- Sep 7, 2020
- 32
- 20
Long story, few pictures...please bear with me...not even sure if this should be in "cold smoked" or "hot smoked" bacon forum :D
I've only made a few batches of bacon using a basic recipe from my brother(all weights are per pound of pork belly): 1.134gm pink salt, 0.6 oz light brown sugar, and 0.6 oz (non iodized) sea salt. seal in vacuum bag, and cure in the fridge for 7-10 days.
The first belly was cut into thirds and made into 3 flavors. regular (just salts and sugar), pepper and "seasoned" with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika black pepper and a dash of cayenne. these 3 cured about 10 days, then smoked on "smoke" setting of a small Traeger with hickory pellets until IT of about 140 degrees. I would like to have had more smoke flavor, but the bacon came out very nice. The "seasoned" version was definitely the favorite. Here's picture of about 10# of smoked & sliced bacon from the first batch.
I started running low on bacon, so picked up another belly, and prepped the following batches, again using the same base ratio of pink salt to brown sugar and sea salt:
1: Inspired "The Baconarium" "Simon & Garfunkle bacon" , this batch added 1T dried parsley, 1/2T rubbed Sage, 1/2t rosemary, 1t thyme 1t onion powder, 1/2t garlic powder.
2: again inspired by "The Baconarium" - I added 2T Fiesta Brand Salt Free Lemon Pepper
3: looking to jazz up the "seasoned" bacon recipe above, I bumped up the seasonings to: 2t smoked paprika, 1.5t garlic powder, 2t onion powder, 1/4t (heaping) ground cayenne pepper, 2T black pepper.
All went into cure on August 18...then Hurrricane Laura happened and I had to evacuate. Bellies had been curing about 6 days when they went into a cooler with a bunch of refrigerated/frozen meats and stayed very well iced down for 3 days until I could return home. They went back into the fridge for a couple more days, then were removed from cure, rinsed, dried, and coated with "butcher grind" black pepper, then back into the fridge to form a pellicle
from first round to second round, I have acquired a couple "A-Maze-N" pellet racks, so I used that in my Kamado Joe "Big Joe" to smoke the cured bellies. Removed the ash basket and placed the AMAZEN basket in the bottom of KJ, vents open
1. Got cherry pellets in the AMAZEN rack, lit at both ends. It took about 6 hours to burn through the entire rack. Sorry - no pictures of this batch. The bacon is delicious, but needs to bump up the seasonings in cure, because it has just a slight flavor in the finished bacon.
2 & 3 got hickory pellets, again lit at both ends. It took about 4.5 hours to burn through the rack. They went back in the fridge and were smoked again for another 2 hours. Refrigerated overnight, and taken out today to slice, package and freeze.
#2 also needs more lemon pepper during cure, and maybe another light dusting along with the pepper when it goes in for pellicle.
#3 is a problem child. Here's what it looked like when I cut it in half to begin slicing:
and the sliced bacon:
I'm not sure if the cure didn't fully penetrate. Shouldn't it cure from outside to inside, and not from inside out? I'm test frying a few pieces for a taste test.
Suggestions? Sorry for the extremely wordy first post :D
I've only made a few batches of bacon using a basic recipe from my brother(all weights are per pound of pork belly): 1.134gm pink salt, 0.6 oz light brown sugar, and 0.6 oz (non iodized) sea salt. seal in vacuum bag, and cure in the fridge for 7-10 days.
The first belly was cut into thirds and made into 3 flavors. regular (just salts and sugar), pepper and "seasoned" with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika black pepper and a dash of cayenne. these 3 cured about 10 days, then smoked on "smoke" setting of a small Traeger with hickory pellets until IT of about 140 degrees. I would like to have had more smoke flavor, but the bacon came out very nice. The "seasoned" version was definitely the favorite. Here's picture of about 10# of smoked & sliced bacon from the first batch.
I started running low on bacon, so picked up another belly, and prepped the following batches, again using the same base ratio of pink salt to brown sugar and sea salt:
1: Inspired "The Baconarium" "Simon & Garfunkle bacon" , this batch added 1T dried parsley, 1/2T rubbed Sage, 1/2t rosemary, 1t thyme 1t onion powder, 1/2t garlic powder.
2: again inspired by "The Baconarium" - I added 2T Fiesta Brand Salt Free Lemon Pepper
3: looking to jazz up the "seasoned" bacon recipe above, I bumped up the seasonings to: 2t smoked paprika, 1.5t garlic powder, 2t onion powder, 1/4t (heaping) ground cayenne pepper, 2T black pepper.
All went into cure on August 18...then Hurrricane Laura happened and I had to evacuate. Bellies had been curing about 6 days when they went into a cooler with a bunch of refrigerated/frozen meats and stayed very well iced down for 3 days until I could return home. They went back into the fridge for a couple more days, then were removed from cure, rinsed, dried, and coated with "butcher grind" black pepper, then back into the fridge to form a pellicle
from first round to second round, I have acquired a couple "A-Maze-N" pellet racks, so I used that in my Kamado Joe "Big Joe" to smoke the cured bellies. Removed the ash basket and placed the AMAZEN basket in the bottom of KJ, vents open
1. Got cherry pellets in the AMAZEN rack, lit at both ends. It took about 6 hours to burn through the entire rack. Sorry - no pictures of this batch. The bacon is delicious, but needs to bump up the seasonings in cure, because it has just a slight flavor in the finished bacon.
2 & 3 got hickory pellets, again lit at both ends. It took about 4.5 hours to burn through the rack. They went back in the fridge and were smoked again for another 2 hours. Refrigerated overnight, and taken out today to slice, package and freeze.
#2 also needs more lemon pepper during cure, and maybe another light dusting along with the pepper when it goes in for pellicle.
#3 is a problem child. Here's what it looked like when I cut it in half to begin slicing:
and the sliced bacon:
I'm not sure if the cure didn't fully penetrate. Shouldn't it cure from outside to inside, and not from inside out? I'm test frying a few pieces for a taste test.
Suggestions? Sorry for the extremely wordy first post :D
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