How to slice this bacon

[herkysprings]

Hey all, First off I'll post the finished pics as soon as I get home. I havent uploaded them yet. Anyway I cured some bellies, and smoked them yesterday sooo... now I would like to eat my bacon! But I dont know which way to slice them. Any hints? Here is one of the bellies I had pre cure. Is it across the grain? With it? The grain is kinda diagonal to the "Square"

Thanks for the help!

 

[alblancher]

I have never worried about the grain.  Most bellies have more fat on one end then the other and I would prefer to not have slices that are all fat or all meat so I cut the bacon such that I get the best distribution of fat and lean.  Normally this is verticle as the belly hangs on the pig. 

 

[wiredbob]

Slice across the grain.  That is up to down as pictured. Always across the grain unless you are slicing jerky.

 

[eman]

I have never worried about the grain.  Most bellies have more fat on one end then the other and I would prefer to not have slices that are all fat or all meat so I cut the bacon such that I get the best distribution of fat and lean.  Normally this is verticle as the belly hangs on the pig. 
 

 The last bellies i smoked were halved b4 smoking (not trimmed).

After smoking and resting i quartered each half and removed the rind.

Then went to the thickest edge and started slicing. Something as soft as bacon really doesn't matter about grain .I sliced till i was left w/ the narrow edge that was to thin for sliced bacon . Cube this up for seasoning beans or greens or cabbage .etc . I do all my slicing w/ an electric knife..

 

[DanMcG]

Like mentioned above I slice top to bottom as it's pictured. I also like to let it dry out , or "age" for a week or so to firm it up and add to the flavor concentration. and it also help to semi freeze it before slicing to add in the cutting. I'll be looking forward to some more pic's!

 

[herkysprings]

Thanks for the tips all!

Here are some Final pics. I made Bearcarvers recipe and the one from the Kutas book. I had to leave the Kutas one in the cure an extra 5 days, and it came out a bit saltier than I would have liked. No problem I can find a lot of uses for that.

Bearcarvers bacon recipe was great, I added Cayenne to it for some heat. Next time I'll add more cayenne or something, spicy sweet bacon was great!

 

[pit 4 brains]

Great lookin bacon! I just picked up a 10.5 lb belly today and was sniffing around for some tips and thanxs to you i found one! I too was looking at Ryteks recipe and i thought it seemed a little heavy on the salt. I'll be looking at Bear's recipe now before I begin my cure. Good lookin stuff once again.

 

[Bearcarver]

Herky,

All of your Bacon looks Great !!!

Glad mine worked good for you!

Slicing

This is only me, but this is my opinion of directional slicing of Bacon:

I usually cut my slab into about 6 pieces to make it easier to handle in all of my steps.

Then when it comes to slicing, I cut it whichever way it looks the nicest, because I have sliced it in every direction in the past, and I don't see a difference.

That being said, Might as well make it look nice.

Bear

 

[herkysprings]

Great lookin bacon! I just picked up a 10.5 lb belly today and was sniffing around for some tips and thanxs to you i found one! I too was looking at Ryteks recipe and i thought it seemed a little heavy on the salt. I'll be looking at Bear's recipe now before I begin my cure. Good lookin stuff once again.

Yeah Bear's recipe was pretty much dead on excellent! It's also pretty basic so you can add things like cayenne etc. Kutas one was a pain to store, as all that honey isnt easy to apply or to wrap up. It wasnt bad tho, I might cut down on the salt next time if I did it again, but with Bear's recipe I'd just use that!.

I might use the Kutas bacon for some chocolate covered bacon strips tho. I think it would work great for that.

 

[mballi3011]

Now I have been doing alot of bacon specially here lately. ODD the wife calls it. I have been doing 12-14lb bellies and when it comes to slicing (I just have a small 6" blade slicer) i put the bellie in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so. Then take it out a fold it top over bottom and then slice it that way. It works great for me but sometimes you have to un-fold the slices to get them to lay flat bu they do.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/104040/bacon-sushi-with-q  

 

[SmokinAl]

Bear it sounds like you are the bacon guru. I guess I'm gonna have to make some Bear bacon too!

 

[Bearcarver]

Bear it sounds like you are the bacon guru. I guess I'm gonna have to make some Bear bacon too!

LOL---I don't think I ever had "Bad Bacon"!

I used to say that about Prime Rib, until I got one from a restaurant up at Lake Wallenpaupack---Yuck!

Even the store bought Bacon is good, if that's all you got!

If you do follow my step by step, let me know how it comes out,

Bear

Bear