I have been off the forums for a while and have missed them. I am trying to get back in the swing.
I was going to visit my brother and niece in Edmonton and a tradition of me taking bacon with me is now in full force. My brother seems to like a bit more smoke flavour so I double smoked some for him and made a video of the smoke for my food blog.
I started by skinning and boning a 2 kg, five pound pork shoulder. I cut it into 2 one kg (2 pound) slabs.
I used my normal basic curing rub, for each 1 kg of pork:
I let it cure in the fridge for 11 days, turning every day. I opened it and rinsed it under cold water. Then I soaked it in cold water for an hour changing the water twice.
I put the bacon on the rack and patted it dry with paper towel. I put it in the fridge, uncovered over night to dry off and develop pellicle.
I fired up my A-Maze-N tube smoker but didn't turn the smoker on. I put the bacon in the smoker and smoked until the tube burnt out, about 4 1/2 hours.
I took the bacon in and put it in the fridge overnight to let the flavour set. I fired the smoker up to 180 F and cooked the bacon to an internal temperature of 140 F. I let it cool in the fridge overnight and then sliced it up.
Subsequent to the initial posting, Bearcarver noted that he cooks to 145 as that is the safe temperature for eating it uncooked. Here in frozen Canada, we consider 155 F the safe temperature for cooked pork. I smoke to between 130 and 140 to make my bacon easy to slice. It is not meant to be eaten uncooked, you have to fry it.
A couple of slice were cooked up to taste.
This turns out great. There is a nice deep smoke taste with no ashtray overtones. I go to the low end of salt but it still has a great cure taste with a sweet hit from the brown sugar. It doesn't hurt that pork shoulders are often on sale and it makes a great bacon for not a lot of money!
Here is the video if you want to take a look.
Disco
I was going to visit my brother and niece in Edmonton and a tradition of me taking bacon with me is now in full force. My brother seems to like a bit more smoke flavour so I double smoked some for him and made a video of the smoke for my food blog.
I started by skinning and boning a 2 kg, five pound pork shoulder. I cut it into 2 one kg (2 pound) slabs.
I used my normal basic curing rub, for each 1 kg of pork:
- 3 grams-2 ml Prague powder #1
- 25 ml brown sugar
- 15 ml kosher salt
- 0.05 ounces-1/5 teaspoon
- 2 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
I let it cure in the fridge for 11 days, turning every day. I opened it and rinsed it under cold water. Then I soaked it in cold water for an hour changing the water twice.
I put the bacon on the rack and patted it dry with paper towel. I put it in the fridge, uncovered over night to dry off and develop pellicle.
I fired up my A-Maze-N tube smoker but didn't turn the smoker on. I put the bacon in the smoker and smoked until the tube burnt out, about 4 1/2 hours.
I took the bacon in and put it in the fridge overnight to let the flavour set. I fired the smoker up to 180 F and cooked the bacon to an internal temperature of 140 F. I let it cool in the fridge overnight and then sliced it up.
Subsequent to the initial posting, Bearcarver noted that he cooks to 145 as that is the safe temperature for eating it uncooked. Here in frozen Canada, we consider 155 F the safe temperature for cooked pork. I smoke to between 130 and 140 to make my bacon easy to slice. It is not meant to be eaten uncooked, you have to fry it.
A couple of slice were cooked up to taste.
This turns out great. There is a nice deep smoke taste with no ashtray overtones. I go to the low end of salt but it still has a great cure taste with a sweet hit from the brown sugar. It doesn't hurt that pork shoulders are often on sale and it makes a great bacon for not a lot of money!
Here is the video if you want to take a look.
Disco
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