- Apr 13, 2015
- 37
- 29
First, thanks to this forum for being a tremendous resource.
I have always wanted to cold smoke my own bacon and when I stumbled upon a whole pork belly at Costco, I knew the time was now.
For convenience (and to establish a baseline for future receipe trials) I simply used Hi Mountain buckboard bacon cure.
The belly ended up curing for 14 days because I had family in town that prevented me from working with it on day 10.
After the cure, I rinsed, soaked for 2 hours, then did a fry test.
I then let it rest 24 hours uncovered in the frig.
Next was the smoke. This had to be the most frustrating step. I used hickory pellets in an AMNSP inside a 40" MES. The plan was to smoke it starting at 7am before heading to work and to let it go until 7pm. So, I come home from work at noon to check on it only to find the AMNSP had stopped smoking about at the first turn in the maze . So, I refilled and tried again. Got home from work at 5pm only to find it stopped smoking about 2 inches into the burn.
Long story short. I continue lighting and relighting the AMNSP for the next 12 hours (through the night). At 7am this morning, I gave up and removed the bacon and put I to the frig for a 24 hour rest.
I can only hope the bellies got enough smoke. I am going to have to work getting the AMNSP to work properly.
I have always wanted to cold smoke my own bacon and when I stumbled upon a whole pork belly at Costco, I knew the time was now.
For convenience (and to establish a baseline for future receipe trials) I simply used Hi Mountain buckboard bacon cure.
The belly ended up curing for 14 days because I had family in town that prevented me from working with it on day 10.
After the cure, I rinsed, soaked for 2 hours, then did a fry test.
I then let it rest 24 hours uncovered in the frig.
Next was the smoke. This had to be the most frustrating step. I used hickory pellets in an AMNSP inside a 40" MES. The plan was to smoke it starting at 7am before heading to work and to let it go until 7pm. So, I come home from work at noon to check on it only to find the AMNSP had stopped smoking about at the first turn in the maze . So, I refilled and tried again. Got home from work at 5pm only to find it stopped smoking about 2 inches into the burn.
Long story short. I continue lighting and relighting the AMNSP for the next 12 hours (through the night). At 7am this morning, I gave up and removed the bacon and put I to the frig for a 24 hour rest.
I can only hope the bellies got enough smoke. I am going to have to work getting the AMNSP to work properly.