I recently had success making my own bacon, so this time I got a little more daring. I've enjoyed jerked food ever since my trip to Jamaica, so I tried to make jerk-flavored bacon. I used half of a slab from my butcher and used the online cure calculator to start things off.
The belly was 1176 grams (I tared the weight of the plate so that it didn't figure into the reading).
I plugged this into the calculator and started measuring out the cure rub.
As an opening bid I used an equal amount of jerk rub and salt. I took some advice from here and have started keeping a bacon-making journal, so I could remember later if this was a good idea or not.
For easy clean up, I put down a layer of saran wrap.
The cure went on the first side.
Then I used the saran wrap to cleanly flip the belly over and finished sprinkling on the rub on the other side.
Then I wrapped up everything, and then put on a second layer of plastic wrap. See? No mess!
Here is the belly after 10 days of curing.
I rinsed this off, and patted it dry.
It was then set in the fridge with my other belly that I made for pellicle formation.
It was then cold-smoked for 12 hours.
Slicing it up! I made half-pound piles for vacuum saving later.
Here's a closeup of the slices...you can see a nice flavor ring on the edges.
Bagged and tagged! My other bacon (Honey Bacon) is also in the picture.
Quick overview of specs:
Smoker: MES40 with AMNPS
Wood: Pitmaster's Choice
Temperature: 75 to 90 (had to use 3 large containers of ice made from half-gallon milk jugs to keep it under 90)
Duration: 12 hours
Final thoughts: It needs to mellow a bit, but I did a fry test right away and was pleased. I really dig the flavor, but it certainly is on the "savory" side of the flavor spectrum. My wife prefers the sweeter bacon, which is why I also made the honey bacon (about to write up that post now). I think I would like to try a second application of the jerk rub after rinsing off the cure rub. It's worth making again!
The belly was 1176 grams (I tared the weight of the plate so that it didn't figure into the reading).
I plugged this into the calculator and started measuring out the cure rub.
As an opening bid I used an equal amount of jerk rub and salt. I took some advice from here and have started keeping a bacon-making journal, so I could remember later if this was a good idea or not.
For easy clean up, I put down a layer of saran wrap.
The cure went on the first side.
Then I used the saran wrap to cleanly flip the belly over and finished sprinkling on the rub on the other side.
Then I wrapped up everything, and then put on a second layer of plastic wrap. See? No mess!
Here is the belly after 10 days of curing.
I rinsed this off, and patted it dry.
It was then set in the fridge with my other belly that I made for pellicle formation.
It was then cold-smoked for 12 hours.
Slicing it up! I made half-pound piles for vacuum saving later.
Here's a closeup of the slices...you can see a nice flavor ring on the edges.
Bagged and tagged! My other bacon (Honey Bacon) is also in the picture.
Quick overview of specs:
Smoker: MES40 with AMNPS
Wood: Pitmaster's Choice
Temperature: 75 to 90 (had to use 3 large containers of ice made from half-gallon milk jugs to keep it under 90)
Duration: 12 hours
Final thoughts: It needs to mellow a bit, but I did a fry test right away and was pleased. I really dig the flavor, but it certainly is on the "savory" side of the flavor spectrum. My wife prefers the sweeter bacon, which is why I also made the honey bacon (about to write up that post now). I think I would like to try a second application of the jerk rub after rinsing off the cure rub. It's worth making again!
