OK, I've just cooked up my 3rd attempt at making bacon, and clearly I'm doing something wrong, because my bacon just isn't very good (which I didn't think was possible!).
I've got some theories, but wanted to ask some pros :)
All bellies were dry cured, basically using the method from Ruhlman's recipe, here: http://ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/
Belly 1: 5lbs belly skin on, 1/4 cup kosher salt, 2 tsp pink salt #1, 1/4 cup brown sugar, liberal black pepper. Cured 8 days in the fridge. I cut this belly in two, and smoked both halves with different wood (alder, cherry), each for 2.5 hours. This bacon was was reaally salty, and I sliced it with the rind on, which I realized I don't like. More below.
Belly 2: Just over 3lbs belly, skin on, 55g kosher salt, 4g pink salt #1, 55g brown sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup. Cured for 7 days in the fridge. I threw a few sprigs of fresh sage in this one too. Cold smoked for 2 hours (alder+oak mix), then roasted in the oven at 200, for about 70 minutes. This bacon tasted ... odd. The only thing I can think to compare it to is like a Chinese ham or roast pork. I thought maybe the sage, or maybe the maple syrup, was to blame, but I just couldn't tell. It didn't taste like bacon though.
Belly 3: 2.6 lbs belly, skin on. I cut the skin off of this belly before curing it, and foolishly did not weight it afterward. I used 40g kosher salt, 25g brown sugar, 3.5g pink salt #1. Cured in the fridge for 7 days. Cold smoked for 3.25 hours with oak. This bacon didn't get as pink as I thought it should on the outside, but seemed OK once I sliced it.
ALL of these bacons had what I can only describe as an off, chemical taste to them, which was particularly apparent in both the rind and the fatty parts of the bacon. My tongue and my brain tell me it tastes too "nitrite-y" - which I guess I would describe as kind of a sweet, acrid flavor. But you know what else has a sweet, acrid flavor? Smoke. So maybe it's a smoke problem? There is something about it that seems more chemical tasting than smoke though.
I built my cold smoker myself, using a 10 gal steel can with a lid. I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the can for air, and another hole to fit a soldering iron in. I have an old baked beans can that I cleaned, and use as the sawdust tray, which the soldering iron also fits in to. Then I have a tray that sits a few inches below the top of the can, which I put the bacon on the smoke. I typically turn the soldering iron on for about 15 minutes, and then turn off for about 15 minutes, checking from time to time to make sure that a little bit of smoke can be seen escaping from the top.
Back to the bacon... like I said before, I have some theories:
#!1: My Cure % is not exact enough. I know the ratio of cure to meat needs to be pretty accurate, and I have since downloaded the calculator xls, but surely there can be a little bit of room for error. I feel like my measurements have been pretty accurate, or at least not inaccurate enough that it would make such a difference.
#2: Not smoking for long enough. The longest I've smoked a belly was a little over 3 hours, but maybe I need to smoke it longer? I've read people talking about how the belly comes out from smoking with a really pink color. I haven't noticed this on any of my bacons - it looks about the same as when I put it in. Not that it's not pinkish, but I just don't really see it CHANGE to a different color. Maybe I'm not smoking it long enough to see this change?
#3: Meat is too close to the smoke source. While my bacon sits a couple inches below the top of the can, it's also only a few inches above the source of smoke. Maybe it is TOO close to the smoke, and is picking up too concentrated a smoke flavor, and that's really what the sweet acrid taste is that I'm getting. Or, the size of my smoker is too small, and the smoke needs to be a little more room to dissipate? I would be a little surprised if this is the reason, but it seems plausible to me. The thing is, I haven't really read/heard of this being something to be concerned with. I've heard you can over-smoke meat, but my understanding was that that took like 24+ hours of smoking.
So, bacon pros ... any advice? I've been having fun making the bacon so far, but it's just so disappointing to put in the work and the waiting, and have the end result be a bacon that I, incredulously, almost don't care to eat.
sh
I've got some theories, but wanted to ask some pros :)
All bellies were dry cured, basically using the method from Ruhlman's recipe, here: http://ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/
Belly 1: 5lbs belly skin on, 1/4 cup kosher salt, 2 tsp pink salt #1, 1/4 cup brown sugar, liberal black pepper. Cured 8 days in the fridge. I cut this belly in two, and smoked both halves with different wood (alder, cherry), each for 2.5 hours. This bacon was was reaally salty, and I sliced it with the rind on, which I realized I don't like. More below.
Belly 2: Just over 3lbs belly, skin on, 55g kosher salt, 4g pink salt #1, 55g brown sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup. Cured for 7 days in the fridge. I threw a few sprigs of fresh sage in this one too. Cold smoked for 2 hours (alder+oak mix), then roasted in the oven at 200, for about 70 minutes. This bacon tasted ... odd. The only thing I can think to compare it to is like a Chinese ham or roast pork. I thought maybe the sage, or maybe the maple syrup, was to blame, but I just couldn't tell. It didn't taste like bacon though.
Belly 3: 2.6 lbs belly, skin on. I cut the skin off of this belly before curing it, and foolishly did not weight it afterward. I used 40g kosher salt, 25g brown sugar, 3.5g pink salt #1. Cured in the fridge for 7 days. Cold smoked for 3.25 hours with oak. This bacon didn't get as pink as I thought it should on the outside, but seemed OK once I sliced it.
ALL of these bacons had what I can only describe as an off, chemical taste to them, which was particularly apparent in both the rind and the fatty parts of the bacon. My tongue and my brain tell me it tastes too "nitrite-y" - which I guess I would describe as kind of a sweet, acrid flavor. But you know what else has a sweet, acrid flavor? Smoke. So maybe it's a smoke problem? There is something about it that seems more chemical tasting than smoke though.
I built my cold smoker myself, using a 10 gal steel can with a lid. I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of the can for air, and another hole to fit a soldering iron in. I have an old baked beans can that I cleaned, and use as the sawdust tray, which the soldering iron also fits in to. Then I have a tray that sits a few inches below the top of the can, which I put the bacon on the smoke. I typically turn the soldering iron on for about 15 minutes, and then turn off for about 15 minutes, checking from time to time to make sure that a little bit of smoke can be seen escaping from the top.
Back to the bacon... like I said before, I have some theories:
#!1: My Cure % is not exact enough. I know the ratio of cure to meat needs to be pretty accurate, and I have since downloaded the calculator xls, but surely there can be a little bit of room for error. I feel like my measurements have been pretty accurate, or at least not inaccurate enough that it would make such a difference.
#2: Not smoking for long enough. The longest I've smoked a belly was a little over 3 hours, but maybe I need to smoke it longer? I've read people talking about how the belly comes out from smoking with a really pink color. I haven't noticed this on any of my bacons - it looks about the same as when I put it in. Not that it's not pinkish, but I just don't really see it CHANGE to a different color. Maybe I'm not smoking it long enough to see this change?
#3: Meat is too close to the smoke source. While my bacon sits a couple inches below the top of the can, it's also only a few inches above the source of smoke. Maybe it is TOO close to the smoke, and is picking up too concentrated a smoke flavor, and that's really what the sweet acrid taste is that I'm getting. Or, the size of my smoker is too small, and the smoke needs to be a little more room to dissipate? I would be a little surprised if this is the reason, but it seems plausible to me. The thing is, I haven't really read/heard of this being something to be concerned with. I've heard you can over-smoke meat, but my understanding was that that took like 24+ hours of smoking.
So, bacon pros ... any advice? I've been having fun making the bacon so far, but it's just so disappointing to put in the work and the waiting, and have the end result be a bacon that I, incredulously, almost don't care to eat.
sh
