Belly Bacon

[deejaydebi]

Smoked my pork belly. It was okay but I think I smoked it to long it was almost cooked. Great taste but I could almost reheat it as well as fry it I think. Way to much fat! I did slice up half of one and we ate it for supper. The slices were kind of thick hard to slice soft bacon thin.

I also had a hard time trying to figure out which way to slice it. Maybe I should have used Dutch's tooth pick trick on the pork bellies.

Still got the pastrami in the ECB. Stuck at 156 degrees for the last 3 hours! brrrrrrrrrrrrrr I send pictures of that tomorrow.

 

[joed617]

Hi Debi, I cold smoke my bacon at 90 deg for 4 tp 5 hours. It's best to chill it before cutting it up when cutting by hand or meat slicer. My wife has been telling me to make more bacon so I told her I would in my spare time <laugh>. I haven't had anytime to smoke lately but soon that's all I'll be doing..

Joe

 

[t-bone tim]

Remember guy's and gals ,if the belly is uncut ,slice it across the shortest way,belly is supposed to be fatty ( it's the belly of a pig of course ) ,most muscles pork or beef are sliced ( across the shortest way ) of the piece ,T-bone.

 

[smoked]

did you cold smoke it debi????? that may be the problem....curing bacon you gotta gotta gotta cold smoke it!!!! I'm gonna visit my butcher here and get some bellies also....hankering for some applewood smoked bacon.....enough of this hickory smoked stuff!!!

 

[dacdots]

Hey Debi,Ive got four sides in the cure right now and am gonna smoke it this weekend.Dont know how you smoked it but I smoke mine at about 135 deg until the internal temp is around 128 deg.The low slow really applies here.I let mine go for 16 hours and it always turns out good.As JoeD mentioned its best to put it in a cold fridg and let it chill real good,makes slicing a breeze.David

 

[deejaydebi]

Well it wasn't cold smoked it was around 175 degrees and I smoked it untill it got to 160 guess I cooked it. Tasted pretty good after a day or so but kind of ergh right off the smoker.

I'll have to try that again! And it was VERY fatty almost salt pork fatty!

Oh the pictures of the fried bacon were fried after the smoke to taste it. Thicker than I'd like but it was right off the smoker!

 

[mountaincityoutlaw]

I raise hogs and for some reason I can't handle the bacon from them when I butcher the hogs. I still like the store bought, But steaks on the other hand nothing better than home grown.

 

[mrh]

I have a pork belly in the freezer now just waiting to be done. What do you guys use for your cures? I am thinking Morton Tender Quick, and is there any other stuff you add along with it?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[deejaydebi]

Mark -

Here's Dacdots old post he made some great loooking bacon!

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ead.php?t=3476

 

[veener88]

I use the cure that I get from my local butcher. I have to say that was a very fatty hog. Mine have never been that fatty. I am betting you have a 300+lb hog there. I smoke mine for about 6-8 hours at a temp no higher then 150 I try to keep it at 125 if I can. It takes about that long for all the smoke to get though the full peice of meat.

 

[mrh]

Got my bacon done it turned out real good hopefully the picture will work here.

 

[deejaydebi]

Looks great MRH! Next ime I order a belly I'm gonna look at it brown paper or not! Acually I didn't get it Jessie did but ah well live and learn!

 

[dacdots]

Hey MRH thats some tasty looking fare you have there.I noticed the wonderful color right off and I bet the taste is just as good.Im still enjoying our last batch every Sunday morning when I make the family breakfast.Keep the smoke rollin.

 

[deejaydebi]

MRH -

Was that made from bellies? Sure look meaty! The bellies I got looked more like salt pork.

 

[smoked]

I've got some bellies waiting to be picked up on monday........yippeeeeeeee

 

[tonto1117]

That is some incredible looking bacon right there. Congrats!!!!

 

[mrh]

Debi,
Yes that was a belly. Only got half a pig from a friend. We have been eating on one of the pieces that was was cured with Tender Quick, brown sugar,garlic and black pepper. It is really good. The other 2 have TQ and different spices on each, just to see how things taste.

Mark

 

[deejaydebi]

Yummmmmmmmm

I gotta find better belly meat!

 

[t-bone tim]

VERY NICE MRH...hope mine turns out half as good ...we'll see

 

[hillbillysmoker]

Absolutely gorgeous bacon. Pictures turned out well too. Congrats.