DIY Bacon

[MDixon]

I gotta give makin bacon a whirl!

[micsager]

OK, found this thread today while here at work.  As fate would have it, today is the day the local organic farmer sets up a little stand in our lobby.  And, they had a pork belly.

So I guess I'm gonna start a cure tonight. 

[rainmaker]

You want all things homemade bacon.
http://tvwbb.com/forumdisplay.php?62-Charcuterie

[euge]

You want all things homemade bacon.
http://tvwbb.com/forumdisplay.php?62-Charcuterie

Very nice and helpfully quick! Thanks! Bookmarked...

I wish there was a brining calc as doing thick cuts benefits from this approach to introducing the cure.

[rainmaker]

You want all things homemade bacon.
http://tvwbb.com/forumdisplay.php?62-Charcuterie

Very nice and helpfully quick! Thanks! Bookmarked...

I wish there was a brining calc as doing thick cuts benefits from this approach to introducing the cure.

What exactly are you looking for brining wise? There are some basic measurements that are scalable to any size.

[euge]

Immersion curing for hams mainly. I haven't resorted to injection yet but have found salt penetration issues with really thick pieces treated with a dry cure. Perhaps it is a time thing but when there is bone involved I want to get the cure distributed thoroughly and evenly as soon as possible.

Thinking that a brine would do better over an extended period vs dry cure in a ziploc and something heavy on top.

[1vertical]

Immersion curing for hams mainly. I haven't resorted to injection yet but have found salt penetration issues with really thick pieces treated with a dry cure. Perhaps it is a time thing but when there is bone involved I want to get the cure distributed thoroughly and evenly as soon as possible.

Thinking that a brine would do better over an extended period vs dry cure in a ziploc and something heavy on top.

Euge its not my realm yet but your paragraph just screams VACUUM

[micsager]

OK, found this thread today while here at work.  As fate would have it, today is the day the local organic farmer sets up a little stand in our lobby.  And, they had a pork belly.

So I guess I'm gonna start a cure tonight.

Well, my first batch pretty much sucked.  I used a dry cure.  Got another belly in a wet cure.  We'll see how that turns out. 

[brewmichigan]

OK, found this thread today while here at work.  As fate would have it, today is the day the local organic farmer sets up a little stand in our lobby.  And, they had a pork belly.

So I guess I'm gonna start a cure tonight.

Well, my first batch pretty much sucked.  I used a dry cure.  Got another belly in a wet cure.  We'll see how that turns out.

What happened? My first batch was okay but the second was awesome. I used dry cure on both.

[micsager]

It just tasted like pork, not bacon. 

[brewmichigan]

It just tasted like pork, not bacon.

What was your cure? I added some pink salt in the second time I did it. I found it gives it a more "bacony" flavor than not using the nitrites.

[micsager]

I think you are on the right track.  No pink salt.  Just canning salt. 

But, I changed that with the wet cure going right now. 

[bluesman]

I want to build a cold smoker using my Weber One Touch Gold. There're some good designs out there. Cold smoking is something I want to eventually try.

Thanks for posting the DIY Bacon!

[thebigbaker]

We went in with our neighbors and split a whole hog to be butchered.  Originally, the butcher was going to do all the bacon for us, but he is going to save 1/4 slab (he said it would be about 4lbs) of pork belly so I can make my own bacon.  Reading through this thread I'm excited to try this! 

We've got family coming in to stay with us the last week of August and have planned smoking some ribs, so I'll start the smoker low to smoke the pork belly.  Once I take the belly off the smoker, I'll raise the temp up for the ribs and throw them on.  I'll be using a mixture of apple and peach wood.

I've smoked many cuts of meat, but this will be my first at smoking pork belly, so any advice from those that have smoked their bacon would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

[brewmichigan]

I've smoked many cuts of meat, but this will be my first at smoking pork belly, so any advice from those that have smoked their bacon would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

Once you hit an internal temp of 150, pull the belly off and let it rest. Once you start going over that, you'll start rendering too much fat out of the belly and then you'll have a large bacon steak.