Been working on a Virgina Country Ham, which saw about 7 hours of smoke with an AMNS in my oil tank smoker yesterday, and is out there again today soaking it up!
While i was at it, I made an attempt to do some bacon. After the curing phase (7 days using Morton's Sugar Cure), I had to soak the bellies for 2 hours because it was way too salty on my test fry. During the equalizing period in fridge to form the pellicle, I coated one with Brown sugar, one with fresh ground black pepper and one with garlic powder, dried onion flake and dried red jalepeno. Here are some pics, enjoy!
^ Test fry..
Too salty at this point, so soaked it for 2 hours.
^Ready to go into fridge and rest
^Fresh out of the smoker (Not a lot of color, but they were smoky from the Pitmaster's Blend of dust I used.
^Brown-sugared one all sliced up, didn't really taste any brown sugar on this batch, just salty, meaty goodness, my kids loved it!
^Peppered bacon all sliced up, this tasted outstanding!
^^Garlicky/Onion/Jalepeno was the star of the show, the garlic flavor came through pretty intense, but it was delicious!
^^ wrapped some up for freezing so I can eat this for awhile. Next purchase for me: Vacuum sealer! But this will do the trick nicely and I am sure it won't last too long..
While i was at it, I made an attempt to do some bacon. After the curing phase (7 days using Morton's Sugar Cure), I had to soak the bellies for 2 hours because it was way too salty on my test fry. During the equalizing period in fridge to form the pellicle, I coated one with Brown sugar, one with fresh ground black pepper and one with garlic powder, dried onion flake and dried red jalepeno. Here are some pics, enjoy!
^ Test fry..
Too salty at this point, so soaked it for 2 hours.
^Ready to go into fridge and rest
^Fresh out of the smoker (Not a lot of color, but they were smoky from the Pitmaster's Blend of dust I used.
^Brown-sugared one all sliced up, didn't really taste any brown sugar on this batch, just salty, meaty goodness, my kids loved it!
^Peppered bacon all sliced up, this tasted outstanding!
^^Garlicky/Onion/Jalepeno was the star of the show, the garlic flavor came through pretty intense, but it was delicious!
^^ wrapped some up for freezing so I can eat this for awhile. Next purchase for me: Vacuum sealer! But this will do the trick nicely and I am sure it won't last too long..
