First Timer Bacon Help

[flareman]

Alright, I'm sorry I'm being lazy and not doing my research, but I am in the middle of a 36 hour call at the hospital (I wonder how my patient's would feel about me looking up ways to make bacon....). I have 8lbs of pork belly in the freezer at home and I want to make it into delicious bacon. I have not cured meat previously.

I want a maple theme for this project (I have maple pellets for my AMNPS) and would like the cure to be on the sweeter side.

Need advice on:

1)Dry rub vs brine
2)Type of cure (Cure #1, TQ, etc)
3) ideal length of cure (so far I've seen 7 days per inch thickness)
4) length of smoke (was planning 12 hours)
5)Amount of additional ingredients on top of cure (plan on following directions for amount of meat and cure used)

Any advice/help would be useful. I plan on doing more research and reading later, but right now my time is extremely limited and I want to do this safely. Thanks everyone!

Jeremy

 

[rstr hunter]

I've done belly bacon using the dry cure method and canadian bacon using both the dry cure method and brining.  I thought the canadian bacon with the brine turned out better than the dry cure method, but it's a personal preference thing.  As such I'm going to make my next belly bacon with brine.  I used Pops brine recipe which was great and just took some brown sugar, white pepper, salt, and dry mustard as a rub before smoking.  But I cooked my canadian bacon all the way to 145.  On my belly bacon I'll likely use less rub as I want to cold smoke it maybe as long as 18 hrs using apple wood, knowing I'll have to cook it through before I cook it.  You can hot smoke this as well by cooking it to 145, but you have to be careful not to get it too hot and render the fat out. 

 

[chef jimmyj]

Jeremy, since this is your first Bacon and you are a busy man, I would suggest Pops Brine as it is very forgiving, if something comes up, on call, etc, a few extra days soak won't hurt and it requires no fuss, no turning ,no refreshing, just mix, add meat and wait. You can add Maple Sugar or Syrup, instead of the Sugars, will be expensive, or add Maple Extract (all natural available online) Then Soak/Rub 100% real maple syrup for a day or two before you Smoke it. Either way understand that the sweet, high sugar, Bacon will Burn before it ever gets Crisp like the store bought stuff that is low sugar and probably injected with imitation maple flavor. You will need to cook it low and slow to desired doneness. 

I like to smoke Bacon ten hours, 1 load of my AMNPS, at between 40 and 80*F. Other's go more, some less.

Cracked, lighty toasted Fenugreek Seeds are used to make imitation maple extract, I would imagine a TBS or 2 in the brine would be good. Good Luck...JJ

Here is a link... http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine

 

[flareman]

Thanks for the replies. I think I am going to try Pop's recipe as you suggest for my first attempt. I'll let you know how it turns out!