Popping the bacon cherry

jfine1

going to start prepping my first ever home made bacon next weekend. need hints and tips - has to be a dry cure, and has to need little attention during the curing period. love to know the best the BGE community has to offer!

minniemoh

I just did a large batch of Ruhlman's bacon (two bellies). I smoked at 200 degrees - one with apple chunks and one with hickory chunks. I also did half of each batch with a nice pepper crust. This pic is half of the total batch. The peppered one is unanimously the favorite. I got to slice it with my Craigslist find and it worked well. 

Chubbs

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1147375/all-this-bacon-talk/p1

minniemoh

I should add that this is only my second crack at curing/smoking bacon. The first batch I did was Ruhlman's cure too and I cut back a little bit on the garlic this time. Also the first batch was VERY salty but I don't think I rinsed it enough and my chunks were considerably smaller. This second batch has been an improvement in every way. I did some pork belly and some shoulder on my first attempt. 

I just read through the thread that @Chubbs linked - I must have missed that one before I tried my first run at this. There's a lot to learn in there for sure. On my first batch, I also cold smoked half of it with the A-Maze-N smoker. It tasted good but the biggest challenge I had was slicing it thin enough with a knife. This time I just opted to hot smoke since it turned out delicious last time too. Now that I have a slicer, I may try a cold smoke again sometime. I have about 20 packages in the freezer and a whole hog coming from the butcher shop that will yield about 17# of bacon from them as well (they make awesome bacon) so I should be good for about a year. 

Good luck @jfine1. All you have to do is make sure your cure is long enough and you'll have good eats ahead.

Chubbs

minniemoh said:

I should add that this is only my second crack at curing/smoking bacon. The first batch I did was Ruhlman's cure too and I cut back a little bit on the garlic this time. Also the first batch was VERY salty but I don't think I rinsed it enough and my chunks were considerably smaller. This second batch has been an improvement in every way. I did some pork belly and some shoulder on my first attempt. 

I just read through the thread that @Chubbs linked - I must have missed that one before I tried my first run at this. There's a lot to learn in there for sure. On my first batch, I also cold smoked half of it with the A-Maze-N smoker. It tasted good but the biggest challenge I had was slicing it thin enough with a knife. This time I just opted to hot smoke since it turned out delicious last time too. Now that I have a slicer, I may try a cold smoke again sometime. I have about 20 packages in the freezer and a whole hog coming from the butcher shop that will yield about 17# of bacon from them as well (they make awesome bacon) so I should be good for about a year. 

Good luck @jfine1. All you have to do is make sure your cure is long enough and you'll have good eats ahead.

The key is having a long knife and freezing the belly for a while before slicing. 

jfine1

Thanks folks. Intending to smoke at 200 so not go through the cold smoke process. What's the best ingredients to go with the pink salt for the cure ?

buzd504

Here's your starting point:  http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/