75 lbs of Bellies

[grogger27]

My buddy Mark (Smoking Snow on this forum) and I just ordered 75 lbs of pork bellies for making bacon. We have some premixed cure but wish to try some new recipes found on this websight. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[rbranstner]

This is the rub/cure that I used on my BBB and it was awesome.

Cure for 11 Days.
1 Tbsp Tender quick
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
All of these ingredients per LB of meat

On half I put maple syrup and honey and the other half I did cracked black pepper

 

[mballi3011]

Well Me, Jerry, brian, and justin did a batch of bellies with some packaged buckboard bacon cure and they turned out really good too. Did your buddy get the bellies skinned>??? I would recommand it cause skining them was a little bit of a Bi.....h for sure.

 

[fire it up]

75lbs, and I can't even find them around here...

 

[grogger27]

Hey this looks like a good recipe. Is the recipe for 1lb of meat or just the brown sugar for 1lb of meat? With 75lbs I don't want to run short on cure.

 

[smoking snow]

This buddy of yours sounds like one hell of a nice guy

 

[grogger27]

Oh well, you know beggers can't be choosers.
Haha

Between this post and some private messages to other SMF members we should be ordering another 200 lbs of bellies with all the help and recipes I've gotten. This is definately a great site.

 

[smokin relaxin steve]

Fire It Up, Did you try the Italian market in South Philly? I would think you could score it there...

 

[rbranstner]

Sorry I didn't look over the post before I sent it. All of those measurements are per lb of meat I updated my first post as well.

 

[rbranstner]

Hopefully you already know this but if not here you go.
Once they are brined for 11 days you want to rinse the brine off and then soak them in cold water for around an hour. After an hour slice a piece or two off and fry it to see if it is too salty. If it is then soak it longer if it tastes good to your liking then remove them from the water and dry them off and put any other seasonings on the top and put them in the smoker. I loaded the top of mine with CBP on half and Maple syrup and honey on the other half. I did this in my brine and also before they went on the smoker. Good luck.

 

[grogger27]

Well, it's ON like donkey kong.
I dropped off 37 lbs of hog bellies at Mark's (Smoking Snow) place after work. I took my 37 lbs of bellies home and after the kids got to bed, I got into high bacon curing gear. Out of the 5 slabs, 2 got the honey cured ham from Rytek's book and three got a modified version of recipes I got from TJohnson and rbranstner. They said to go with 1 Tbsp of brown sugar and 1 Tbsp of TQ per pound and a few more spices, but mama bear and the cubs were onboard with this project only if they got maple bacon out of this. So between miscalculating the brown sugar, added 2 Tbsp per pound instead of 1, and then adding 2 little maple extract bottles to the mix, soon I was willing to eat the rubbed down hog bellies raw. Mmmmmmmmm Good. I can't wait. I hope to post qview in a week when the bacon slicing party takes place. Until then, have fun.

 

[tjohnson]

Go MAN GO!!!!

Ends and pieces go very well with your favorite "Adult Beverage"!!

Where are your buddies pics?

I smell a little competition here?!?!?!


Todd

 

[Bearcarver]

My recipe is the same as rbranstner's recipe. "AWESOME!"

I tried Hi Mt BBB Cure twice, and those were the only times I had to soak for hours to get rid of the salty taste.

Have fun smoking & eating your bacon,
Bearcarver