First Attempt At Bacon

[GaryHibbert]

Gary, I saw the carousel and said to myself: "Damn, now that's some text book bacon"

Looks delicious, I need to make some now!

Don't let any of those roughnecks get a wiff of that, you might be in trouble.

Great job!

Thanks John.
I don't need to let anyone know about the bacon. Out of the entire 1/2 belly, I only ended up with 1 1/2 pounds of bacon for myself--and we already ate 1 pound of it. Time to start another batch.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Hey Gary, It's been a busy go, I have been hearing it will pick up for most on Jan. 2019 supposedly will be busy. Election yr I guess.

Glad to hear you had a good summer, Charlie. Hopefully at election time we can get the "other guys" back in power. Then the patch should really pick up.
I'm heading up to Mayerthorpe in a week to start hauling logs for the winter.
Gary

 

[ab canuck]

Drive Safe Gary, Who knows what this winter will have in store for us if it is anything like this fall / summer was.

 

[nanuk]

BTW, what's thermo-water??
Gary

I have done what BearCarver said to do to get an accurate measurement of a refer temp

take a bottle of water, and insert a thermo probe into the center of it, and it will tell you very accurately what the temp is at that location.
for want of a better word.... Thermometer in water contracted to "Thermo-Water"

 

[nanuk]

Thanks John.
I don't need to let anyone know about the bacon. Out of the entire 1/2 belly, I only ended up with 1 1/2 pounds of bacon for myself--and we already ate 1 pound of it. Time to start another batch.
Gary

Time to start another batch of pigs?

 

[tallbm]

Wow nice! You can't beat homemade bacon!
Once you want to try something a little different let me know and I'll tell you about "bacon cold cuts". Pretty much the same idea but you walk the IT of the bacon slabs up to 145F. You slice and then you can fry like regular bacon or eat right out of the package like a cold cut :D

 

[browneyesvictim]

Congratulations Gary! That looks simply exceptional to me. And the thickness of those slabs are incredible!

 

[SonnyE]

Holy Moly!
That looks wonderful, Gary!
Must be the fall weather, I'm getting all geared up for bacon here.
Including Vermont Maple Sugar.
I'm rolling the dice on convincing the wife I can be Makin Bacon.
I'll be starting out small. Just a couple of slabs, I think.
Unless I go crazy at the meat counter (I usually do...) :D

 

[Bearcarver]

OK Gary!!
Now you gotta make some of this!!
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/“bbbb”—bear’s-buckboard-bacon-pic-heavy.281107/

Bear

 

[GaryHibbert]

Gary, this is nice looking bacon! I am sure it tastes exactly how it looks. I just wondering: were you keeping 100F temp for 11 hours, until you finished smoking?

Thanks pushok, and thanks for the Point.
Sorry I took so long to answer your question--just realized that my reply to you didn't post.
Yep, I just set my PID at 100F and left the temp there throughout the entire smoke.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Wow nice! You can't beat homemade bacon!
Once you want to try something a little different let me know and I'll tell you about "bacon cold cuts". Pretty much the same idea but you walk the IT of the bacon slabs up to 145F. You slice and then you can fry like regular bacon or eat right out of the package like a cold cut :D

Thanks tallbm, and thanks for the Point.
My next batch of bacon is going to be half regular and half Black Forest Bacon. After that I'll give you a shout and we can talk about bacon cold cuts.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Congratulations Gary! That looks simply exceptional to me. And the thickness of those slabs are incredible!

Thanks BrownEV, and thanks for the Point.
As soon as I saw those bellies after they came back from the butcher, I knew exactly what their future involved.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

OK Gary!!
Now you gotta make some of this!!
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/“bbbb”—bear’s-buckboard-bacon-pic-heavy.281107/

Bear

Funny you should mention that John. I literally just came from your post before coming here. I left you a question about BBBB, so I'll keep an eye on your post for the answer.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Holy Moly!
That looks wonderful, Gary!
Must be the fall weather, I'm getting all geared up for bacon here.
Including Vermont Maple Sugar.
I'm rolling the dice on convincing the wife I can be Makin Bacon.
I'll be starting out small. Just a couple of slabs, I think.
Unless I go crazy at the meat counter (I usually do...) :D

Thanks Sonny. It tastes just great.
Tell your wife that if I can make great bacon, so can you. I just followed Bearcarver's Step by Step (except I cold smoked mine). If you follow that, then you can add any flavor to it you want.
Gary

 

[nanuk]

So if the USDA says to not use Cure#2 on bacon, is it really appropriate to use TQ on a bacon product?

 

[Rings Я Us]

Very, very nice! I'm going to copy you this time. :D Did Al's recipe last. Good stuff!

 

[browneyesvictim]

Oh boy... here we go again... :rolleyes:

Actually, that is a very good question nanuk. This was just discussed not too long ago here:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/cure-question.280045/

 

[nanuk]

Thanks for the Link BEV.

 

[GaryHibbert]

So if the USDA says to not use Cure#2 on bacon, is it really appropriate to use TQ on a bacon product?

I'm definitely not qualified to answer that question, but B.E.V. has you covered.
Gary

 

[GaryHibbert]

Very, very nice! I'm going to copy you this time. :D Did Al's recipe last. Good stuff!

Thanks Johnny, and thanks for the Point.
Good to hear from you. I was starting to wonder if you had fallen off the planet.
Gary