Sliced it all up. Was rushing before work but I did try 3 slices of it. I tried a slice of lean, a slice with some fat, and a slice with what seemed like a good amount of fat. That good amount of fat rendered out FAST in the frying pan.
The lean is ham, as expected, and good ham. I'm not a ham guy by a long shot, but this is tasty. The best bite was the slice with the good amount of fat, though I am not sure it's going to get at all crispy. When I get home I'm going to cook a little more and see what happens. I do not like the lean enough to want 3 lbs of it off of each butt - unless I can figure out a way to make it more like - well - bacon. I air fry most of my bacon, and that's what I'll try tonight.
I should have sliced it a bit thinner I think. It's about as thick as a pretty thick grocery store 'thick cut' commercial bacon.
After cooking, the salt seems a little more concentrated than it did in the fry test. Not overpowering, but with my BP issues, I'm going to back it down to 1.6% next time. It was almost as salty as commercial bacon IMO.
It's dang sure worth another shot. Super easy process - but that's because of all of the folks on here who do it every day and do such a good job of documenting and explaining 'what' 'why' and 'how'.
What I will do differently next time.
.... back the salt to 1.6%
.... freeze it solid before I smoke it. I think what I did worked really good, but I want more smoke. I may just buy a smoke tray/tube and put some cold smoke on it for a few hours (if I'm not mistaken that's what
Bearcarver
did with his, using a 'warm smoke' hybrid method) before I put the heat to it. Pellet grill should be fine with a tube in the bottom of it.
.... slice it a tad thinner. These are sliced at 3.5 on my Cabela's commercial grade slicer.
The lean is ham, as expected, and good ham. I'm not a ham guy by a long shot, but this is tasty. The best bite was the slice with the good amount of fat, though I am not sure it's going to get at all crispy. When I get home I'm going to cook a little more and see what happens. I do not like the lean enough to want 3 lbs of it off of each butt - unless I can figure out a way to make it more like - well - bacon. I air fry most of my bacon, and that's what I'll try tonight.
I should have sliced it a bit thinner I think. It's about as thick as a pretty thick grocery store 'thick cut' commercial bacon.
After cooking, the salt seems a little more concentrated than it did in the fry test. Not overpowering, but with my BP issues, I'm going to back it down to 1.6% next time. It was almost as salty as commercial bacon IMO.
It's dang sure worth another shot. Super easy process - but that's because of all of the folks on here who do it every day and do such a good job of documenting and explaining 'what' 'why' and 'how'.
What I will do differently next time.
.... back the salt to 1.6%
.... freeze it solid before I smoke it. I think what I did worked really good, but I want more smoke. I may just buy a smoke tray/tube and put some cold smoke on it for a few hours (if I'm not mistaken that's what
Bearcarver
did with his, using a 'warm smoke' hybrid method) before I put the heat to it. Pellet grill should be fine with a tube in the bottom of it. .... slice it a tad thinner. These are sliced at 3.5 on my Cabela's commercial grade slicer.
