My first stab at pork belly bacon

[isuhunter]

I have made buckboard bacon and canadian bacon but never pork belly.  I went to Sam's club in hopes of finding a roast to slice up for steaks and ended up leaving with a pork belly and 19 lbs of ground beef.  I have 2 options for smoking, what do you guys think I should do? (Well I could actually have a 3rd)

1. Weber grill

2. UDS

3. Borrow a buddies MES 30

Here is the recipe I'm using for my 5.5 lb belly. (I believe this is Cowgirls recipe)

1 TBSP Morton's Tenderquick per pound
1 tsp. sugar per pound
1 TBSP Ground Pepper
1 TBSP Onion Powder
1 TBSP Granulated Garlic
1.5 tsp Cayenne Pepper

 

[isuhunter]

bacon 1.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 29, 2017

bacon 2.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 29, 2017

bacon 3.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 29, 2017

 

[isuhunter]

Well today, my wife was tired when I got home from work so I grabbed the kiddos (3.5 and 5 wk old) and we ran up to Sam's Club.  Grabbed another pork belly and tried another bacon recipe tonight.  Now time to research cold smoking in my UDS.  I think I may need to add another rack this week to it.

I have an a-maze-n smoker and pitmaster pellets.  Think that would be a good choice?

Ruhlman Recipe

bacon 4.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 30, 2017

bacon 6.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 30, 2017

1 day on the Cowgirl recipe

bacon 5.jpg

• isuhunter
• Jul 30, 2017

 

[SmokinAl]

I haven't tried the pitmaster blend, I usually just stick to hickory for cold smoking bacon.

But a lot of guys on here use it.

Al

 

[isuhunter]

Well these two turned out way to smokey.

Going to try this again.

 

[dave from mesa]

Why? How long did you smoke it? Do you think it had to do with the pellet choice?