- Nov 16, 2021
- 415
- 459
I regularly make my own bacon, it's cheaper than the stuff in the super market and is bespoke -- tailored to my my liking.
I typically buy two 10 lbs pork bellies cut them in half and cure them. After 10-14 days, I pull them out of the refrigerator and cold smoke them on my Yoder YS 640 with a tube of whatever pellets I have on hand. After a cold smoke, I looked at one of the halves and thought "why don't I just hot smoke this to an internal temp of 203, and make this into pulled bacon".... The results were a rich decadent cured pork belly absolutely exploding with flavor.
I'm not saying I invented anything, but I hadn't ever seen this done, and figured it would work based off of the easy pull of tubers that come from a whole hog roast.
Ingredients used for pork belly cure.
- Pork belly
- 2%, Kosher salt
- 1% Brown Sugar
- .25% Cure 1
Ingredients used for rub.
- 1% Turbinado
- .5% Paprika
- .5% 16 mesh Black pepper
- .25% Juniper berries ground
- .25% Celery seed
- .25% Crushed red pepper
- .15% Garlic powder
I first dry cured the bacon for 14 days, took them out of the refrigerator and soaked them in cold water for 1 hour.
I then cold smoked the cured bellies, never exceeding 100 degrees F until I remembered they were on the smoker... About 8 hours.
After pulling them, I threw one back on the smoker with a newly applied rub to get it's hot smoke at 225.
After hitting an internal of 175, I wrapped in foil and increased yoder temp to 275 until the belly hit 203, that's when I removed it from the grill.
I let it rest uncovered for about 20 minutes then pulled it discarding excess fat.
If I had a better camera, I probably could have made this look appetizing, but I don't, however you should note how long the tubers were that I pulled from the belly... So long in fact, I had to chop them in half.
I served them on a pulled BLT sandwich-- minus tomatoes, because tomatoes not in ketchup or sauce form are gross. I figured my BBQ sauce was a sufficient tomato replacement.
I am making this again, and had no issues with the process or ingredients used. I highly recommend this to any pulled pork / bacon lover. The pulled bacon tastes even better in a frying pan.
I'm still trying to think of a name for it, and a region to associate it with... For now I'll just say Cleveland BBQ.
Thanks for looking.
Brad
I typically buy two 10 lbs pork bellies cut them in half and cure them. After 10-14 days, I pull them out of the refrigerator and cold smoke them on my Yoder YS 640 with a tube of whatever pellets I have on hand. After a cold smoke, I looked at one of the halves and thought "why don't I just hot smoke this to an internal temp of 203, and make this into pulled bacon".... The results were a rich decadent cured pork belly absolutely exploding with flavor.
I'm not saying I invented anything, but I hadn't ever seen this done, and figured it would work based off of the easy pull of tubers that come from a whole hog roast.
Ingredients used for pork belly cure.
- Pork belly
- 2%, Kosher salt
- 1% Brown Sugar
- .25% Cure 1
Ingredients used for rub.
- 1% Turbinado
- .5% Paprika
- .5% 16 mesh Black pepper
- .25% Juniper berries ground
- .25% Celery seed
- .25% Crushed red pepper
- .15% Garlic powder
I first dry cured the bacon for 14 days, took them out of the refrigerator and soaked them in cold water for 1 hour.
I then cold smoked the cured bellies, never exceeding 100 degrees F until I remembered they were on the smoker... About 8 hours.
After pulling them, I threw one back on the smoker with a newly applied rub to get it's hot smoke at 225.
After hitting an internal of 175, I wrapped in foil and increased yoder temp to 275 until the belly hit 203, that's when I removed it from the grill.
I let it rest uncovered for about 20 minutes then pulled it discarding excess fat.
If I had a better camera, I probably could have made this look appetizing, but I don't, however you should note how long the tubers were that I pulled from the belly... So long in fact, I had to chop them in half.
I served them on a pulled BLT sandwich-- minus tomatoes, because tomatoes not in ketchup or sauce form are gross. I figured my BBQ sauce was a sufficient tomato replacement.
I am making this again, and had no issues with the process or ingredients used. I highly recommend this to any pulled pork / bacon lover. The pulled bacon tastes even better in a frying pan.
I'm still trying to think of a name for it, and a region to associate it with... For now I'll just say Cleveland BBQ.
Thanks for looking.
Brad
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