SMOKED BELLY BACON

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gary s

Gone but not forgotten. RIP
Original poster
OTBS Member
Jan 6, 2011
26,255
4,704
Smoked Belly Bacon

This is Bearcarver’s recipe Thanks again for all the great Step by Step’s

Started with a 14.75 lb. pork belly (Skin on)

Wife said “save the skin” so I bagged it and put it in the freezer.

Skin weighed 1.85 lbs. Leaving 12.9 lbs. of soon to be bacon

Cut it into 6 pieces to fit into the one gallon bags

Applied Morton’s Tender Quick and Brown Sugar as per Bear’s Directions

Put into Zip-lock bags and in the Fridge to cure

.

After 10 days, removed from Fridge, rinsed and soaked in water for about an hour and a half. Patted dry and back in the fridge uncovered till tomorrows smoke. I had 1 ¾ cups of liquid combined

.

Fired up smoker at 6:30, used trusty weed burner today 23° one thing nice about the weed burner, I use it to start my charcoal and wood, then warm the inside of the cook chamber, it was ready to go at 6:55 .

I am using B & B Lump and some Maple and Pecan chunks

Belly’s on at 7:00 AM - cook chamber temp is 125°

When I smoked the Canadian bacon that was the lowest I ever smoked 150°

Today will be 125° Smoking on my Reverse Flow

49 ° now at 10:00 AM smoking for 3 hours added a little more Lump and a few more chunks, holding at about 125°

Added wood chunks and lump as needed throughout the day (not much)

Internal Temp was 119 ° to 121 ° at 2:00 PM  7 hours

After 10 hours of smoke at 125°  All pieces were 124° -125°

Pulled off smoker and let them rest and cool down a bit before wrapping, the back in the fridge till Friday.

Then that afternoon I’ll put them in the freezer for a while to really firm up before slicing.

Bear recommended at least 4 hours in the freezer, but I couldn’t wait. So at 3.5 hours I started pulling them out to slice. Perfect.

I got 10 – 1lb. bags plus the ends and what I left out for now, Oh yeah, Had to fry up some while I was slicing and bagging.

Started with a 14.75 pork belly




Removing the skin



Skin removed and put aside for later



Getting everything to start weighing and measuring




Each one weighted


Rubbed each one with the proper amount of Tender Quick now applying the brown sugar


All bagged and ready for the fridge 


After 10 days rest in the fridge, turning bags daily


I got 1 3/4 cups liquid total from the bags


Rinsed and soaking in ice water


Out of the bath and ready to go back in the fridge


Oh Yeah had to do a little test    Wow,  can't wait till it's smoked



Waiting patiently for the smoker


Smoker at 125º


Picture of trusty weed burner and smoker


Bacon on and smoking   Using Pecan and Maple chunks with lump charcoal


Settings on my RF firebox door


Bacon after about 5 hours


Bacon after 10 hours Ready to be be wrapped and back in the fridge till Friday


Sliced like Butter


First pile of Goodness 


First one bagged   a little over 1 LB per bag


You know I had to fry up some more while I was slicing and bagging


More sliced goodness


A hair over a LB.


10 bags ready for the freezer



Now the big question ?    What to Cure and Smoke next      Thank you for looking

This was a blast and easy to boot

Gary
 
Thanks bmaddox  609 Chef's Choice  (the inexpensive one) But works great

Gary
 
Looks good...recently cured a belly using the same method. Got nowhere near that much juice but mine was in the bags for 15 days.
 
Last edited:
Gary, nice looking bacon and a great post !
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Awesome!!!
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Beautiful Color!!  Must be Awesome Flavor that goes with that color!!
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You did a Fantastic Job, Gary!!!--------------
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I told you it was easy!!
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There's no reason for people to make things hard to do!!

Better let the Mrs have some too!!
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Bear
 
Thanks Ink,  for the complement 

Thanks Crazy & Bear for the complement and the Point 

Gary
 
Beautiful bacon Gary.


Better get more curing, that wont last long.
 
Looks great the thickness looks spot on! Way to knock it out of the park!!:drool
 
Thanks CF and b-one  I appreciate it

Gary
 
Thank you OeJ

Gary
 
WOW ! Nice bacon, does that look good ! I'll p.m. ya my address for my care package ! :biggrin:

Gary, what a great job ya done on that !

:kewl:

:points1:
 
Wow Gary!

Now that is so thorough, with fabulous photos, and I am AMAZED at how beautifully you did it and this was really fun to see!

Fantastic job!

I learn so much here indeed!

Cheers! - Leah
 
Thanks WaterinHole and Leah for the nice compliments 

Gary
 
Hello Gary.  Educate me a little here.  As you know I have not yet cured bacon ( plan to very soon ).  I see you own a vacuum sealer.  So why not cure in the vac bags?  Just seems to me cure and the "brine" which is produced would stay in better contact with the meat if vac packed.  I'm sure there must be a reason why folks use zip lock, I just don't know what that reason may be.  Great job on the bacon and fantastic "how to" with pictures.  Thanks for sharing.  Keep Smokin!

Danny
 
Hey Danny, good morning,  on the vacuum sealing good question I followed Bears Step by Step I really don't know if vacuum sealing would make any difference in the curing ? I just used the zip lock's sucked mos of the air out and turned them every day. and the Bacon is GREAT  My wife took some ends yesterday and made split pea soup and said this morning she wanted bacon.

I will have to ask Bear or someone that has a lot more experience then me on the vacuum sealing.

Gary
 
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Hello Gary.  Educate me a little here.  As you know I have not yet cured bacon ( plan to very soon ).  I see you own a vacuum sealer.  So why not cure in the vac bags?  Just seems to me cure and the "brine" which is produced would stay in better contact with the meat if vac packed.  I'm sure there must be a reason why folks use zip lock, I just don't know what that reason may be.  Great job on the bacon and fantastic "how to" with pictures.  Thanks for sharing.  Keep Smokin!

Danny
See Below:
 
Hey Danny, good morning,  on the vacuum sealing good question I followed Bears Step by Step I really don't know if vacuum sealing would make any difference in the curing ? I just used the zip lock's sucked mos of the air out and turned them every day. and the Bacon is GREAT  My wife took some ends yesterday and made split pea soup and said this morning she wanted bacon.

I will have to ask Bear or someone that has a lot more experience then me on the vacuum sealing.

Gary
Some people use a vacuum sealer.

Since there really isn't any difference in the results, I find it's not worth the bother of avoiding the sucking up of juices into the vacuum sealer.

No good reason to use the vacuum sealer. IMO

Bear
 
I want to add a comment to my post. This is without a doubt the best Bacon I have had. Not saying that because I did it, I just followed directions. I notice when I am frying ti up It cooks different than store bought It really looks like Bacon Should, And the Flavor is Fantastic. I smoked it for 10 hours using Pecan and Maple Chunks a real mild smokey flavor. My wife absolutely loved it. I hadn't even finished vacuum sealing all the bags and she was getting the ends to make homemade split pea soup. The smokey bacon really kicked it up a notch Fantastic flavor.

This will be something I will keep all the time.

Here is a picture of breakfast bacon with some Canadian bacon ends thrown in

 
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