51.5 pounds of pork belly

smokin' deal...............no pun intended.  i don't see why you can't freeze it.

 

I say if you can cure, smoke and package it all at once that's my opinion.

 

 but then he would be tempted to have a "baconfest" and eat damn near 50# of bacon in one weekend......................oops, that would be me.

 

 You say that like's it's a bad thing.

 

I would have to agree with Pops on this one... pork is not an "aging" meat.

Don't know what to tell ya... we do some fresh side every year, and it seems that if you don't eat it up within six months, it gets an old taste to it - I don't know for sure, but I think it is the fat because we've never had that problem with chops/roasts/etc.  Then on the other hand... the home cured bacon/ham I've had seems to do the same thing if you let it set too long.

If it were me, I would cure it, smoke it, and eat the hell out of it till it was gone!  I'm thinking with a few give aways to friends and family, you'll go through 50#'s of bacon in short order.

 

send me 25 lbs and your problem is cut in half 

 

That is a good price on the bellies. Now I would like you said cure them all and smoke them.Then you can slice them and freeze them and take them out as you need. Jerry knows what it like to smoke a handful of bacon. Don't ya  

 

Commercially it can be done either way, but if it is for long periods of time, usually it is in raw state, as curing doesn't do much for slowing fat rancidity.  Either way the least amount of air contact will work the best for you. 

 

My last comment would be to let them hang as long as you can before you slice, package, and freeze.  My last batch of bacon ended up hanging in the smoker for a full day after the smoke (started smoking Sunday morning, and when I was finished, I killed my fire and left them in until Monday night), then I wrapped and had to let them sit in the fridge until the weekend (Monday night til Saturday).  It is GOOD bacon.  My thoughts are, it is much like cheese.  If you can let is set a bit, the smoke will mellow throughout and it does make a difference.

On the slicing, set them on cookie sheets and let them stiffen up in the freezer if you can.  This took me about 2 hours and made the slicing much easier.

I can't wait to see the pile of bacon you're going to end up with !

 

I thought the maple flavor was added in the smoke, how do you add maple to the cure??