Ready to eat Bacon.

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Man O Man that is some great looking  bacon... nice job
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 It is more like prosciutto or salami in method of preparation. It is basically a cured, smoked & air dried piece of pork belly ............. rather as a cold cut type of meat served when company came to visit, along with cheese, cured ham, and lots of beverages...It's similar to Italian pancetta except that it's smoked.
that's what i was asking above..........
 
New batch on the way!

My BIL called and said he's going to drop off my second batch. 

It's done a bit different. It wasn't soaked and dried after curing, and it was in smoke for 2 weeks.

Pics & tasting report to come.
 
New load of bacon, or as we Croatians call it; Shpeck.  Picked up 2 15lb bellies today, and they are in the cure as we speak. In 7-10 days they will be going in the smoke for a nice week long vacation.
 
No problem.

Basically on a full belly, I put a healthy amount of salt(about a pound or so), the right amount of cure #1, and some sugar, and peppercorns, or cracked black pepper. Mix it all up and then dump it on the belly, in a tub that fits the belly flat. Rub the cure mix evenly on the belly, flip it over and them rub more on the other side. After that I cover the tub and flip the belly once a day for 7 days. After 7 days, take the belly out, rinse it, and let it hang for 24-48 hrs to develop a pellicle. Then into the smokehouse for 7-10 days of smoking. After that, into the cold cellar for aging.
 
Bear, Todd,

Perhaps this will help explain.

This isn't the typical bacon that we are used to in North America. It is more like prosciutto or salami in method of preparation. It is basically a cured, smoked & air dried piece of pork belly that at least in myCroatian heritage was designed to be eaten as is. It's quite common in parts of Europe. Where I'm from originally bacon was not something that was eaten at breakfast, rather as a cold cut type of meat served when company came to visit, along with cheese, cured ham, and lots of beverages...

It's similar to Italian pancetta except that it's smoked.
It's basically smoked salo then.  

Salo is basically raw pork belly and nearly all fat.  It makes me gag just watching my friends slurp it down.  Add the smoke though and you got the best thing to chase a shot of vodka, you ever tasted, except for maybe the homemade dill pickles.  

A friend of mine's Papa smokes his own salo (meaty, btw) and sausages and every now and then I get lucky and drop in when he has just returned from a visit with a freezer load.
 
Thanks AK - will be giving this a try.  What is the rough weight of the belly?  Is this the same process for back bacon (pork loin)?  I noticed you did not mention anything about weighting the meat.  What are your thoughts on weighting the meat?
 
It's basically smoked salo then.  

Salo is basically raw pork belly and nearly all fat.  It makes me gag just watching my friends slurp it down.  Add the smoke though and you got the best thing to chase a shot of vodka, you ever tasted, except for maybe the homemade dill pickles.  

A friend of mine's Papa smokes his own salo (meaty, btw) and sausages and every now and then I get lucky and drop in when he has just returned from a visit with a freezer load.
I would say yes & no.  Salo is cured fatback, not belly. Preparation is similar, but the end result is different.
 
New batch on the way!

My BIL called and said he's going to drop off my second batch. 

It's done a bit different. It wasn't soaked and dried after curing, and it was in smoke for 2 weeks.

Pics & tasting report to come.


Did you ever post the pics and report?
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