SmokinAl
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Well I have heard so much talk about Berkshire hogs that I wanted to try to get a belly for bacon. None to be had around here so I went online & ordered one from Tenderbelly.com. They are a great Company to deal with & the owner Shannon is a real stand up guy, kinda reminds me of Todd Johnson of Amazen Products. Berkshire pork products are a little pricey, but we don't eat a lot of bacon & this batch will last us a year or more. So it was worth it to me to see if it's worth the extra money. Of course if you can source one locally then it would be even better & cheaper. Anyhow this is what I started with. A 15 lb, 11 oz belly between 2" & 3" thick.
I used the bacon calculator to figure the salt, sugar & cure #1 amounts. Then added 1/8 cup of each, granulated garlic, granulated onion, & cracked black pepper.
I cut the belly into 3 pieces, weighed each one & put them in vac bags & then added the proper amount of cure & spice mix to each bag, 1/2 on one side & then the other half on the other side.
Rubbed it into the belly on the first side & flipped it over & did the same to the other side.
Then vacuumed them up.
And they are ready for a trip to the fridge for 2 weeks.
I flipped, massaged, & rotated them daily.
We try to eat a low salt diet, so after 2 weeks I rinsed off the cure & soaked the bellies in ice water for 2 hours to leach out some of the salt. This is unnecessary if you are not concerned about your salt intake. The recipe is perfect without this step.
Next stop is drying them off, rubbing them down with some black pepper & drying in the fridge for 3 days.
Then into the smoker for a cold smoke with apple for 12 hours. Got some nice TBS going!
12 hours later they have some nice color & are ready for another 3 days of drying time in the fridge.
2 days in, starting to dry out.
Next stop is the freezer for 3 hours to really make them easy to slice.
I had to get the big boy slicer out for this. I had this for sale & nobody wanted it.
But today I'm kinda glad I didn't sell it, cause it really made all this slicing easy.
There was a lot to slice so Judy & I took turns on the slicer.
We divided it up into 1/2 lb. packages.
Then vac packed them up.
I ended up with about 14 lbs. of bacon & some scraps for soup & beans.
Definitely got to cook some up & try it out!
We cooked 2 trays full for BLT's for lunch & dinner.
Judy had already made sour dough buns that were in the freezer. Perfect for BLT's.
That what 3 weeks of work will get you.
Got to have a homemade pickle with mine!
Well what is my opinion of Berkshire bacon. Both Judy & I thought is was the best bacon I have made so far. The flavor is different, especially the fat. It is fattier than the bellies I usually get, but the fat is like bacon butter. I don't know any other way to describe it. It has the mouth feel of butter. Will I buy it again. Yes, absolutely!
Next time I get a little extra money, I think that maybe I will have to try Berkshire Babybacks next. If they have that same kind of fat in them, then they ought to be fantastic!!!
Thanks for watching guys!!
Al
I used the bacon calculator to figure the salt, sugar & cure #1 amounts. Then added 1/8 cup of each, granulated garlic, granulated onion, & cracked black pepper.
I cut the belly into 3 pieces, weighed each one & put them in vac bags & then added the proper amount of cure & spice mix to each bag, 1/2 on one side & then the other half on the other side.
Rubbed it into the belly on the first side & flipped it over & did the same to the other side.
Then vacuumed them up.
And they are ready for a trip to the fridge for 2 weeks.
I flipped, massaged, & rotated them daily.
We try to eat a low salt diet, so after 2 weeks I rinsed off the cure & soaked the bellies in ice water for 2 hours to leach out some of the salt. This is unnecessary if you are not concerned about your salt intake. The recipe is perfect without this step.
Next stop is drying them off, rubbing them down with some black pepper & drying in the fridge for 3 days.
Then into the smoker for a cold smoke with apple for 12 hours. Got some nice TBS going!
12 hours later they have some nice color & are ready for another 3 days of drying time in the fridge.
2 days in, starting to dry out.
Next stop is the freezer for 3 hours to really make them easy to slice.
I had to get the big boy slicer out for this. I had this for sale & nobody wanted it.
But today I'm kinda glad I didn't sell it, cause it really made all this slicing easy.
There was a lot to slice so Judy & I took turns on the slicer.
We divided it up into 1/2 lb. packages.
Then vac packed them up.
I ended up with about 14 lbs. of bacon & some scraps for soup & beans.
Definitely got to cook some up & try it out!
We cooked 2 trays full for BLT's for lunch & dinner.
Judy had already made sour dough buns that were in the freezer. Perfect for BLT's.
That what 3 weeks of work will get you.
Got to have a homemade pickle with mine!
Well what is my opinion of Berkshire bacon. Both Judy & I thought is was the best bacon I have made so far. The flavor is different, especially the fat. It is fattier than the bellies I usually get, but the fat is like bacon butter. I don't know any other way to describe it. It has the mouth feel of butter. Will I buy it again. Yes, absolutely!
Next time I get a little extra money, I think that maybe I will have to try Berkshire Babybacks next. If they have that same kind of fat in them, then they ought to be fantastic!!!
Thanks for watching guys!!
Al
