Belly Bacon cure and smoke and package (pic heavy)

2Fategghead

Thanks Todd. I try to make my point so others can understand. Very kind of you to say.

I must say that I asked for help and received lots of it from the very fine members of this great forum. I am grateful to them as well as you kind sir.

2Fategghead

Thanks Hoss. I know I over state things a lot. I'm sure you will be very good at making bacon. :laugh:

2Fategghead

Thanks Mike. I have to admit I kinda planed it out for a while by asking questions and saving past posts. It's a good feeling when everything turns out great in the end.

stike

looks great. i have been wanting to try this :laugh:

2Fategghead

I liked it pretty good Molly. I used a CyberQ II for keeping my egg at 180F dome and I noticed I got a vertical burn on this fire and half of the hickory I had in there didn't burn. Next time I will put in there what I thought I used cause it was just right. I will say I dug in my bag of hickory chunks and picked out several slivers that were already in the bag. I figured I picked out maybe 12 slivers and they were about the size of my pinkey finger. There were some unburned pieces in the fire box when I got my egg ready for my potato cook. I will use hickory again. I will try apple next time and I believe it will be nice and less stronger flavor smoke. Thanks for askin.

2Fategghead

Thank you sir for all your help leading to this cook. I'm sure you have cured belly bacon before no? I still need to read your 100 dry aged post. We have been going to the Doctors a lot for Cindy here lately but, I still got to make some. I hope to do it again and play around with all the variables including cold smoking.

What do you thing about using salts with out nitrates and Nitrites? Are they both for preserving? I need to read some more.

Mr Holloway

Tim
Awsome post man,got this bookmarked
You have given me the kick in the a$$
to get some belly going :laugh:
Great job

Shane

Lobicho

WOW
pro stuff...
congrats
nice bacon!!!

2Fategghead

Thank you Shane. When I searched for a complete post in this subject I only found portions. So I hope this helps some viewers. I will do this again.

2Fategghead

Thank you Lobicho. Far from pro just wanted to be as through as possible in one post.

2Fategghead

This morning we get to try out the Hi Mountain Buck Board Bacon cure we used on a 5 pound raw bacon slab.

Cindy fried up a few slices of home made bacon complements of High Mountain and the BGE.





Cindy had plenty of bacon grease after frying up 6 slices. Then she made some nice gravy for our biscuits and hash browns. :P



Hi Mountain

The bacon had great flavor. It fried up great and became nice and crispy. The bacon was a little on the salty side. If I had to do it over again I would make some more and try and figure out how to reduce the amount of saltiness in the bacon. Perhaps a longer soak out and replace the water every so often. This bacon produced a lot of grease in the skillet after frying.

Tender Quick

The bacon we ate from the Tender Quick recipe was very good. It fried up great but, with all the dark brown sugar in the recipe you have to fry it slowly or it will burn up easily. The bacon also got nice and crispy and chewed up nice. We will definitely do it again. I think it was a little salty but, doable again for sure. This bacon produced a lot of grease in the skillet after frying.



Comparing the bacon we made using Hi Mountain cure versus the Tender Quick in a recipe I would go with the Tender Quick and add and subtract to the recipe Michael Ruhlman lined out to add and subtract flavors as well as curing and smoking technique.

I still need to try pink salt to cure bacon.

To see the write up in it's entirety go here.

Again thanks for looking.

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1051901&catid=1