First time doing bacon

[chef jay]

I think I figured out part of my saltiness problem... When I did my second batch, I paid a little more attention to the weight of the meat. I started with a pork belly of 4.68 lbs and then after trimming (i'm not saying I did a good job) I ended up with 3.14 lbs. Well the first time I started off with a belly of 4.06 lbs and used enough cure for 4 lbs. I didn't consider the weight after trimming. My bad and dumb. This one should be better.

 

[meateater]

Leave it..

Pecan is very good for bacon.

If you share it with your neighbors..you will have new friends for sure..

Stay calm..have fun...

Have a great day!!!

   Craig

 

[chef jay]

Sorry for the delayed response on this, I did end up smoking this bacon. The bacon again was too salty, not as strong, but still too salty. I took the advice and soaked it overnight, tried it again and it was good. I let it sit for an additional day and then I was ready to smoke:

Keep in mind, this is only about 3 lbs as I'm still testing the waters... The trimming is not as pretty as I wanted but I'm not selling this stuff. I did a pecan, apple and hickory smoke. I soaked my chips for less than a half hour but I really had a hard time maintaining my smoke. I don't know if it was the weather or if I wasn't mixing wet and dry properly. It took a while to get a good one going but when I finally did (and a lot of constant watching for the day) everything worked out. My temps ran between 110 to 130, which seemed to be ok. Here's what I got:

I don't have a meat slicer so I thought I'd be smart and semi freeze it so I could use my mandoline. You know that old joke about a floppy disk and a hard drive? I ended up slicing it by hand but because it was semi-frozen it helped. There were trimmings, which I'm not complaining about because I will use those for pasta and soups. All and all the experience was very positive, I have bacon for the next month and half plus some very tasty carbonara coming up.

Next time I do it I'm thinking though I'd like to use my offset smoker. If I start the charcoal the night before, the charcoal should be still going but low enough that I'm just stoking with woodish items. Am I wrong in this thinking?

 

[Bearcarver]

As long as it tastes good, it doesn't matter if it's pretty!!!

Next time, a picture or two of some slices would be nice. 

You can also drain the water every half hour, instead of having to soak it so long.

They say adding some cut up raw taters will draw the salt out quicker.

I'm hoping you have the reason for the excess salt figured out now, for next time.

BTW: The color looks nice too!

Bear

 

[exhaustedspark]

Looks good. I just got a dedicatet rerfridge so i can give bacon a try.

Tnx for posting even the mistakes. It helps some one like me to learn.

Karl