So my bacon supply was getting low, and I asked the wife if it was cool to get some more pork bellies. She gave the nod, and I went to the butcher that I have been going to where I have been getting pork bellies that were in the 3 to 4 pound range. They were out, so I asked if they would order 3 pork bellies for me, thinking I would get about 12 pounds of pork belly to make bacon.
When I went to pick them up a few days later the rather large and muscular butcher grunted when he lifted my bag onto the counter. I knew that something was wrong. He shouldn't have grunted lifting 12 pounds. When I said, "Three pork bellies," he took it as 3 WHOLE pork bellies, not the cut-down ones they were selling to customers.
So...wanting to keep a good relationship with my butcher, I was now the proud owner of 33 POUNDS OF BACON! Thank God the wife was out of town for a few days on a business trip.
So here is what I was facing:
When I unrolled them, this is what they looked like.
I figured I would cut them in half, giving me 6 slabs that I could flavor 6 different ways.
Each went onto a scale that had been tared so that I was only measuring the belly.
I then plugged in those numbers into Digging Dog Farm's online cure calculator. For the first slab, I wanted to keep this basic. The only change I would make to the default calculations was to change the sugar from 1% to 2% because the wife likes a sweeter bacon.
Here is the 2% sugar bacon ready for a 10 day cure.
To help keep track of them, as I wrapped them in a couple of layers of plastic wrap I slipped in a piece of paper between the layers that identified them. Later I would buy the 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags and place them in those.
Going off my positive experience from my last bacon-making adventure, I wanted to make jerk bacon again. I call it Jamaican Bacon. To the basic cure (sugar back down to 1%) I match the salt grams with jerk rub grams.
I always keep this stuff on hand.
Rubbed up and ready to go!
For the third bacon, I had some of Jeff's Rib Rub laying around, so I figured I would make BBQ Bacon for when I needed bacon for something BBQish. To be honest, I only used the cure calculator to get the right amount of cure, figuring that I liked the sugar and salt levels where they were in the rub already.
Rib Rub Bacon, rubbed up!
Now it was time to get a little fancy. My favorite spice shop has bourbon-smoked salt and bourbon-smoked sugar. Why not use those as the salt and sugar?
You could probably make this stuff yourself if you bought the bourbon barrel pellets, but I figured I would use the spice shop's to see if it made any difference in the final bacon product first.
Only a few more bacons to go!
This one speaks for itself. I like savory bacons, so I went with Salt, Pepper, Onion, & Garlic bacon.
I may have gone a little heavy with the onion and garlic, but hey, I like it.
Finally, my favorite region to cook from is the South of France, especially Provence. I wanted to try making an herbed bacon with a tribute to that region.
Thyme, savory, lavender, rosemary, etc. These were all dried herbs. This I went with an approximate volume measurement as herbs weigh so little that it would have been hard to use grams without getting silly.
WHEW! Time to take them to my second fridge.
Ten days later, it was time to let them form a pellicle. Six slabs of pork belly take up a bit of space, especially when you need air on all sides. To solve this problem I found stackable cooling racks. Six racks cost me 15 bucks.
I reinforced the racks with zip ties, just to be safe. But, as you can see, it was easy to fit 6 halves of pork belly in the lower part of the fridge.
Each rack from my MES40 (below) got a slab of belly and a second slab sitting on a wire rack. I forgot to take a picture, but by doing this I was able to get all 33 pounds of belly in my MES40, and the 4th rack was still free. Using this method, I could have had a total of 4 whole slabs at once! The stacking wire cooling racks were a godsend!
I microwave my pellets for 2-3 minutes, and if you look at the moisture pictured below that comes off of them you can see why.
SPOG bacon after 12 hours.
Jerk Bacon after 12 hours.
Bourbon Bacon after 12 hours.
2% Sugar Bacon after 12 hours
Rib Rub Bacon after 12 hours.
Herbes de Provence Bacon, after 12 hours.
WOW! I had to get up on a step ladder to get this overhead shot of my kitchen island after I was done slicing, bagging, and tagging.
The wife has since calmed down, and we have agreed to use some of them as Christmas gifts (mentioned in my Christmas Cheese post). Either way, we will not be short on bacon for quite some time.
The details:
Smoker: MES40 with AMNPS
Wood: Apple pellets
Smoking Temperature: cold
Ambient Temperature: 45-60 degrees
Duration: 12 hours
Final Thoughts: My wife's favorite was the herbed bacon (you have to fry it at a slightly lower temperature so that you don't burn the herbs) and I agree that it is really delicious. My favorite was the SPOG bacon...the smell is AMAZING. The Bourbon bacon was a bust...no bourbon flavor at all, it just tastes like plain bacon so don't waste the time/money...just use good salt and sugar like you normally would. The Rib Rub bacon is good, it will be great with a fatty or something like that. The jerk is something that I still also highly recommend.
