And I'm Off

[GATOR240]

I have been putting this off for several months now and I finally decided to make some bacon. I purchased a 9 lb. belly at the local butcher shop and am using Bear's "Bacon Extra Smokey" recipe. I'm going to back off on the smoke somewhat as the wife doesn't care for a lot of smoke. Will post follow up pics.

 

[flatbroke]

very nice. good luck

 

[pc farmer]

Gonna be good

 

[chopsaw]

I agree . Gonna be good . I'm totally hooked on curing .

 

[GATOR240]

Gonna be good

Hoping so, unless I mess it up. Have used several of Bears recipes, and I know if they don't turn out well it's on me. -THE FOLLOWING IS TRUE - The wife just said to me not 5 minutes ago "You have big shoes to fill" Thanks my friend! No pressure!!

 

[SmokinAl]

Once you make your own bacon, you won't want the store bought stuff any more!
Al

 

[TomKnollRFV]

And a new addict is drawn in! ;)

 

[GATOR240]

After 9 days of flipping and massaging the bacon and letting it soak in the sink for an hour, it was time to do the fry test

Placed on clean smoker racks and put it in the beer fridge for a day and a half. I did add CBP to 1/3 of the belly.

Time to smoke using apple dust. As said before, wife does not like a lot of smoke (she is coming around, so I don't want to push it!) The top rack was smoked for 2hrs the second rack 3hrs and the third for 4hrs.

Slicing the bacon by hand (will remedy that soon)

And the finished product that we had been waiting for......

The bacon turned out very well considering that it wasn't smoked very long. What we both found surprising was the fact that the three racks all tasted a little bit different, but there wasn't a noticeable smokiness to any of them......... my wife even said that it wasn't smokey and that I can put more smoke to the next belly I get!!! So...........tomorrow I'm going to stop and order another belly and put some serious smoke to it!!!

Thanks for looking!

 

[Braz]

Looks great to me. I hope the Valentines Bunny brought you a slicer.
I think you could have easily added more (longer) smoke without it going overboard. Personally, I like Bear's Extra Smoky version, but that is just me (and the wife).
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bacon-extra-smoky.108099/

 

[GATOR240]

Looks great to me. I hope the Valentines Bunny brought you a slicer.
I think you could have easily added more (longer) smoke without it going overboard. Personally, I like Bear's Extra Smoky version, but that is just me (and the wife).
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bacon-extra-smoky.108099/

Thanks Braz. Yeah, I could have added more smoke easily but don't want to turn the wife off, so it's slow and steady!! I think I'll call that belly "her's" and the one I'm ordering tomorrow will be "his"!! I was going to order a slicer last weekend but got busy and forgot about it.

 

[smokin peachey]

Welcome to the bacon club Gator. Looks good.

 

[GATOR240]

Thanks Peachey. I'm off to the meatcutter tomorrow to get another belly!

 

[smokin peachey]

Thanks Peachey. I'm off to the meatcutter tomorrow to get another belly!

Sounds fantastic.

I am starting some hams and bacons this weekend for one of my employees.

 

[Bearcarver]

Your Bacon looks excellent, Denny!!
I think that's a Smart move, breaking her in gradually on the Smoke.
However Mrs Bear doesn't like much, if any Smoke on most things, but She loves my Bacon, BBB, and CB with 11 hours of Hickory from one full AMNPS.
Like.

Bear

 

[GATOR240]

Your Bacon looks excellent, Denny!!
I think that's a Smart move, breaking her in gradually on the Smoke.
However Mrs Bear doesn't like much, if any Smoke on most things, but She loves my Bacon, BBB, and CB with 11 hours of Hickory from one full AMNPS.
Like.

Bear

Thank you Bear. Even before I started smoking she wasn't real keen on smoked meat and it is really a wonder that I didn't turn her completely against it when I started smoking!! I think I'm going to go for 11 hours on my next one and use hickory dust in my AMNPS. Thanks for the like!

 

[pc farmer]

Looks awesome Gator and you got the wife's approval too.

 

[GATOR240]

Looks awesome Gator and you got the wife's approval too.

Thanks Adam..The best of both worlds! Thanks for the like.

 

[Winterrider]

Looks real good. I need to talk with our butcher about getting a belly to try. I like th BB bacon but need to mix it up a little

 

[GATOR240]

Sounds fantastic.

I am starting some hams and bacons this weekend for one of my employees.

You can pretend I'm one of your employees!!

 

[chopsaw]

Gator , looks great bud . Cooked up perfect , love the color . Did you eat it all ? Put some back in for a double smoke .