The thickest place on any of these belly pieces was just under 2".
I calculate there being 4 "half inches" in 2 inches, so that gives me the "4".
Then to that 4 (days), I add 2 more days for safety, the way I was taught.
So that means the absolute minimum cure time by my calculations for these bellies is 6 days.
I then usually add another 2 days on my own, unless I have scheduling problems that make me want to smoke a day or 2 in either direction.
The main thing for these pieces is NO less than 6 days in cure.
Every day, while curing, I remove the packages & flip them over, and massage them a bit.
Moisture will accumulate in the packages. I leave that in, because some of it is curing juices, and at the end of the curing process, it will nearly all be gone through reabsorption.
On day 8, I removed them from the fridge, rinsed them off in cold water, and soaked them in ice water for 1 hour. Then I patted them dry, cut a couple slices, and did a fry test for salt flavor---Just right!
Note: You don't have to do a Fry-Test, but once you smoke it, if it's too salty, it's too late to do anything about it!!
I dry them again with paper towels, laid them out on two smoker racks, not touching each other, sprinkled black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder on them, and put the racks in the fridge over night.
Smoking Day
6:45 AM--------------------Preheat my MES 40 to 130˚.
7:00 AM--------------------Put meat in top 3 positions.
7:30 AM--------------------Fill my AMNS with Hickory Dust, light one end, and put it on the bars to the left of the chip burner.
7:30 AM--------------------Cut MES heat back to 120˚.
5:00 PM--------------------Bump heat up to 130˚.
7:00 PM--------------------After 11 1/2 hours of perfect smoke, my AMNS finally burned out.
I killed the power, opened the door, and took some pictures.
The 6 pieces of Bacon had internal temps that ranged from 116˚ to 123˚
Left the door open for awhile to cool down a few degrees.
Wrapped pieces individually with plastic wrap, and put in fridge for 39 hours.
Two days later, I unwrapped the pieces, took pics, and began slicing.
I only got one plateful sliced, and I realized I forgot to put in freezer for awhile before slicing.
They were not slicing very good, because of being too soft. (I had just sharpened the blade, too)
I put the rest in the freezer, and waited an hour and a half before starting to slice again.