IM BACK!!!! More Bacon!

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xjcamaro

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
313
13
Western PA
Well ive been in hiding for a while. There have been some "more important" things going on if you ask my wife. But since the last belly i got from my second source ended up not looking so good and gross, i was sort of discouraged, and it turned me off from that butcher. Well after some time away, and really starting to miss some really good bacon, my wife happened to stop by the butcher that i got my first belly from, and they had some! So i told her to grab me one. This butcher has real nice bellies, but doesnt have them all the time. So i got it home and its a really nice belly, nice and thick!

So what i ended up with was a 10lb belly, (cost me $15), I thawed it out, rinsed it off, and cut it into 3 nice slabs. I weighed each peice and measured out 1/2 oz of TQ for each lb. I rubbed each peice down with its measurement of TQ, then rubbed on some brown sugar. I then bagged them up and stuck them in the fridge for 10 days where they will be flipped and rubbed each day. I cant wait! Then i will do a nice long cold smoke. Im going to coat the one slab with coarse black pepper. The last time i made bacon i tried a small peice covered in pepper and it turned out really well.

Here is the Q-view so far!

Nice belly laid out.

1070d8a4_belly.jpg


Side view of the thickness.

c0446b64_belly2.jpg


Cut into three peices.

04e79c27_bellycut.jpg


TQ all measured out for each peice.

62cb053d_TQ.jpg


Rubbed down in the TQ.

8520ca12_incure.jpg


In bags and ready to go!

cae82be4_inbags.jpg


I will have more when i pull it out and get it ready to smoke!

Good to be back playing with my meat!
 
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And i must have been gone a while, it took me a couple tries to get my pictures to come up right!
 
Ok everyone get ready to drool. My 10 days is up so i pulled the slabs out, rinsed them off, and soaked them in ice water for 30 mins, rinsed again, and dried off. I cut two peices off and fried them up. Oh man! It was so good!

So i took one slab and coated it in coarse pepper. The other two i left plain. They are all in the fridge for a stay over night, then its going to be up early to get them in the smoker. Im going to do a long cold smoke with hickory, and throw some cheese in with the bacon cause i will have the room. So here are the pics and there will be more to come after the smoke and after the slicing on monday. Enjoy!

Soaking in ice water.

da92463f_soaking.jpg


Drying for a few minutes

a6844866_drying.jpg


Frying up!

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Tasting.

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Pepper bacon

7f04157b_pepper.jpg
 
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Ok, here you go! I smoked them with hickory for 10 hours with my tin can and soldering iron method. The temps were just a little over 100* due to it being in the 90's here today. The smoke went really well. I had to refill my tin can with chips 3 times so each load lasted a little over 3 hrs. The bacon looks awesome and smell really good.

c8290d5b_after2.jpg


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I will post more when i slice it down tomorrow night,

Here is a link to the cheese i did with the bacon, the higher temps didnt go very well with the cheese but i was able to work with it.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/108945/doin-some-cheese-qview#post_660750
 
That is some outstanding looking Bacon there XJ !!!

You're doing Great work!!!

Thanks for the views!!!

Good to have ya back!!

Bear
 
Thanks everyone. You know everytime I go to slice up a batch of bacon it reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where Cramer and Newman are in jerry's. Apartment making all that meat. Cause my kitchen ends up with bacon and equipment everywhere!
 
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