This is my first attempt at smoking bacon. My husband and I did not like the bacon we got back from the smokehouse our butcher uses, so my husband said WE will take the belly home and make our own bacon. (He used the WE loosely). Well, I found this thread, studied up and decided to use the dry cure on our bacon.
I rubbed TQ into the meat and let it cure for 3 days in the fridge. Then I soaked the meat for 2 hours, changing water every 1/2 hour so it would not be too salty.
Yesterday, I fired up the smoker, using a hot plate to heat wood in a large tin can. After the smoker reached 140 degrees, I removed the hot plate and just kept feeding the wood into the can as needed. Smoked the bacon for 10 hrs at 140 degrees, 2 slabs were black pepper crusted at my husband's request and all 5 slabs were basted with 100% pure maple syrup. When it was finished, I removed the meat, wrapped in plastic wrap and put in fridge till morning.
This morning we had the best tasting bacon ever. Not salty, the pepper crust was perfect.
Smoking took some time and I wish I could say I did not make any mistakes, but that would not be true. I took a nap in the afternoon and let the fire go out (don't know for how long, but not for more than an hour) and had to start it up again. After that I was checking constantly and feeding wet wood into the can. Kept an eye out for flare ups and kept a misting bottle nearby to put them out.
This is my first bacon and all in all it went very well. My husband split the cherry and oak for me to smoke with. I have found some downed maple on our property and will try smoking some meats with that and some downed grapevine.
I am using a New Braunfels horizontal smoker.
Here is a QView of my bacon.
I rubbed TQ into the meat and let it cure for 3 days in the fridge. Then I soaked the meat for 2 hours, changing water every 1/2 hour so it would not be too salty.
Yesterday, I fired up the smoker, using a hot plate to heat wood in a large tin can. After the smoker reached 140 degrees, I removed the hot plate and just kept feeding the wood into the can as needed. Smoked the bacon for 10 hrs at 140 degrees, 2 slabs were black pepper crusted at my husband's request and all 5 slabs were basted with 100% pure maple syrup. When it was finished, I removed the meat, wrapped in plastic wrap and put in fridge till morning.
This morning we had the best tasting bacon ever. Not salty, the pepper crust was perfect.
Smoking took some time and I wish I could say I did not make any mistakes, but that would not be true. I took a nap in the afternoon and let the fire go out (don't know for how long, but not for more than an hour) and had to start it up again. After that I was checking constantly and feeding wet wood into the can. Kept an eye out for flare ups and kept a misting bottle nearby to put them out.
This is my first bacon and all in all it went very well. My husband split the cherry and oak for me to smoke with. I have found some downed maple on our property and will try smoking some meats with that and some downed grapevine.
I am using a New Braunfels horizontal smoker.
Here is a QView of my bacon.
