first try curing - buckboard bacon

[gnatboy911]

Well, I can't get pork belly where I live for a semi reasonable price, so I decided to grab a pork blade roast and cure it.  I read about buckboard bacon so thats what I'm going for.

I removed the bone and was left with a thinner part, with the a fat cap on, and a thicker chunk.

I followed the amounts based on diggindog's calculator for each piece.

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• gnatboy911
• Jan 18, 2017

I measured out the cure, salt and sugar (used brown sugar) and placed them in vacuum seal bags.  Labeled, then into the fridge.  I'll flip and mess with them each day.  

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• gnatboy911
• Jan 18, 2017

The thinner piece is about 2 inches, and the thicker piece just under 4 inches.

I read on here that its about 1 day per half inch, plus 2 more days.  That means I'll need at least 6 days for the thinner piece, and 10 days for the thicker one.

If I leave the thinner one in there as long as the thicker one, will it 'over cure'? is that possible?

After the curing time I plan on rinsing, then into the fridge for a couple days to dry and form the pellicle.  Then a cold smoke (exact smoking/resting times yet to be determined)

Thoughts guys?

thanks for the input.

 

[atomicsmoke]

You used the default ppm value (156), didn't you?

It will not overcure, I do it all the time so I can have all going into the smoker at the same time.

Your plan is textbook. Should give you perfect bacon.

Only one suggestion: fry a small piece after rinsing. I find 2% too salty for my taste. You might not, but if you do you can soak the meat for a while.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Yep you're good to go. Buckboard is one of our favorites but belly has been less expensive here...

I use DD calculator also and have found that the 2% is fine for us. As Atomic mentioned a fry test is a good option. Don't use an end piece fornthenfry test takes cut from the center.

Only thing I do ambit different then your plan is I age the meat 5 days in the fridge prior to smoking. After smoking I age it another 5 days.

What's your plan for smoke? Cold, hot? All at once or over several days? What type of wood?

 

[gnatboy911]

You used the default ppm value (156), didn't you?

It will not overcure, I do it all the time so I can have all going into the smoker at the same time.

Your plan is textbook. Should give you perfect bacon.

Only one suggestion: fry a small piece after rinsing. I find 2% too salty for my taste. You might not, but if you do you can soak the meat for a while.

Yes, Atomic, I left the value at the 156 ppm.  Thanks for the suggestions and info.

Yep you're good to go. Buckboard is one of our favorites but belly has been less expensive here...

I use DD calculator also and have found that the 2% is fine for us. As Atomic mentioned a fry test is a good option. Don't use an end piece fornthenfry test takes cut from the center.

Only thing I do ambit different then your plan is I age the meat 5 days in the fridge prior to smoking. After smoking I age it another 5 days.

What's your plan for smoke? Cold, hot? All at once or over several days? What type of wood?

Thanks Dirtsailor, I wasn't sure how long to age it in the fridge.  I may go more than just one day on both ends of the smoke.  I also have read on here that guys will smoke for 5 to 6 hrs, rest a day, smoke again, then age in the fridge.  I was more leaning towards doing a couple short smokes rather than one really long one, but wasn't sure.

I will cold smoke in my reverse flow cabinet smoker I built.  You can see the picture of it in my avatar and galleries.  I just bought (came in two days ago!) an A-Maze-N tube smoker so I plan on using that.  I was going to go with the pitmaster choice pellets for this first one.  It seems to be a highly regarded blend by the guys on here.

Thanks again for the tips and info, I'll update this thread with my progress.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks like a great start!

I haven't made BBB in quite a while.

The price for bellies & butts is about the same around here, so we have just been making belly bacon lately.

Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out!

Al

 

[gnatboy911]

I did just today finally find a close source for pork belly. I work part time at a restaurant and the owner can get it for me through his meat supplier. 3.34 a pound. Same as the Costco, which is an hour away. The pork butt was 1.79 a pound.


So I've got 20lbs of pork belly on the way....the wife is going to love having the fridge full of bags of curing meat. Haha.

 

[atomicsmoke]

I did just today finally find a close source for pork belly. I work part time at a restaurant and the owner can get it for me through his meat supplier. 3.34 a pound. Same as the Costco, which is an hour away. The pork butt was 1.79 a pound.


So I've got 20lbs of pork belly on the way....the wife is going to love having the fridge full of bags of curing meat. Haha.

