Bacon, dry vs wet cure trial and lessons learned

[angryengineer]

I dry cured 20lbs of pork belly generally following Brican's maple bacon and wet cured 10lbs with a maple version of Pop's. Same ingredients, same time drying before cold smoking, same time aging after smoking. Head to head, the warden much preferred the dry cured style, but both were awesome.

Here's what we learned.
1) Maple sugar is easy to make. Heat 2 pints maple syrup to 260 degrees in a deep pan, transfer to a mixer and whip until it steams like crazy and thickens. Pour in a half sheet pan and let solidify. Break it up and put in a food processor until a smooth powder. Far cheaper than buying maple sugar. In our case, made from a local friend's maple syrup.
2) aging the bacon in a 42deg fridge for 2 weeks after smoking is worth the wait. Huge difference in taste from the day after smoking and 2 weeks later.
3) I cannot get TBS from an AMPS. Grr, I nuked the pellets, I even put them in the MES for hours to dry them out, made sure they were well lit, blew on the, like a cigar, etc. etc., still white smoke with a slight acrid taste. Switched to 2 small pieces of red glowing lump in a pan with the AMPS on top and TBS was no problem. Temp stayed under 100 in the MES. Air flow?
4) The maple sugar rub results in a slightly tacky bacon, much better than using syrup which is sticky and burns so easily when fried.

 

[Rings Я Us]

Good info ! :)

 

[pugsbrew]

I dry cured 20lbs of pork belly generally following Brican's maple bacon and wet cured 10lbs with a maple version of Pop's. Same ingredients, same time drying before cold smoking, same time aging after smoking. Head to head, the warden much preferred the dry cured style, but both were awesome.

Here's what we learned.
1) Maple sugar is easy to make. Heat 2 pints maple syrup to 260 degrees in a deep pan, transfer to a mixer and whip until it steams like crazy and thickens. Pour in a half sheet pan and let solidify. Break it up and put in a food processor until a smooth powder. Far cheaper than buying maple sugar. In our case, made from a local friend's maple syrup.
2) aging the bacon in a 42deg fridge for 2 weeks after smoking is worth the wait. Huge difference in taste from the day after smoking and 2 weeks later.
3) I cannot get TBS from an AMPS. Grr, I nuked the pellets, I even put them in the MES for hours to dry them out, made sure they were well lit, blew on the, like a cigar, etc. etc., still white smoke with a slight acrid taste. Switched to 2 small pieces of red glowing lump in a pan with the AMPS on top and TBS was no problem. Temp stayed under 100 in the MES. Air flow?
4) The maple sugar rub results in a slightly tacky bacon, much better than using syrup which is sticky and burns so easily when fried.

"Brican's maple bacon"? Link?

Thanks

 

[Rings Я Us]

I don't think bacon or ham should be sweet..

I don't like sweet ham or bacon for breakfast and certainly it tastes funny in a sandwich when you have leftovers . And sweet or maple doesn't go in soup or beans as far as I'm concerned. So Maple pork and sausage is just out. Maple bacon isn't very useful.. I can have pancakes or waffles and use maple.. 3 times a year maple syrup used is like my limit.

Some like that smell and taste I guess.. I accidentally bought maple sausage once and just didn't appreciate the smell in the house for a couple days.. lol
I do like syrup on the pancakes..

 

[daveomak]

Your AMNPS.... I had trouble keeping mine lit.... A few folks had figured out the secret.... LEGS... better air flow..