Now...is there a way to make sure my doctor NEVER sees this post?
When I went to pick them up a few days later the rather large and muscular butcher grunted when he lifted my bag onto the counter. I knew that something was wrong. He shouldn't have grunted lifting 12 pounds. When I said, "Three pork bellies," he took it as 3 WHOLE pork bellies, not the cut-down ones they were selling to customers.
So...wanting to keep a good relationship with my butcher, I was now the proud owner of 33 POUNDS OF BACON! Thank God the wife was out of town for a few days on a business trip.
So here is what I was facing:
When I unrolled them, this is what they looked like.
I figured I would cut them in half, giving me 6 slabs that I could flavor 6 different ways.
Each went onto a scale that had been tared so that I was only measuring the belly.
I then plugged in those numbers into Digging Dog Farm's online cure calculator. For the first slab, I wanted to keep this basic. The only change I would make to the default calculations was to change the sugar from 1% to 2% because the wife likes a sweeter bacon.
Here is the 2% sugar bacon ready for a 10 day cure.
To help keep track of them, as I wrapped them in a couple of layers of plastic wrap I slipped in a piece of paper between the layers that identified them. Later I would buy the 2.5 gallon Ziploc bags and place them in those.
Going off my positive experience from my last bacon-making adventure, I wanted to make jerk bacon again. I call it Jamaican Bacon. To the basic cure (sugar back down to 1%) I match the salt grams with jerk rub grams.
I always keep this stuff on hand.
Rubbed up and ready to go!
For the third bacon, I had some of Jeff's Rib Rub laying around, so I figured I would make BBQ Bacon for when I needed bacon for something BBQish. To be honest, I only used the cure calculator to get the right amount of cure, figuring that I liked the sugar and salt levels where they were in the rub already.
Rib Rub Bacon, rubbed up!
Now it was time to get a little fancy. My favorite spice shop has bourbon-smoked salt and bourbon-smoked sugar. Why not use those as the salt and sugar?
You could probably make this stuff yourself if you bought the bourbon barrel pellets, but I figured I would use the spice shop's to see if it made any difference in the final bacon product first.
Only a few more bacons to go!
This one speaks for itself. I like savory bacons, so I went with Salt, Pepper, Onion, & Garlic bacon.
I may have gone a little heavy with the onion and garlic, but hey, I like it.
Finally, my favorite region to cook from is the South of France, especially Provence. I wanted to try making an herbed bacon with a tribute to that region.
Thyme, savory, lavender, rosemary, etc. These were all dried herbs. This I went with an approximate volume measurement as herbs weigh so little that it would have been hard to use grams without getting silly.
WHEW! Time to take them to my second fridge.
Ten days later, it was time to let them form a pellicle. Six slabs of pork belly take up a bit of space, especially when you need air on all sides. To solve this problem I found stackable cooling racks. Six racks cost me 15 bucks.
I reinforced the racks with zip ties, just to be safe. But, as you can see, it was easy to fit 6 halves of pork belly in the lower part of the fridge.
Each rack from my MES40 (below) got a slab of belly and a second slab sitting on a wire rack. I forgot to take a picture, but by doing this I was able to get all 33 pounds of belly in my MES40, and the 4th rack was still free. Using this method, I could have had a total of 4 whole slabs at once! The stacking wire cooling racks were a godsend!
I microwave my pellets for 2-3 minutes, and if you look at the moisture pictured below that comes off of them you can see why.
SPOG bacon after 12 hours.
Jerk Bacon after 12 hours.
Bourbon Bacon after 12 hours.
2% Sugar Bacon after 12 hours
Rib Rub Bacon after 12 hours.
Herbes de Provence Bacon, after 12 hours.
WOW! I had to get up on a step ladder to get this overhead shot of my kitchen island after I was done slicing, bagging, and tagging.
The wife has since calmed down, and we have agreed to use some of them as Christmas gifts (mentioned in my Christmas Cheese post). Either way, we will not be short on bacon for quite some time.
The details:
Smoker: MES40 with AMNPS
Wood: Apple pellets
Smoking Temperature: cold
Ambient Temperature: 45-60 degrees
Duration: 12 hours
Final Thoughts: My wife's favorite was the herbed bacon (you have to fry it at a slightly lower temperature so that you don't burn the herbs) and I agree that it is really delicious. My favorite was the SPOG bacon...the smell is AMAZING. The Bourbon bacon was a bust...no bourbon flavor at all, it just tastes like plain bacon so don't waste the time/money...just use good salt and sugar like you normally would. The Rib Rub bacon is good, it will be great with a fatty or something like that. The jerk is something that I still also highly recommend.
Now...is there a way to make sure my doctor NEVER sees this post?
