Pork Sides Soon to be Bacon with Pops Brine

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woodcutter

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Jul 2, 2012
3,308
163
Marathon Wisconsin
I have been looking and looking for a place to buy some belly meat. The 2 main butcher shops around here would order some for me but said the price was about what they sold their own bacon for,  same with fresh whole hams.

There is an Asian slaughter house south of town but I thought it was for wholesale only customers. They were very nice on the phone and invited me to stop and look at what they had. I picked up a case of pork sides with skin, ribs and belly for $2.50 lb. This what I got.


This is the first bacon I will be making with side and belly meat.


6 sides were in the box.


Trimmed out the ribs.


Skinned them.


I have made Buckboard bacon with a dry rub and was happy with that but I have also been extremely happy with Pop's brine. I explained the difference to my family and they all said "Do it the way you make the ham and Canadian bacon" So in the buckets it is! I added 1 Tbs of molasses and now have to wait 10-14 days. I'm going to cold smoke these with apple and cherry.


And then the skins. I put them in the freezer for now and they will  be pork rinds for another time. 6 racks of ribs went in the freezer as well. More in about 2 weeks.
 
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Here are a few pellicle pictures which I have hard time getting. These sat in front of the fan for 9 hours.




Not wet.......but shiny.


AMNPS is lit at both ends with apple pellets. I took this camera to a wedding last week end and took a lot of pictures. I need glasses for reading so I did not realize that the lens was so smoked smudged all the pictures were garbage. Don't let it happen to you!
 
Todd

This looks awesome, I'm humbled by the sheer volume of your projects!  Question on the pellicle, can you let them sit out too long?  I was going to set mine up in front of a fan late Friday night, then get them in the smoker Saturday morning.  Would probably be about 10 hours without supervision.

Thanks for posting this!
 
My relatives and children have been eating good. It takes a little more effort to make big big batches but most of the work is the cleaning so I get stuff out and get it dirty......lol. The cured meat can sit out for a few days. I dried these slabs exactly how you are wanting to do it and have done it many times before. It takes some time to get a good pellicle but when you do you will see how nice the smoke will take to it. I used to rush it because it was meat sitting out of refrigeration but after learning from others here on the forum I take my time to form the pellicle.
 
I like pops brine. Then I tried dry cure with warm smoking ( 120 drgrees ) and I liked the texture better.

So I might try pops brine and warm smoke.

Any thoughts?
 
 
I like pops brine. Then I tried dry cure with warm smoking ( 120 drgrees ) and I liked the texture better.

So I might try pops brine and warm smoke.

Any thoughts?
I have some of each drying out right now, that I'll be cold smoking this weekend.  Most of it was dry cured using TQ, but I had some in Pop's brine too, and I was going to smoke a chunk of that to compare to the dry cure.  I was going to keep the IT temps cool, though, probably less than 60-70, depending on the outside temperature.  I don't have enough experience to offer an opinion on your question, which is why I'm trying a variety of methods.  Learning as I go.
 
 
Woodcutter,

How long do you plan to smoke? Once, or multiple days?
I planned on at least fills of the AMNPS. I went out after work to refill and start smoking again and decided to flip the pieces. Well I ended up bring in about 1/2 of the smallest piece that nobody would probably want anyway. I know it will mellow and should taste very smokey without the rest but it is perfect right now. I kept with the plan and started the AMNPS again. Perfect smoke seems like a moving target right about now.





 
 
I like pops brine. Then I tried dry cure with warm smoking ( 120 drgrees ) and I liked the texture better.

So I might try pops brine and warm smoke.

Any thoughts?
I haven't warm smoked any bacon yet. This is my first belly bacon so I can't compare it to anything. I've made buckboard bacon with TQ and liked it but this is much much better. I used TQ on the BBB because of all the hams and CB that I made with Pop's brine. I thought I would end up with thin ham instead of bacon. I'm really surprised how much different Pop's brine tastes with belly meat.
 
Oh, I could use some of that bacon. I love back (Canadian) bacon and Buckboard Bacon but nothing replaces belly bacon and this looks great.

Disco
 
That is the money shot! Even Bearcarver would be proud of that.

Beautiful meaty bacon! BTW it will cook better with age. When ya finish smoking don't make any assumptions until you allow it to rest for at least a week. I know you can't believe it could get any better, but it does!

There is just something about bacon, never met anyone that said, I don't like bacon! Besides could you believe a person like that? Probably would kick dogs too!
 
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