Costco bellies.... THANKS for the lead on that..... Dry brined bacon Aug. 2015... 8/23 money update

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Looking good Dave. I smoked my Costco belly last night. Cold smoked for 2.5 hours (65F ambient) in GOSM with hickory and cherry, then at 180-190 until 145 IT.




Looks awesome..... I'm gonna try and cold smoke my bellies around or below 70 deg. F... That will be touch and go....
 
>Looks awesome..... I'm gonna try and cold smoke my bellies

>around or below 70 deg. F... That will be touch and go....

Dave, do you do just a long cold smoke, or do you also hot/warm smoke?
 
>Looks awesome..... I'm gonna try and cold smoke my bellies
>around or below 70 deg. F... That will be touch and go....

Dave, do you do just a long cold smoke, or do you also hot/warm smoke?


I've tried warm smoking them... don't care for the texture.... sooooo, I cold smoke for up to 12 hours.... depends... Bride likes a small amount of smoke flavor that won't interfere or mask the pig flavor... sometime I just ignore her requests... :head-wall: ... stupid....

Cold smoked belly slabs is what I grew up eating.... slice your own... marvelous stuff...

Below is a link to cold smoking....

http://www.meatsandsausages.com/meat-smoking/cold-smoking
 
Thanks Dave. Think I'll try a 12 hour cold smoke next time and see how it compares.
 
Last edited:
I just use Morton tender quick, brown sugar, black pepper corns. Dry cure for ten days. Originally used pink salt and had trouble keeping the salt levels equal from the thick side to the thin side of my bellies. Found that with this homemade bacon, it needs to be cooked a little slower had a tenancy to burn easily. Just new to the site, love it already!
 
I just use Morton tender quick, brown sugar, black pepper corns. Dry cure for ten days. Originally used pink salt and had trouble keeping the salt levels equal from the thick side to the thin side of my bellies. Found that with this homemade bacon, it needs to be cooked a little slower had a tenancy to burn easily. Just new to the site, love it already!


Sugar will burn for sure... If you leave the bacon curing for 12-15 days, the cure, salt, sugar and stuff will equilibrate so you have no problems.... FWIW, the USDA does not allow nitrate in bacon... TQ has nitrate in it.... :dunno
 
Last edited:
I was gonna smoke the bacon today BUT.... dust storms are a blowing now..... fires are growing... maybe tomorrow....
 
I was gonna smoke the bacon today BUT.... dust storms are a blowing now..... fires are growing... maybe tomorrow....
Yikes, not again.

Thunderstorms and rain on this side of the mountains today. No good for smoking, either.
 
Bellies are in the warm smoker so they will warm up to about70 degrees F... they were just removed from the refer.... They need to warm to stop condensate from forming on them... condensate and smoke taste acrid... acid rain...

Full flow air through the smoker to evaporate any moisture.... Bellies trimmed and laying on Todd's Q-Matz... those matz are soo handy....







Pellets were dried at 275 ish for 1.5 hours... they sure light easy... 100% hickory from Todd at Amazing Products...

Nice thin blue smoke... should be about 6 hours worth...








Since Bride likes "light" smoke flavor... this stuff will be done in the AM.... refered for a day or 2... lightly frozen and
sliced......


Thanks for looking..... Dave
 
.......FLASH.......



The bacon cooled off the smoker to 59 degrees..... That caused a cold dam and the air in the smoker started flowing out of the MB mod.... that's no good....... had to turn the heat on to get the smoke flowing the correct way and to warm up the bacon....

Meat needs to be above ambient air temps and so does the smoker for cold smoking to work.....


I knew that....... just screwed up today.... Oh well..... saved it.....
 
Last edited:
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky