Cold Smoking 12lbs of Pork Belly

theyolksonyou · December 2014

Zmokin said:

How hard is it to cure bacon? I tried curing a hunk of shoulder for ham one time and even though it soaked for 10 days and it was only 4 lbs or less, I got more than an inch of penetration, but I didn't have full penetration of the cure. the center was still like pork after it was cooked.
with all of the fat in pork belly, I'm nervous about not getting full penetration of the cure. Do I need to inject the cure into it with a syringe?

to me, belly is easy. mix the cure, dredge or rub, bag it, flip it every other day or so for a week and you're ready to rinse, dry, smoke. It's the last part I screwed up last time. Too much smoke.

laserdoc85 · December 2014

Been using the the a-maze-smoke for over a year on a cold smoker setup for bacon,cheese and nuts. On the bacon question,,,,,, I would remove the skin before you cure it. That way the cure gets all sides. The skin on blocks some of the cure and blocks the smoke when you smoke it. More surface area the better the smoke.

Curing bacon is not hard at all

Per 4 pounds of fresh belly

5.6 grams of cure #1

3TBS of Kosher salt

3 TBSgranulated sugar (white sugar).

Pour a 3/4 cup of maple syrup or honey on it and stick it in a zip lock bag for a week in the frig. Turning it everyday. Make sure you soak it in water for a hour or two to pull the salty flavor out at the end of the cure . Let it sit in the frig 24 hours to dry then smoke it. I will do 12 to 24 hours of smoke time.

My smoker is a Bradley smoker with the cold smoker attachment on it. The amaze pellet smoker tray fits in the little box perfect. Temp stays around 70 deg.

JRWhitee · December 2014

Zmokin said:
How hard is it to cure bacon? I tried curing a hunk of shoulder for ham one time and even though it soaked for 10 days and it was only 4 lbs or less, I got more than an inch of penetration, but I didn't have full penetration of the cure. the center was still like pork after it was cooked.
with all of the fat in pork belly, I'm nervous about not getting full penetration of the cure. Do I need to inject the cure into it with a syringe?

I just used the ruhlmans recipe with #1 pink salt left it in the fridge for 10 days turning and rubbing it every couple days and it was fully cured. It wasnt a problem for me.

Cold Smoking 12lbs of Pork Belly

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