Belly Bacon on the way

[newb]

After lurkin in the bacon section for a while, I got toooooo hungry and thought what the heck. Picked up a 4.8# belly and cut it two to fit in some ziplock baggies and on day 1/10 of the cure.

Cure mix:
~ 5 TBSP TenderQucik (4.8# of meat)
~ 5 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/2 TBSP Onion powder
1/2 TBSP Garlic Power
1/4 Cup Real Maple Syrup.

Q-View comming when the cure is done unless someone wants to see bellies in a bag....maybe I'll do a documentary of what it looks like when the cure happens...


--EDIT--
adding Picts to top post so you don't have to scroll.

New toys.
Got this for 25 off craigslist...never used


Got this to slice er up(Well mom and pops suprised me w/ it):


In the smoker. I did 2 somokes on this each for about 5 hours.


Done with smokes and into fridge in baggie for 24 hr.


Put in freezer for an hour and then sliced em up:





Turned out great for the first try. I can really taste the maple syrup and the brown sugar. Hickory smoke is really noteable. To that point, I think my next batch will not contain maple syrup nor brown sugar...Try one plain or with a 'Hickory Burger' seasoning, and maybe some CBP bacon...

Definatly a must do again!

 

[beer-b-q]

Keep us updated...

 

[Dutch]

I really need to get around and make me some more bacon. Got a lonely pork butt sitting in the freezer. . .maybe it's time to do some BBB.

 

[newb]

Well I'm at day 2 of the cure and thought I best ask before I have to toss the belly...

When I made my cure, I did it off the total piece..roughly 5# so roughly 5 tbsp TQ. I then cut the piece (not quite in half) so I can fit them into ziplock baggies.

My question is should I have weighed each piece individually and made its own 'seperate' set of cure or am I ok in doing what I did....rub it and share it as best I could.

 

[beer-b-q]

Someone with experience in Makin Bacon will be along and give you an answer to that in a while...

 

[desertlites]

Yes U should have cut in half - weighed and made cure to each weight-I only use prague 1,thats how I do it.as far as tenderquick I think if your pretty close u should be OK-the main thing is that u have enough cure on the 1 piece.keep it going in the fridge and keep turning and massageing the cure into the meat through the bags.maybe sombody that knows tender quick more will agree or set me right.good luck.

 

[ronp]

I think you will be fine. If nothing else swap the bacon to the other bag and just do that every day.

Good luck.

 

[pops6927]

You'll be fine. If you coated 5/5ths of the meat with 5/5ths of the cure, then 2/5ths of the meat has 2/5ths of the cure on it, etc..., it's automatically proportioned.

 

[mballi3011]

I not a great maker a bacon like these other guys but I have done a few hunks of tendeloins. Like everone else saids you should be alright with just doing the tender quick thng but I would do what they said these guys are really good at what they doing.

 

[newb]

thanks guys for the input. I thought I might have been OK, but again I just wanted to run it by the knowledge of this board...

I can't wait to get this going....I'm dreaming bacon

 

[newb]

As promised, day 10 of cure, here is where we sit...

Taken out and rinsed:


Sliced up and ready for the salt test fry:


All fried up and ready to eat (less the smoke):



The verdict was that that I thought it was a tad on the salty side (TQ) so I'm doing a 2 hour soak before putting back in the fridge for the 24hr drying period.

But I do have some concerns. When I took it out of the bag, it was super slimy and smelled kinda rancid. I figured that it was a part of the cure that made it smell that bad and feel that slippery. Anyhow after eating it all up, it really tasted good. What do you think? Maybe it was the beverage in the background that made it taste better than what it smelled.










Just kidding all! There would be no way I would cook/eat something that smelled bad. Just wanted to wake you up a bit and think to yourself, "NOOOOOOoooooooooo..........."

Smokin picts on the way this weekend.

 

[Bearcarver]

Nice looking belly !
Waiting for the rest of the pics.
Thanks for showing.

Bearcarver

 

[boomer01]

Where do you buy your bellies? I'm guessing a local butcher? I need to find a butcher in my area. I was wondering if maybe any of the specialty ethnic grocery stores in my city would have them too. Anyhow, just wanted to see where you picked up yours. It looks great by the way, keep the pics coming!

 

[newb]

I picked mine up from a local butcher. They may need to special order them.


For everyone Else, I put all the Q-View picts on my first original post so I didn't have to string it out...

 

[scarbelly]

Man that looks really good. Keep the Qview coming and tell us about the smoke