Here's my first experience making smoked bacon:
Got my hands on 5lbs of pork belly and decided to do some pancetta. Dry cured in a mix of salt, pepper and #2 cure (keep in mind I was planning on doing pancetta)
Here it is ready to go in the fridge with the dry cure in the ziploc:
Turns out that 5lbs of pancetta is a bit too much, so after 7 days I decided to cut the slab in half and cold smoke one of the two pieces.
Since I had to leave on a business trip, I didn't have time to let it rest and form a pellicle, so I smoked it right away (I know, I know.... not very smart, but time was an issue). I used my AMNPS with hickory pellets and smoked it at 40F for about 10-11 hours.
Here it is coming out of the smoker:
Here it is a cross section
Conclusion?
Took a piece and ate it, it's a bit tougher than what I was expecting, but that may just be the really cold smoking temperature. Haven't tried frying it yet, all the pieces are in vacuum packs resting in the fridge for now.
For those interested, here's the ingredients:
2500gm of pork belly
75g of kosher salt (for 3% salt content)
6.3g of Cure #2
20g of black pepper
1 bay leaf
(the other half is currently drying in the fridge) I'll take pics of that one when I get back.
Got my hands on 5lbs of pork belly and decided to do some pancetta. Dry cured in a mix of salt, pepper and #2 cure (keep in mind I was planning on doing pancetta)
Here it is ready to go in the fridge with the dry cure in the ziploc:
Turns out that 5lbs of pancetta is a bit too much, so after 7 days I decided to cut the slab in half and cold smoke one of the two pieces.
Since I had to leave on a business trip, I didn't have time to let it rest and form a pellicle, so I smoked it right away (I know, I know.... not very smart, but time was an issue). I used my AMNPS with hickory pellets and smoked it at 40F for about 10-11 hours.
Here it is coming out of the smoker:
Here it is a cross section
Conclusion?
Took a piece and ate it, it's a bit tougher than what I was expecting, but that may just be the really cold smoking temperature. Haven't tried frying it yet, all the pieces are in vacuum packs resting in the fridge for now.
For those interested, here's the ingredients:
2500gm of pork belly
75g of kosher salt (for 3% salt content)
6.3g of Cure #2
20g of black pepper
1 bay leaf
(the other half is currently drying in the fridge) I'll take pics of that one when I get back.
Last edited:
