like ham and very lean.

What do they use Pork Cushion for?

Todd

tjohnson · Aug 6, 2010

Dale, 1/2 wide, that's one reason I came up with my little gadget. I had to reload every 20-30 minutes. Lots of "White Billowing Smoke" and just when it settled down, I had to reload again. Kind of a pain when you have a 7 1/2 hour bacom smoke!

Enjoy your "Samples"!!!

Todd

pineywoods · Aug 6, 2010

That looks awesome!!

dale5351 · Aug 6, 2010

TJohnson said:
Dale, 1/2 wide, that's one reason I came up with my little gadget. I had to reload every 20-30 minutes. Lots of "White Billowing Smoke" and just when it settled down, I had to reload again. Kind of a pain when you have a 7 1/2 hour bacom smoke!

Enjoy your "Samples"!!!

Todd

It seems that they dumbed the MES down a couple of years ago. I got mine about four years ago, it has a full width box and it lasts hours for me. OTOH, I have had to open it up twice now to fix the connections to the heating element. Next time, I will put in an access panel on the rear so that I can get to them more easily. That is what the new model of MES has.

And thanks for the samples. I have some cheese to try after the temps get down a bit. 95-100F highs for the past week or two.

mballi3011 · Aug 6, 2010

Man oh Man I can almost smell that sweet smell of pretty bacon loffting in the air. Nice there Todd.

pops6927 · Aug 6, 2010

Yes, it comes off the side of the fresh pork shoulder picnic like shown in the picture. It's a lean cut that is merchandized into a higher retail dollar cut or cuts to garner more profit from the whole; you can cube them for cubed pork cutlet (most common) or cut into stirfry strips, lean pork stew cubes, grind into 95% lean pork, slice thin for pork filets (pounded), sold as a mini-roast. You can't net a bunch together to sell as any kind of roast as they're individual non-related (non contiguous) pieces, however. I used to slice them thin for 'thin-cut pork cushion steaks', usually at thin-cut boneless loin price (2.99-3.29/lb) whereas if you left the cushion on the side of the picnic you'd get 89¢ lb (remember, this was in the 70's and 80's!), or cube them for 'cubed pork cutlet from cushion' at 2.59lb or so. Take off one from the side of every pork arm shoulder you sold over a period of 2 weeks, (20-50 a week, depending on price, sales, etc.) and you get some sizeable additional gross profit. This is called "merchandizing" your meat cuts; you take a straight cut and merchandize it into as many higher priced cuts as your market will bear, constantly striving to increase your gross profit in your case. The sum of a subprimal's merchandized parts are always higher than the sale of the whole, you're there 8 hours a day anyways so your labor cost is moot, get the most of your labor dollars by merchandizing to the max!

TJohnson said:
Pops,

Pork Cushion looks and tastes much like a picnic ham. I got a deal on a 60# case for $1.29/lb thru a wholesaler. They work great for pulled pork, but a little disappointing for BBB. They have a texture like ham and very lean.

What do they use Pork Cushion for?

Todd

Bearcarver · Aug 7, 2010

Pops6927 said:
Yes, it comes off the side of the fresh pork shoulder picnic like shown in the picture. It's a lean cut that is merchandized into a higher retail dollar cut or cuts to garner more profit from the whole; you can cube them for cubed pork cutlet (most common) or cut into stirfry strips, lean pork stew cubes, grind into 95% lean pork, slice thin for pork filets (pounded), sold as a mini-roast. You can't net a bunch together to sell as any kind of roast as they're individual non-related (non contiguous) pieces, however. I used to slice them thin for 'thin-cut pork cushion steaks', usually at thin-cut boneless loin price (2.99-3.29/lb) whereas if you left the cushion on the side of the picnic you'd get 89¢ lb (remember, this was in the 70's and 80's!), or cube them for 'cubed pork cutlet from cushion' at 2.59lb or so. Take off one from the side of every pork arm shoulder you sold over a period of 2 weeks, (20-50 a week, depending on price, sales, etc.) and you get some sizeable additional gross profit. This is called "merchandizing" your meat cuts; you take a straight cut and merchandize it into as many higher priced cuts as your market will bear, constantly striving to increase your gross profit in your case. The sum of a subprimal's merchandized parts are always higher than the sale of the whole, you're there 8 hours a day anyways so your labor cost is moot, get the most of your labor dollars by merchandizing to the max!

Great lesson on merchandizing Pops!

Kinda like a junk yard paying $150 for a junk car, and selling the parts off of it for $1500.

old poi dog · Aug 7, 2010

Great looking Bacon Smoke.....Bacon is always worth the wait. Congratulations and thanks for the Inspiration...

t-bone44 · Dec 29, 2010

Can any of you guys supply a good wet brine recipe for curing bacon?

I have been searching for a couple days now and just couldn't seem to find one.

Thanks

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