Second belly in 2 weeks.

[pit 4 brains]

Two weeks ago I pulled a belly out of the brine and while I was prepping it, I built another batch of Pops brine and began the cure on the second belly. I stayed fairly straight with this one and stuck to plain ol molasses for flavor. It came out of the brine Friday, I dried it off rreally well then gave it a coat of molasses and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

After about 13 hours of cold smoking with hickory, 90-99 degrees all day...

I'm going to toss it in the freezer for a spell then run it across the slicer while I watch a little football. More pics to come!

 

[fpnmf]

Awesome!!!

I gotta get on the move and find a new belly source...

  Craig

 

[SmokinAl]

Great looking bacon Pete!

Can't wait to see it sliced!

 

[rbranstner]

Awesome looking  bacon. I need to try and find a belly piece around here.

 

[pit 4 brains]

Wow. What a day of slicing this turned out to be. After an unexpected birthday party delay, I finally got started. As I  was loading my belly pieces into the freezer I noticed a vac-sealed bag that didn't look very vac-sealed. It was my BBB cache and it was begining to freezer burn. So I drug it out and went to work slicing it when it thawed a little. Here's the results.

First, the BBB that I'm glad i salvaged..

And now the belly pieces.

And finally my little pile of scraps that I'll use for stews, chili, or whatever...

Even though I like doing these bellies, I think I'll stick with the BBB unless I get anothe free belly. The BBB seems alot simpler than the belly and I like the fact that it is way leaner.

Back to the kids..

 

[chefrob]

looks good pete......where were you getting bellies and how much? butts have not been on sale like they were last year at this time...............

 

[pit 4 brains]

Thanx Rob!

Long story but I got them from the owner of The Devil's Advocate in Tempe. I need to touch bases with you on getting my slicer sharpener working..

Hop on into chat..

 

[cgaengineer]

If any of y'all have a Super Hart around you they have whole pork bellies...not very cheap at $3.99 lb as of this past Friday but it's a source.

 

[mballi3011]

Great looking bacon Pete. Oh how I love the sight of massive amount of bacon. I just had to look in my freezer in the garage and see all the bacon I just made.