Here comes the 2nd fridge.

 

[gnatboy911]

Haha that could be a possibility.

 

[mneeley490]

If you find a pork butt with a good fat cap on top, you can slice about 2" under the top and have a good approximation of belly. Then cure the rest of the butt as BBB.

I did this when belly was expensive here.

 

[gnatboy911]

Thanks Mneeley, that's what I sorta tried to do with the thinner piece when I took the bone out. It kinda worked.

 

[gnatboy911]

Well it's been dry curing in a vacuum sealed bag since the 18th. Now for a couple days in the fridge...

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• gnatboy911
• Jan 30, 2017

@atomicsmoke you were right...We're on the hunt for a 2nd fridge for my "meat experiments" as the wife says...

Did a test fry of some scraps that came from around the bone. I tried several times to upload a picture from my phone but it wouldn't work. The picture above worked though. Not sure why.

Tasted good. Little bit sweet, little salty. Sorta like super tender ham. I imagine it's only going to get better with age and smoke. Planning on doing what I saw Dirtsailor posted on another thread... 5 days in the fridge, cold smoke, then 5 more.

The process continues....

 

[mosparky]

Newbie question here... I thought I read that if the meat was over 2 inches thick it needed to be injected. Is that not the case for dry cure ?

 

[gnatboy911]

From what I've read, and seen on this site, with a dry cure it is simply more time that allows the cure to penetrate all the way through. I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in.

 

[wade]

Injecting is usually required for large joints and especially bone-in joints. For things like pork loin (back bacon) which is often 2"+ thick it is fine to only apply the rub to the outside. If you decide to inject then that is fine too but it will not be dry cure bacon. For the thicker bacon I leave mine curing for 10-14 days - usually 10. Within reason you cannot over cure timewise and mine has always been cured to the centre within 10 days.

 

[mosparky]

So, in boneless cuts, is the injection mostly required for brine cure where the the cure is in solution/dilution ?

 

[wade]

Yes. Typically you will make the injection brine 10 times stronger than a standard equilibrium brine and effectively inject 10% the weight of the meat/brine into the meat.*

If you are using a boned cut and are wanting to use only the dry cure then cut any binding string and open it out. Providing the thickest part of the meat is not much more than about 3", you can rub the dry cure into both the outside of the meat and the internal cut surfaces. You can then rebind it. For a joint like this though I would usually inject.

*This illustrates a general principle and is not meant to be a precise method description.

 

[mdgirlinfl]

If you are still looking for a second fridge try letgo or OfferUp. I found several great deals there and settled on one that was very close has a bottom freezer and only $50. Also bought a chest freezer and still could use more space. Lol

 

[ab canuck]

That's a good idea, Show pics when done. I am interested in this as well. Thx.

 

[gnatboy911]

If you are still looking for a second fridge try letgo or OfferUp. I found several great deals there and settled on one that was very close has a bottom freezer and only $50. Also bought a chest freezer and still could use more space. Lol

Found one!  There wasn't anything on either website you suggested...I live in a fairly rural area.  However, I posted something on our school district classified ads that I was looking for one and a guy emailed and said he has one that I can have for free.

 

[gnatboy911]

The meat sat in the fridge for 3 and a half days. Pulled it out this morning to bring it up in temperature before going in the smoker.

I used a weed burner to warm up the steel of the cook chamber to make sure it would draft. Temp was about 70 in there. Air temp was about 50.

Getting the pellets started. First time using the tube and pellets. I'm using the pitmaster's blend. It was highly recommended on many different threads. It smells great.

Meat went in today at 1:15pm

I'm running the vents wide open to make sure I get plenty of air flow.

My pellets didn't last near as long as I'd expected them to. I happened to open the fire box at a little after 4 just to see how much was gone and it was almost completely burned. So only about 3 hrs on a full load in the compressed position (I bought the expandable tube). I guess I thought it would last longer than that. I'm at high altitude so that is why I bought the tube. The company recommended the tube at higher altitudes.

Since the coal was all the was at the bottom, I pulled it out and refilled it, extended the tube some, and shook it slightly so I had a thinner layer. Thought maybe the ember wouldn't get so big and it might burn slower.

I also had the thought that since my vents were wide open and the burning end was facing the vents, that caused it to burn quicker. Not sure though.

It's 6:35 now. I'm going to go out and see how much of the pellets are left.