Cold Smoking Bellies... w/Qview

[jp61]

Hello people,

    This is my first attempt at making bacon. Thought I would start a thread and post what I've done so far and what I'm planning on doing to finish this process. Please feel free to comment as I am in a learning mode and could use some feedback. I purchased two bellies with a total weight of 18lbs. I couldn't start the curing right away so after I cut each belly into three pieces, trimmed and squared them off they set in my fridge for three days wrapped in plastic food wrap. Ended up with six pieces, 2-3lbs, 2-2.5lbs and 2-2lbs.Then I put together the cure mix using Instacure#1, salt and sugar. Weighed the amount of cure mix for each piece then individually put the belly pieces in 1gal. ziplock bags with the cure rubbed in. Rotated every day for 11 days. Today I took one piece out, washed it off real good with cold water, sliced off a couple pieces and fried them up for the taste test. Too salty... so, I took out the rest from the ziplock bags, washed them off real good and put all of them in a large pot with cold water then back into the fridge. I'm thinking 1 1/2hrs for the soak then fry test again. If they pass the taste test I'm thinking of doing 2-w/maple syrup, 2-w/OP/GP/BP, 1-w/honey and 1-w/black pepper and then putting them  all back into new ziplock bags until Saturday evening. I can't smoke them until Sunday evening so, Saturday evening I'm going to take them all out of the bags and let them dry until the smoke time. Not sure about the outside temp for Sunday so I'm planning on starting sometime in the evening. I'll be using apple in the AMNPS for probably 8hrs or until they get a nice color. Have fingers crossed... 

Taste test

Soaking in cold water to remove some of the salt

 

[jp61]

Soaked in cold water (in the fridge) for about 1:45min. 

Second fry test is good 

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Sounds like a plan!

~Martin :smile:

 

[jp61]

Minor change with the seasonings:

2- w/garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and since I'm Hungarian..... paprika

2- w/100% pure maple syrup and will add black pepper before drying

1- w/honey and will add a dusting of cayenne pepper before drying

1- w/black pepper

 

[jp61]

onion powder, garlic powder, Hungarian paprika and black pepper

100% maple syrup and black pepper

Left: honey and cayenne pepper                                   Right: black pepper

Tomorrow we'll apply some TBS... 

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Lookin' good!



~Martin

 

[jp61]

Thanks Martin! 

 Pull up a seat, there's plenty of elbow room... 

 

[jp61]

Smoking away for about 3hrs now. But only about 2hrs+ of good smoke....had to get everything tuned in. First time using the AMNPS. I added about an 8" stack to the MES and that seemed to work out well. Decided to go with Pitmaster's Choice instead of Apple for the smoke. Smells really nice! Smoke chamber is at 88° but it should start dropping over night. Going perch fishing in the morning so I hope everything goes well. Don't want to be up all night playing with the smoke.... but so far it's working like a champ! 

Ready for some smoke...

 

[jp61]

Took them out of the smoker at 7am today. Into the fridge they went and out the door I went for some perch fishing. The two of us ended up with 19 nice size perch....the weather sucked. Anyhow, I'm not all that happy with the coloring after 12hrs of smoke. It looks like they didn't get enough smoke and the coverage seems to be uneven. The left piece in the second from the top pic, looks like it got the least amount of smoke for some reason. That's the one with honey and cayenne. I had nice smoke for pretty much the entire 12hrs. The smoke chamber hit 100° when the AMNPS got to the middle row. Next time I'm not going to fill the middle row as high because it's wider than the two outside rows and with more pellets in there, it burns hotter. They smell like they got plenty of smoke but i'm thinking of maybe another round? I did slice one piece off of one that I didn't touch before while doing the taste test and it seemed a little too salty. I'm hoping it's not going to be like that all the way through. Maybe I should have done a taste test on every piece? Next time I'm going with 2% salt instead of 3%. Any suggestions?

Before smoking

after smoking                                                                                                                                                           

Before smoking

After smoking

Before smoking

After smoking

 

[diggingdogfarm]

I think they look real good from here! You've done a good job!
As a general rule, the lower the temp, the less the color for a given amount of smoking time.
The biggest secret is drying them, dry to the touch, before smoking.
The amount of smoke and salt are going to depend on your personal preference.
I usually smoke a couple days at up to 8 hours per day, but sometimes I'll smoke 3 days for a total of no more than 24 hours.
You may find that 12 hours is plenty for your taste.
Cold smoke tends to be on the harsh side initially, so cold smoked stuff will benefit from a rest to mellow and meld the flavor.
I keep the salt in my bacon and the like in the 2 to 2.5% range.



~Martin

 

[smokinhusker]

They look really good and the combos of spices too! Anyway, I use Hi Mountain's Buckboard Bacon Cure and I've never had a salty taste with mine. What I have found with the addition of maple sugar and honey is the bacon tends to char around the edges when it's fried, which is due to the sugar content. I cold smoked some BBB a while back (12 hrs) and it came out with the some great color.

Don't know why yours didn't take as much color...Did you let it dry in the fridge overnight or place it in front of a fan to form a pellicle?

 

[jp61]

I think they look real good from here! You've done a good job!
As a general rule, the lower the temp, the less the color for a given amount of smoking time.
The biggest secret is drying them, dry to the touch, before smoking.
The amount of smoke and salt are going to depend on your personal preference.
I usually smoke a couple days at up to 8 hours per day, but sometimes I'll smoke 3 days for a total of no more than 24 hours.
You may find that 12 hours is plenty for your taste.
Cold smoke tends to be on the harsh side initially, so cold smoked stuff will benefit from a rest to mellow and meld the flavor.
I keep the salt in my bacon and the like in the 2 to 2.5% range.
~Martin

Thanks Martin. Next time I'm trying 2% salt.

They look really good and the combos of spices too! Anyway, I use Hi Mountain's Buckboard Bacon Cure and I've never had a salty taste with mine. What I have found with the addition of maple sugar and honey is the bacon tends to char around the edges when it's fried, which is due to the sugar content. I cold smoked some BBB a while back (12 hrs) and it came out with the some great color.

Don't know why yours didn't take as much color...Did you let it dry in the fridge overnight or place it in front of a fan to form a pellicle?

Thanks Alesia. Don't think it makes a difference but I used canning/pickling salt by weight. Used the same when I made sausage and thought it was too salty when taste testing but, the next day it was fine. So maybe the same will happen with the bacon. Yes, they dried at least 24hrs.

 

[jp61]

Did a little slicing after work today...

BTW.... the color did improve some overnight and I'm happy 

!!! Thanks SMF, couldn't have done it without you!

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Looks great!




~Martin

 

[chilefarmer]

Now that is a beautiful pile of goodness. Super nice. CF

 

[jp61]

As it's been said many times before on SMF..... don't think I'll be buying store bought bacon anytime soon! All four flavors turned out really good. The OP, GP, BP & Hungarian paprika & the straight BP tied for first place. Second place was the maple syrup & BP and last place went to the honey & cayenne. Tomorrow they will all get vacuum sealed and in the freezer they shell go. I should be set for awhile 

A little taste of the real deal for man's best friend. 

 

[jp61]

Looks great!
~Martin

Now that is a beautiful pile of goodness. Super nice. CF

Thank you for the kind words guys! I appreciate it...

It's been a great learning experience!

 

[jp61]

Want to give a big THANK YOU to DaveOmak for helping me out with the cure mix!

 

[jp61]

All done.... thanks for looking.

 

[charcuterieguy]

Looks awesome!