Bacon Adventure

[geo1267]

So this all started with my 12 year old bacon loving nephew. My brother who passed away one year ago from colon cancer would take him to a local artisan market on the weekends to buy bacon from a vendor there. Over this past summer he brought some to a family gathering and I told him that we could make our own. We decided to smoke the bacon this past weekend which was the 1 year anniversary of my brother's passing as a way to gather the family together. Tonight the bacon was sliced and packaged.

We bought 3 bellies from Costco cut them in half and cured them using Pops Brine (RIP Pops). After curing they were rinsed, patted dry and we seasoned 3 of them and left 3 plain. One was seasoned with a rub that my nephew likes called Hank Sauce, one with cracked black pepper and the other with kosher salt, cracked black pepper, onion and garlic powder. After seasoning they were left in the fridge overnight to prepare for smoking the next morning.

I did a hybrid cold/hot smoke for the bacon. I smoked them for about 3 hours using Camp Chef competition blend pellets and an AMAZN tray. After 3 hours I built a fire in my offset smoker and smoked them between 175F - 190F for about another 5 hours to bring the internal temp to 145F.

Tonight borrowed a friends commercial slicer and sliced and packaged the bacon. I made a maple bourbon sauce that was sprayed into the bags before vacuum sealing for one of the plain slabs. We ended up with about 27lbs of bacon.

This was a fun 3 week adventure and a good way to spend some time with my nephew. I am sure he will want to do this again soon. Enjoy the Q View!

 

[pc farmer]

Great thread/ story. Bacon looks great.

 

[tallbm]

So this all started with my 12 year old bacon loving nephew. My brother who passed away one year ago from colon cancer would take him to a local artisan market on the weekends to buy bacon from a vendor there. Over this past summer he brought some to a family gathering and I told him that we could make our own. We decided to smoke the bacon this past weekend which was the 1 year anniversary of my brother's passing as a way to gather the family together. Tonight the bacon was sliced and packaged.

We bought 3 bellies from Costco cut them in half and cured them using Pops Brine (RIP Pops). After curing they were rinsed, patted dry and we seasoned 3 of them and left 3 plain. One was seasoned with a rub that my nephew likes called Hank Sauce, one with cracked black pepper and the other with kosher salt, cracked black pepper, onion and garlic powder. After seasoning they were left in the fridge overnight to prepare for smoking the next morning.

I did a hybrid cold/hot smoke for the bacon. I smoked them for about 3 hours using Camp Chef competition blend pellets and an AMAZN tray. After 3 hours I built a fire in my offset smoker and smoked them between 175F - 190F for about another 5 hours to bring the internal temp to 145F.

Tonight borrowed a friends commercial slicer and sliced and packaged the bacon. I made a maple bourbon sauce that was sprayed into the bags before vacuum sealing for one of the plain slabs. We ended up with about 27lbs of bacon.

This was a fun 3 week adventure and a good way to spend some time with my nephew. I am sure he will want to do this again soon. Enjoy the Q View!

Hi there and welcome!!!

Amazing story and amazing bacon!

You know I do my bacon to 145F internal temp and like 90% of it never hits a skillet. I defrost a bag and eat it like cold cuts hahaha.

I actually tell people its "Bacon cold cuts" which intrigues them and they eat the crap out of it right out of the vac bag. If I tell them it's bacon but fully cooked they look at me like I'm crazy so I went with "bacon cold cuts" and omg its soooooo good!

One more thing I've observed. If you eat the bacon right out of the bag you can taste the differences in wood smoke flavor. Also if u fry the bacon soft (the way I prefer bacon) you can still taste the difference in wood flavor.

If you cook bacon crispy... you still get great smoke flavor BUT the subtleties are all cooked out and it is hard for me to tell the differences in flavor.

I found my favorite smoke flavor profile is 25% Hickory and 75% Apple. I prefer it to 100% Hickory which is good too but man the flavor of that apple/hickory combo is amazing. I like to do my smoked sausage the same way 25% Hickory, 75% Apple.

Great work there!

 

[one eyed jack]

Your a good Uncle. Great post, and pictures!!

 

[GATOR240]

Nicely done all the way around!

 

[SmokinAl]

That is a great story & some mighty fine looking bacon!
Al

 

[smokerjim]

That's something your nephew will never forget, great that you did that with him, the bacon looks great.

 

[Winterrider]

Your bacon looks excellent. A great thing for your nephew and nice tribute to your brother ( Rip) .

 

[HalfSmoked]

Awesome story and tribute to your brother and a great new step in life for your nephew. Bacon looks great.

Warren

 

[D.W.]

Awesome that you did that for your nephew. And the bacon looks , really nice. all around.

 

[tx smoker]

Very touching story and kudos for doing this for your nephew. The bacon being darned good was just icing on the cake. It's the gesture that means more than anything IMHO.

Robert

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice Job, Geo!!
Looks Great !!
Enjoy!
Like.

Bear

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Kudos to you man cool thing you did with your nephew for sure. Bacon looks great!

 

[robrpb]

Great job. Looks very tasty.

 

[geo1267]

Hi there and welcome!!!

Amazing story and amazing bacon!

You know I do my bacon to 145F internal temp and like 90% of it never hits a skillet. I defrost a bag and eat it like cold cuts hahaha.

I actually tell people its "Bacon cold cuts" which intrigues them and they eat the crap out of it right out of the vac bag. If I tell them it's bacon but fully cooked they look at me like I'm crazy so I went with "bacon cold cuts" and omg its soooooo good!

One more thing I've observed. If you eat the bacon right out of the bag you can taste the differences in wood smoke flavor. Also if u fry the bacon soft (the way I prefer bacon) you can still taste the difference in wood flavor.

If you cook bacon crispy... you still get great smoke flavor BUT the subtleties are all cooked out and it is hard for me to tell the differences in flavor.

I found my favorite smoke flavor profile is 25% Hickory and 75% Apple. I prefer it to 100% Hickory which is good too but man the flavor of that apple/hickory combo is amazing. I like to do my smoked sausage the same way 25% Hickory, 75% Apple.

Great work there!

I think I had read one of your previous posts explaining the "bacon cold cuts" while researching my process for this batch. I will have to give that a try. I used the camp chef pellets which I think are a hickory, apple and cherry blend. That is also the combination I used when I fired up the smoker. It is the combination I use for most of my cooking.

I read way too many articles and posts about hot vs cold smoking. i just felt more comfortable cooking to the minimum temperature since I would be giving a good portion of the final product to my nephew. I would feel terrible if I made a mistake and got him sick.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Thanks for the like geo1267 it is appreciated.

Warren

 

[tallbm]

I think I had read one of your previous posts explaining the "bacon cold cuts" while researching my process for this batch. I will have to give that a try. I used the camp chef pellets which I think are a hickory, apple and cherry blend. That is also the combination I used when I fired up the smoker. It is the combination I use for most of my cooking.

I read way too many articles and posts about hot vs cold smoking. i just felt more comfortable cooking to the minimum temperature since I would be giving a good portion of the final product to my nephew. I would feel terrible if I made a mistake and got him sick.

U did well man. Next pack you open just eat a slice or 2 right out of the bag. You have bacon cold cuts having taking the temp to 145F, mmmm :)