Cooking and cleaning

[richard cameron]

Spring has arrived in northern California.  It’s time for some yard work and cooking.  The overnight temperature Friday night was 45 degrees.  I fired up my AMNPS, and started to cold smoke a pork belly that had been curing in my refrigerator for 12 days.

Saturday morning, I fired up the smoker and started to hot smoke the pork belly to an IT of 145 degrees.  This is something that I read about doing with pork belly on the forum but had never tried.

Pork Belly.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

While the pork belly was cooking, it was time for some yard work.  Mowing, edging, and weeding were the job at hand.  When the yard work was finished, it was time to take the pork belly out of the smoker.  

Front Yard 1.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

Front Yard 2.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

Front Yard 3.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

.  I let the pork belly rest overnight, and now this morning it’s time to slice it up to make some bacon.  I finally get to enjoy the fruit of my labor.

Bacon 1.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Did you cure the belly, or just smoke it? Without the cure you won't have that bacon flavor. It'll taste like cook pork.

 

[richard cameron]

Did you cure the belly, or just smoke it? Without the cure you won't have that bacon flavor. It'll taste like cook pork.

I cured the belly for 12 days.  What I did different this time was I smoked it to an IT of 145.  I had a couple of slices of bacon for breakfast this morning, and it was the best tasting bacon that I have made so far.

 

[b-one]

That's a lot of stones! Let's see some slices!!

 

[richard cameron]

That's a lot of stones! Let's see some slices!!

It's 8:30 pm Sunday evening.  I finally got a chance to slice up the bacon.  This morning, I had church to go to,there was a concert in West Sacramento that my wife and I attended, back to church for the evening service, and dinner.  Here's the pictures that you wanted.

Bacon 2.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

Bacon 3.jpg

• richard cameron
• Mar 12, 2017

 

[SmokinAl]

It looks good!

What was your cure recipe?

Al

 

[richard cameron]

I put the weight of the pork belly in the cure calculator, and put in the correct amounts of cure #1, kosher salt, and brown sugar.  I forgot to add some black pepper.  After curing the pork belly for 12 days, I cut off one end of the pork belly and added pepper to it before smoking.  This works out nice for me since my wife doesn’t like pepper on her bacon anyhow.

 

[scarps23]

That looks real good.


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[crazymoon]

RC, good looking bacon !