Bearcarver and All,
I'm new to smoking with and MB40, all my experience have been with a
WSM. I've wanted for years to smoke bacon, salmon, and cheese. Over Christmas, I talked SHMBO into letting me get an electric smoker with a promise that salmon was first up. Bam! Homerun on the salmon, next up bacon. The hardest part of this was finding a belly turns out my local Publics sells them.
I was a little surprised at the price, but I've checked at several other locations and then seems about the norm.
Anyway, sliced up the belly and removed the skin. I think I have a more to learn on the proper way to butcher the belly. When I was done I decided it would have been better to leave it in larger chunks. Oh well, there will be a next time.
Carefully weighed the bacon and measured out the cure for all the pieces. A good rub and into baggies for 8 days. On day three I learned that my Mother had passed away. She was 98. Off to Tucson for me. Before I left I passed the bacon baton to my son. Now he has never done anything with BBQing or grilling other than to eat the final product and provide feedback. I had a little trepidation, but heck, he is an Eagle Scout and more importantly I sent him this URL and told him to follow exactly beginning with step 8. Two days before I left Tucson he began the smoke. I told him to start at 6:00 AM. He slept in. Too bad for him he was up till midnight. He told me all went well and wrapped the bacon and in the fridge to rest. The morning I was to fly he sent me the following pictures. I was hungry all the way to Florida.
I repeated this as soon as I walked through the door!!
Way to go Bear, this stuff is way better than anything I have purchased in a store. The next set of photos were taken after I sliced all the bacon up. This is another area that I need to get better at. Who knew this much meat would be on every slice??
Thanks to all who have helped me with this journey,