12lbs of Smoked, dry rubbed bacon!!!

[exromenyer]

Thanks to the help from Bear and DaveOmak I've had a successful stint on making bacon.. Very excited for the next smoke and trying my own personal rub next time rather than the commercial one I bought from Walton's. It was good, but too salty as many know. My only saving grace was soaking it longer and rinsing it often....Enjoy.....

 

[sammartin]

Man that looks awesome!! What do you plan on putting in your personal rub, if you dont mind me asking?

 

[exromenyer]

Man that looks awesome!! What do you plan on putting in your personal rub, if you dont mind me asking?

Hey thanks....I've been smoking a lot of meats and finally got brave enough to do some different things, or just more confident....I am going to use cure#1, kosher salt and white sugar. What some guys do is after they remove from cure, pat dry and then season with SPOG and let sit overnight or a few days in fridge then to the smoker....

The Waltons dry rub cure was just to salty for me and I soaked in ice water 2 hrs then rinsed and 2 more hours....that being said it is delicious...

Exromenyer

 

[Wet Spaniel]

That looks superb. You can't beat making your own bacon, once you realise how easy it is to mix your own cure and tweak it

 

[SmokinAl]

Awesome looking bacon!
Nicely done!
Al

 

[crazymoon]

EX, Fine job on your bacon ,looks like many fine breakfasts coming your way.

 

[griz400]

Very fine looking bacon .. points to you for sure

 

[exromenyer]

Very fine looking bacon .. points to you for sure

Thanks Griz, yes several breakfasts for sure but will use some in my baked bean recipe (I have a bag of scraps as well for that) and I will give just a select few a pkg....that is a very select few trust me....

 

[griz400]

Thanks man .. let me give you my address ....

 

[daveomak]

VERY nice looking belly... good fat to meat ratio... the smoke looks awesome....

 

[exromenyer]

VERY nice looking belly... good fat to meat ratio... the smoke looks awesome....

You were a TON of help on this Dave, appreciate your wisdom and guidance!!!!!!

Merry Christmas....

 

[mcokevin]

exromenyer looks like a great smoke - do you have any notes on your process or a previous thread you referenced during your smoke? How long did you let it cure, what was your smoke temp, what IT did you smoke to, etc...? Bacon is high on my list after seeing today that our local wholesale club carries pork belly. I also have a WSM which is why this thread interested me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[exromenyer]

exromenyer looks like a great smoke - do you have any notes on your process or a previous thread you referenced during your smoke? How long did you let it cure, what was your smoke temp, what IT did you smoke to, etc...? Bacon is high on my list after seeing today that our local wholesale club carries pork belly. I also have a WSM which is why this thread interested me.

Thanks in advance.

My apologies, I didn't ignore your question. I fell off this for awhile as I usually do in the late spring and summer because I typically only smoke pork butts and ribs during those months. When the colder weather comes around in the fall I start my bacon again.

I don't have a lot of notes quite honestly. I just followed Bear's step by step however I used Walton's Maple Cure for that particular bacon and it had NO maple taste, just high salt content. To fix that, I soaked it in an ice water bath for a few hours, fried a piece, then ended up like 2-3 more hours soaking it. Was just to salty. I will be doing 20lbs later this week, well, at least starting it in my own cure which will be kosher salt, white sugar, Cure #1, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. I've been working with DaveOmak on this site and he appears to be a master at this like Bear. The last time mine was in the refer for close to 14 days and then smoked it like 12 hours on my WSM using the minion method as I was able to keep it around 100 - 120 degrees. Since it was cured, I didn't need a specific internal temp because it will be cooked fully when I prepare it.

Hope this helps.
Tony

 

[daveomak]

Tony, morning.... When you used Walton's maple cure, did you use it at 2% based on the weight of the meat ?? When you used Bear's recipe, did you use his amounts of cure to add ?? Did you make a brine ???
I use a similar maple bacon cure, in a dry rub, at 2% addition and it comes out perfect...
I use similar to their "special maple cure".. I use it as a dry rub.. It's 0.86% nitrite and I use it at 2%..

 

[exromenyer]

Tony, morning.... When you used Walton's maple cure, did you use it at 2% based on the weight of the meat ?? When you used Bear's recipe, did you use his amounts of cure to add ?? Did you make a brine ???
I use a similar maple bacon cure, in a dry rub, at 2% addition and it comes out perfect...
I use similar to their "special maple cure".. I use it as a dry rub.. It's 0.86% nitrite and I use it at 2%..

Afternoon Dave,

The bag says the following:

Excalibur Bacon Rub Cure
Ingredients Statement: Salt Brown and Cane Sugar, Sodium Erythorbate (1.09%), Sodium Bicarbonate (1% buffering agent), Sodium Nitirte (0.40%).

Usage: Use 5lbs of cure to 100lbs of fresh bellies. This imparts 200 PPM of nitrite and 547 PM of sodium erythorbate.

Those are what the instructions say on the bag. I did NOT make a brine, I rubbed it on the four, 3 lb slabs because I had a 15lb pork belly and after removing some of the fat on the cap it weighed in at 12lbs so I cut it to make four, 3 lb slabs for ease of putting on the smoker.

I also called Walton's and asked them why they didn't break it down for home use like in 20lb increments or put those instructions on the bag because MOST of us do NOT do 100lbs of bacon at a time. They were able to help me with the calculations when I called. Their directions must have been good because it came out great (albeit salty) and if memory serves me correctly there was NOT a lot of rub on each belly but after sitting in the fridge it started to create its own juice so as you flipped it for the week it cured.

Thanks,
Tony

 

[daveomak]

Using 5# per 100#'s of meat, you are adding salt at a rate of ~4% salt.... That's not edible... That's why you need to understand what's going on.... 2% salt is close to the maximum for quality eating...

 

[exromenyer]

Using 5# per 100#'s of meat, you are adding salt at a rate of ~4% salt.... That's not edible... That's why you need to understand what's going on.... 2% salt is close to the maximum for quality eating...

I understand, that is why I have chosen to work with you to figure out my own Bacon Cure because it was horrible. I had to soak it as I said for like 4 hrs just to get it edible. I do NOT like a lot of salt flavor in any of my foods and the salty bacon wasn't great to start out.

Thanks,
Tony

 

[daveomak]

So, now we can take a lesson.... Big businesses don't understand what we are trying to do... We have to be smart and understand that... We are a niche in the cured meat industry... Specialized products, a multitude of types of curing.... Brines, dry rubs, injections etc... If we can understand the final product, and figure the calculations to get there, we can make stuff much better than store bought....