10# PORK BELLY BACON CURING IDEAS?

Always Smokin

HELLO.AFTER ALL THE BACON TALK I HAD TO TRY TOO. I HAVE A 10 POUND PORK BELLY COMING SATURDAY. ANY GOOD IDEAS ON CURING IT AND GETTING IT READY FOR THE EGG???

Doug in Eggmonton

If you have a foodsaver then I would cut the belly down into foodsaver bag sized portions. Gallon sized zip-locks will work OK too. Dry rub with your bacon cure, seal them, put em in the fridge and forget about them for 5 days or so then soak them for at least a couple hours or as much as a day to get some of the salt out. Then you got two choices - hot smoke or cold smoke. I cold smoked my last batch and will never go back. To cold smoke I took an old 28oz tomato can, burnt all the gunk off of it, drilled a hole in the bottom of the side that was big enough to take a soldering iron. Filled it with apple wood chips and turned the iron on. Once things were smoky I put the bacon slabs in. Added more chips after a couple hours. Smoked to 4 hours in all. Made some awfully fine bacon.

Doug

mnwalleye

Doug, Couple questions. What do soak them in and did you setup like smoking cheese with the ice tray under the pork?

Zinger

Check out this web site.

www.playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com

Go to the recipe section and look for buckboard bacon under the pork category.

I cured a 5 lb piece of belly for 7 days using the bbb cure. Then a 1.5 hr soak in a 5 gal bucket full of ice water. Let dry in fridge overnight. smoked at 180 until internal temp of 150 in thickest part of the meat. Turned out great.

Here is a link to the cook I posted

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=860006&catid=1

Richard Fl

Like to use loins, but next time will try belly bacon.

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=754371&catid=1baco

Zinger

Doug

I have been kicking the cold smoking idea around. What was it about this method for bacon that you liked better? I would guess that the finished product comes out with a smokier flavor, due to the longer period it is in the smoke. Are there other benefits?

Thanks

Unknown

If you've ever had slow roasted pork belly, you wouldn't worry about the cure. It is incredible.

Doug in Eggmonton

Just plain water the idea being to take the right amount of salt out of it to fit your taste. My egg never got over 80F with this setup so I didn't worry about any ice.

Doug

Doug in Eggmonton

It came out more like traditional bacon and I could fry it the way I wanted. The hot smoke tends to cook it somewhat, so frying it didn't work the way I wanted.

Doug

Kokeman

Here is a post of when I did belly.
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=590681&catid=1#

Beernuts

I cured for five days with kosher salt and pure maple syrup, in ziplock bags - washed it off the morning of hte sixth day and smoked it at 180 for four hours that night - bumped it up to 225 to finish for half an hour - pulled at 150 internal

it was yummy