Belly

[SmokinEdge]

Suggestions for a first time on makin bacon?

Absolutely.
Weigh the meat or pieces of belly, then to each individual piece apply a dry rub made this way.

Salt) 1.5% (to meat weight, can be higher but this is what I and many others like)

Sugar) .5-.75%

Cure #1) .25%

Mix this up for each piece. Rub all sides with all of the mixture as evenly as possible. Then place the piece in a plastic zip bag, remove the air and refrigerate. Turn every day or two for 10-14 days. Pat dry and smoke. Then re-bag and rest in refrigerator for at least another day before slicing.

 

[DougE]

Absolutely.
Weigh the meat or pieces of belly, then to each individual piece apply a dry rub made this way.

Salt) 1.5% (to meat weight, can be higher but this is what I and many others like)

Sugar) .5-.75%

Cure #1) .25%

Mix this up for each piece. Rub all sides with all of the mixture as evenly as possible. Then place the piece in a plastic zip bag, remove the air and refrigerate. Turn every day or two for 10-14 days. Pat dry and smoke. Then re-bag and rest in refrigerator for at least another day before slicing.

Works perfect every time once you have the salt and sugar dialed in to your liking. Just don't mess with the 0.25% cure .... you can maybe go a little lower, but this amount of cure is the standard most everyone uses.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

What's a good scale for weighing these?

 

[DougE]

What's a good scale for weighing these?

I use a digital Taylor that goes up to, I think, 11 lbs. for the meat ....... does grams as well but just measures whole grams. Bought that one at the grocery store.

For cure/spices, I use a smaller capacity scale that measures down to hundredths of a gram. My reloading scale doubles as a spice scale since it measures in both grains and grams.

 

[SmokinEdge]

What's a good scale for weighing these?

I use a spring/dial face scale for meat. Goes up to 50#, I think. Then I have a Taylor brand scale that will weigh in 10ths of a gram for cure and spices. I have a smaller scale that weighs in 100th gram that I use for some spices when not weighing my gold.