Makin' Bacon

BBQfan1 · December 2005

<p />Here's a pic (a little on the dark side) of the bacon I cured and smoked this week. One half belly slab is missing because it's already gone to the inlaws as a Christmas present. Two of these half-slabs are coated with Raging River then basted with dark maple syrup, one is Cowlick coated, one is seasoned with Raising the Steaks (Canadian Dizzy Pig steak spice) and one has drbbq's Crank it Up pepper blend.
Some may recall that I tried using a 6' length of dryer hose between chimneys of a Large and an XL Egg. It did draw the smoke through to the receiving Egg (the XL in this case), but the extreme cold temps on that day (-12°Celcius) caused the hot smoke to cool too much on the travel between the two Eggs. Only resulted in about a 55-70°F temp in the XL. Not enough for bacon, but I did get nice results on smoking some mozzarella with this method.
After this picture was taken, the half-slabs were trimmed and cut once again into two pieces, so will be able to give a pepper seasoned piece and a maple seasoned piece to a number of relatives this weekend.
Happy Holidays to all.
Qfan

drbbq · December 2005

BBQfan1,[p]Looks great Mike.

dhuffjr · December 2005

BBQfan1,
Mmmmmmmmmmm Bacon.......
Very nice looking. I bet it tastes great.[p]H

djm5x9 · December 2005

BBQfan1:[p]That is some really nice looking bacon, thanks for posting the picture!

Dr_Redwine · December 2005

BBQfan1,
So how did you smoke it seeing how the hose set-up was too cool?
DrR
P.S. This is something I've always wanted to do, so I am curious...

BBQfan1 · December 2005

drbbq,
The Crank it Up! blend works well with the bacon if anyone asks you for potential uses. I think it's all in the mumbassa.... ;-)
Qfan
ps--the CiU seasoned slab is the one resting on top at the front.

BBQfan1 · December 2005

Dr_Redwine,
I had a few things in my favour for getting a clean-burning low temp cook. First off, the temperature here (Ontario, Canada), has been around zero°F all week I did the smoking, which certainly helped. Next, I used the electric starter, which got a few lumps of charcoal (use only about 4 or 5 handfuls of lump) burning clean in short order. With the Egg cold and a small clean fire started, I 'sprinkled' a handful of hickory or cherry chips (dry) over all the charcoal. I added cold platesetters, legs up, the grid and then X-tended grids. After the first 4-5 minutes of heavy smoke subsided to a clean steady stream, on went the bacon. Top daisy vent open and bottom about 1/4 inch. Initial reading at grid with that cold platesetter in the still-cool Egg was only about 50°F. An hour later, the Egg was still fairly cool, but up to about 120°F grid. Another hour and still only about 150°F-160°F. By hour 3, internal of the slab was about 120 (aiming for 140), and grid was in the 180 zone, which I could live with. All told, it was about a 4 hr process to get the slabs up to 140 internal.
Another tip, let the slabs air dry after removing from the cure. You can tell it's dry enough to start smoking when surface is 'tacky' (pellicle is formed). It takes the smoking better that way, IMO.
Qfan

Dr_Redwine · December 2005

BBQfan1,
Thanks for the details. Sounds like fun to me.
DrR

The Cougar Guy · December 2005

Max,[p]I met Mike (and the rest of the DP North team) this past summer at the Cabelas competition here in Michigan. He gave me a bottle of "Raising the Steaks" to try and I have to tell you, it is by far the best steak seasoning I have ever had. Being that it is only available throught Mike at this point, I have to have it shipped to my friend in Windor Ontario.[p]Hopefully Chris will be able to produce and distribute this rub to everyone in the states. It would be a great addition to the lineup.[p]Live it up![p]Eric

Makin' Bacon

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