Makin' bacon part deux

[will work 4 bbq]

So i found a nice 8.27 lb belly at costco for 25$ couldn't pass that up! Decided to make maple bacon. I cut it in half and cured it for 14 days. My cure was just brown sugar , kosher salt , pink salt and burbon barrel maple syrup. On one half i also added some cayenne. I decided to do a little testing to see what would be more mapley. So the half with cayenne i cut in half again and on one i brushed maple and coverd with CBP before the pellicle, the other half i brushed maple right before the smoke. Smoke for 4 hrs using mesquite and apple wood , looks pretty darn tasty to me.

 

[tritowner]

nice!

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks fantastic!
Al

 

[rob g]

How does the bacon brushed with maple syrup cook up? Do you get the sugars burning when you fry it? Do the maple flavors come thru? I've not had any luck getting the maple flavors into the bacon.

 

[will work 4 bbq]

How does the bacon brushed with maple syrup cook up? Do you get the sugars burning when you fry it? Do the maple flavors come thru? I've not had any luck getting the maple flavors into the bacon.

I have not had a chance to slice it or try it yet. I will tomorrow and let you know.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Curious on the maple as well. I'll be trying my maple buckboard soon <Gonna use the batch for baked beans> and I added some maple extract stuff and injected it..would rather not have to do that if natural maple syrup will work.

 

[Saline_Smoker]

How does the bacon brushed with maple syrup cook up? Do you get the sugars burning when you fry it? Do the maple flavors come thru? I've not had any luck getting the maple flavors into the bacon.

Curious on the maple as well. I'll be trying my maple buckboard soon <Gonna use the batch for baked beans> and I added some maple extract stuff and injected it..would rather not have to do that if natural maple syrup will work.

If you're having issues with getting the maple flavor/sweetness into your bacons (or any full muscle cures for that matter), I've had very good success by lengthening the cure times, a trick I picked up from Todd Nuttall aka The Charcuterie Project. By his research, sugar molecules take far longer to penetrate meat than salt ions, especially if you're using complex sugars like maple syrup or brown sugar rather than a simple sugar like pure dextrose.

Anyway, as is likely already obvious, since you're upping your cure time, this means having to do an equilibrium cure instead of a brine cure or salt bin. To compound on that, I always feel like an equilibrium cure in a vacuum sealed bag helps even further by keeping everything in constant direct contact with the meat.

For a ~2" thick, ~2lb belly or buckboard cut, I'll let them cure for two weeks - about double the cure time typically stated for an equilibrium cure for cut that size. I use 2.5% maple syrup by weight and drizzle it into the 'cure bag' after rubbing the salt (2.25%) cure #1 (.25%) and black pepper (1%) into the belly, seal it up, and let 'em sit extra long - but of course, to each their own when it comes to their favorite recipe.

 

[will work 4 bbq]

So i finally got a chance to slice up the bacon and fry some up. I didn't really notice any real presence of maple flavor on any of the bacons :confused:. When i fried the ones brushed after the curing process I did get the edges burning, so I tried some in the oven and it cooked alot better.