First Time Makin' Bacon w/Qview

[iowa josh83]

Hey all, I've been wanting to do this for a while and since I was off on paternity leave I thought I might as well knock it out. I should state that I did not have access to any pork bellies so I used the fattest part of a butt, I think guys are calling this Buck Board Bacon (not sure on this).

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

I started the cure based on when I thought we would have our baby but that never works out. So the Bacon had a few extra days in the cure, but I don't think it hurt the flavor.

I followed this recipe for my cure ( I used Morton's Sugar Cure, which can be substituted for TenderQuick) : http://onceachef.com/2010/11/23/makin-bacon/

I did back down the brown sugar by just a bit to offset the sugar that is part of the "Sugar Cure".

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

Into the cure for 13days

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

I flipped and massaged the meat in the cure nearly daily. After 13 days I took the meat out and rinsed the excess cure off and placed the meat on a cooling rack in my fridge for 2 days. Then on to the smoker for some cold smoking.

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

The day of smoking it was 20 degrees and about 20-30mph winds so I had to strap down the smoker. The smoker internal never got above 50 degrees, is this too cold for "cold smoking"???

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

10hrs of smoke is all I gave these chunks and after doing some futher reading I think 10 was probably a little shore to give me a good smoke flavor so I'll play with that in the future. These are fresh of the smoker.

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

I wrapped these up and stuck them back in the fridge for 3 days before slicing. Here's the finished product. Fried up some and its darn good. Wife says we won't be buying bacon anytime soon!!

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• iowa josh83
• Mar 25, 2013

I'll take any comments or suggestions you guys have. Thanks!

 

[got grits]

It look nice. Did you cook some up yet?

 

[iowa josh83]

Yep cooked some up this last weekend. Wife loves it. I mentioned slicing some up and giving it to her uncle and she said "I don't really want to share any of that!" LOL
 

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks Beautiful, and yes it is hard to share your first batch. Make some more for wife's Uncle!!

You're right, 10 hours is a little short for a cold smoke. I would recommend 20 hours or more of cold smoke, or 10 hours of warm smoke (between 110 and 140 smoker temp).

You're hooked now!! You'll never go back to store bought Bacon!!

Bear

 

[fpnmf]

Looks great!!

  Craig

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Great looking Bacon. You asked if 50* is too cold for smoking bacon, nope! I ran some this winter when it was 17* and the smoke chamber didn't get above 40*.  I cold smoke all my bacon over several days, applying 6-8 hours of smoke then an overnight rest in the fridge before smoking again. 18-24 hours total smoke.  I let it rest 3-4 days in the fridge then slice and package.