first time home smoked bacon

ARoehr11

made a rub with salt, syrup, pepper, and brown sugar.  need it to sit for a few days, smoking it next weekend then slicing it to get it ready to fry.  Prepped on Sunday 8/26, smoking Saturday 9/1.  More pics to follow

lkapigian

Bombdiggity! Curing some myself right now....cold or hot smoke....FWIW, I'd go cold smoke

bikesAndBBQ

I love home cured bacon. I think it is so much better than store bought. Other than the water, curing salt, salt and I think sugar, you can get creative. I like adding some fresh herbs to the cure. I hot smoke mine. 

ARoehr11

lkapigian said:

Bombdiggity! Curing some myself right now....cold or hot smoke....FWIW, I'd go cold smoke

The recipe I have says 200 indirect until internal temp of 160, this is my first try at it so I'm going to go off of the recipe I have.  Everything else that I have done out of this cook book has been great.

NorthPilot06

Sorry to ask the obvious, but you are using a curing salt with this, right?

MattBTI

Are you using meathead's method from amazing ribs or ruhlman's by chance?

I've cured somewhere around 80 lbs using ruhlman. I've got 9lbs going that I started yesterday using meatheads method for the first time. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

also, since this is clearly a sow, I would trim off the teets when you trim it up. They can have some kind of nasty tasting residue in there. We have done a few sows but you have to know how to handle that part. Since this is your first, I would trim that section off. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

your math does not really add up on the let it sit for a couple of days. It's about 7 days minimum for a belly to cure. I also notice you didn't say "curing salt" in your recipe. did you use curing salt? 

MattBTI

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

your math does not really add up on the let it sit for a couple of days. It's about 7 days minimum for a belly to cure. I also notice you didn't say "curing salt" in your recipe. did you use curing salt? 

It really depends on the thickness of the belly as well as how much salt is in the solution. Wet vs dry vs saltbox will also make a difference. When using ruhlmans basic dry cure, i'd apply 3% cure by weight of belly for 5 to seven days. This batch I'm working on now has a much higher moisture and salt content than ruhlmans method and should only take 3-5 days. I'ts a thinner belly too so likely will end up on the shorter side. 

MattBTI

cure time also isn't all that important when hot smoking, so long as the meat reaches a "safe" temp. It's more about imparting that "cured flavor and texture. "

MattBTI

Agree on the curing salt, you need to be using pinksalt #1. Prague powder #1, DQ #1 does not matter the brank name, just needs to have #1 in the name.

BGEChicago

MattBTI said:

Are you using meathead's method from amazing ribs or ruhlman's by chance?

I've cured somewhere around 80 lbs using ruhlman. I've got 9lbs going that I started yesterday using meatheads method for the first time. 

I've done 10 to 12 batches of Meatheads, I'm sure you will be happy...

ARoehr11

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

your math does not really add up on the let it sit for a couple of days. It's about 7 days minimum for a belly to cure. I also notice you didn't say "curing salt" in your recipe. did you use curing salt? 

It will sit for 6 days before smoking. I did not use curing salt, as I read if you are smoking it up to a cooked temp that wasn’t necessary. Is this not true?

lkapigian

ARoehr11 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

your math does not really add up on the let it sit for a couple of days. It's about 7 days minimum for a belly to cure. I also notice you didn't say "curing salt" in your recipe. did you use curing salt? 

It will sit for 6 days before smoking. I did not use curing salt, as I read if you are smoking it up to a cooked temp that wasn’t necessary. Is this not true?

Yup, no need for curing salt if you are cooking it to,temp...The cure keeps it safe @ low temps and preserves the color