Made 1st batch of bacon - about 10 lbs worth...following Bearcarvers recipe fairly closely - although I think I went lighter on the onion powder/garlic powder and pepper prior to smoking... wanted more of the slight sweet and smoky flavors. I did add a bit of maple syrup after several days. Cured them in 3-4 lb sections for 8 days, followed remainder of directions closely and cold smoked the following day for a full load on the 6x8 amns - got a good 12 hours out of it (packed it down just slightly)... Had to stick a floodlight in the bottom of my smoker as the temps were around freezing - that kept it about 60-65 degrees. Smelled super smokey - especially cooking, but taste was very mild (used hickory)... what you smell and what you taste were worlds apart (thank God!). Took me a good 9 pounds wrestling with my slicer (and manually slicing about 5lbs with a knife) before I finally had to resolve myself to not being able to slice bacon that's only been frozen for 2 to 3 hours. Froze it over night and bang! Sliced it up with zero problems. So for my future bacon slicing...I'm folding the belly in half (was about 7 or so inches wide) freezing it solid and slicing it up.
Now taste... lovely! Did try the 2nd small batch in the microwave - nah... definitely worth getting the cast iron pan out for. Got 10 more pounds of belly in the freezer which I'll do up very soon...and likely will follow the same recipe but maybe up the pepper and onion a tad..and maybe add a bit more brown sugar (don't think the maple syrup added anything worthy of repeating). All in all a very positive experience and look forward to trying a few others recipes before venturing out on my own.
After I get something that actually looks less embarrassing when sliced I'll post some pics on the forum along with my beginning experiences.
Now taste... lovely! Did try the 2nd small batch in the microwave - nah... definitely worth getting the cast iron pan out for. Got 10 more pounds of belly in the freezer which I'll do up very soon...and likely will follow the same recipe but maybe up the pepper and onion a tad..and maybe add a bit more brown sugar (don't think the maple syrup added anything worthy of repeating). All in all a very positive experience and look forward to trying a few others recipes before venturing out on my own.
After I get something that actually looks less embarrassing when sliced I'll post some pics on the forum along with my beginning experiences.