Short Bus BB bacon question

WokOnMedium

OK. I'm preparing to venture down this road. In the last few weeks I have seen several variations on the BB raws. I have ordered my cure, and am looking for advice on the right cut of meat. I'm not shooting for canadian bacon, but something more in the neighborhood of regular bacon with less fat. Maybe I'm kookie, but I don't think they taste the same (canadian bacon and traditional). Does the difference lie soley in the cut of meat, or do variations in cure type, cure time, smoking temp and smoking time play a role? Pardon the ignorance, sometimes I wear it like a fluffy Christmas sweater. :woohoo:
Starting out with High Mountain BBB cure. THANK YOU!!!!

Hoss

Check out Thirdeye's web site.Playin with fire and smoke.All the info you need.I prefer the Butts myself and give the loin stuff away.

WokOnMedium

Thanks Hoss!

Richard Fl

You probably give the LOONEY end pieces away also. LOL

Richard Fl

Pork, Butt, Bacon, Cowboy Buckboard, Thirdeye

This morning I was slicing up my most recent batch of home-cured cowboy bacon and figured I needed to share this. Okay, I'm bragging...this batch turned out really nice. For a long time I have been planning to put up a bacon page on my cookin' site, just haven't gotten around to it. So this is kind of a preview. LOLIf you are not familiar with buckboard bacon, it is made from a boneless pork butt, pork loin or pork tenderloin. The loins come out similar to Canadian bacon, the butt is a cross between ham and side bacon. You can use Morton's Sugar Cure but I use a cure made right here in Wyoming, the link to their bacon page is below. (At the bottom of the page click on "Instructions" for detailed information). You just bone out the butt, rub with cure, refrigerate for 8 to 10 days depending on thickness, rinse, soak for 2 hours in water, dry and smoke around 200° dome until it gets to about 150° internal (I do mine direct on a raised grate because I add a few chips every 30 minutes).




INGREDIENTS:



Procedure:
1 Then you chill, slice and fry. It is so much healthier than belly bacon. The slices are 2-1/2" to 3" wide and you can make it as thick as you want. Best of all, the price is right. This 7 pounds of bacon cost me $1.25/pound.
2 Sliced Great for Breakfast
3 Fried Great with Grits
4 Tenderloins Come out like this.
5 Good eats! Grilled
6 Bacon & Eggs:
7 The instructions are very detailed. It's as good or better than most how-to's I've seen. There are 10 or 12 photographs showing the whole process. There are 3 or 4 just about boning. There is a scan of them on their website, look at the bottom of the pages for "Instructions" then go to bacon cure.
8 I like the butts mainly because of the height and the length of the slices and there is just enough fat you don't have to add any when frying.
9 The loins on the other hand, take less cure time and even though the butt bacon is way less fatty than belly bacon, the loins are really lean. And that's good too. I have two vacuum sealed 1/2 loins I'm thawing right now. I will smoke them next weekend.
10 These cures are DRY cures not brine cures, so the maple syrup can't be used. I did smoke this last butt on maple wood, which I liked. The Hi Mountain cure is a "sugar cure" also called "sweet pickling" cure. The ingredients are salt, sugar, brown sugar, maple sugar and 0.7% sodium nitrite. It is similar in nature to Morton's Sugar Cure, which is the sweet version of Tenderquick. Morton's have both nitrate and nitrite. Morton's comes with a separate packet of spices that you have to mix with the curing agent. The Hi Mountain cure has the seasonings already mixed into the curing agent. Plus, the Hi Mountain 16oz box comes with three premeasured 5.3 oz bags. One bag will do 8.3 pounds of meat, so one is perfect for a butt.
*****THE CURE TIME*****
1 The cure time on the butt depends on thickness. If it is 3" to 3-1/2" thick the full 10 days is required. When they are in the 2-1/2" range I go 8 days. Tenderloins and smaller diameter loins I go 6 days. If you find that it is too salty, next time try a longer soak time before you try to reduce the number of days in the cure. Of course, don't lessen the amount of cure as you defeat the process. Listen, I know the instructions are very detailed but here are a couple of things I'm not sure I mentioned and
*****Something I learned just this week*****
1 Ideal temperature is 38°. Colder than that slows down the curing process. Warmer than 44° is not a safe curing environment. Hi Mountain recommends turning at the halfway point. Many people turn every two days, some turn every 24 hours. Liquid will leech out of the meat from the salts in the cure. I was talking with some of my buddies who have also have made the buckboard bacon for years and of all things, the subject of the purge liquid came up. (I think I mentioned to you that I usually pour it out.) Opinion was 50/50 on leaving it in or pouring out the excess. Well, I stopped by one of our custom processing shops and visited with the owner and he confirmed that it is better to LEAVE IT than drain it because it is actually a brine of sorts formed by the cure and the water it extracts. He went on to say that turning allows for even distribution of the liquid that is in contact with the meat. He did stress that pouring it out would not interrupt or seriously affect the curing process but it may not be as EVEN. (So from now on I'm leaving the liquid) He also told me he turns his pork belly bacon every two or three days due to the large amount of fat and that was the way he was taught. Anyway, I learned something and I wanted to pass this along to you so you will get the most out of your home curing.
10/14/06: Thirdeye
1 In my Egg: I use a direct setup with raised grate & grate extender. My cooking level is about 12" above the coals. I like a 180° pit temp for 2 hours, then ramp the temp up to 200° until the internal temperature of the meat is 140° to 150°. Every 30 minutes or so I drop a few chips through the grate and onto the coals.
11/18/06: Thirdeye--
1 The meat will release a lot of liquid as it cures. It is mostly water but it is important because it actually forms a brine as it combines with the dry cure, so leave it in. The liquid needs to remain in contact with the meat to allow for even curing. I have done plenty of them in containers, I just tried to pick a container that was close to the size of the meat.
2 I now prefer to cure in plastic bags because I turn the meat (technically called overhauling) more often than the one time that is recommended by Hi Mountain, and this way I don't have to handle it.
3 Usually the liquid does not begin to release for several days. Check your temperature of your fridge. 38° to 40° is the ideal range you are after.
11/18/06: Thirdeye--Howdy Richard,
1 Try soaking the meat in cold water for 2 or 3 hours changing the water once or twice. Then rinse, dry and let
2 it rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight before smoking. The rest time allows a sort of an equilibrium thing to happen. (resting goes for other brined foods too)
11/18/06 AZRP--Thirdeye
1 Colder temps slow down the process and warmer temps speed up the process. That being said, there are several ranges in my 4 or 5 reference books on curing. The coldest mentioned is 35°. 38° seems to be the temperature called "ideal". On the high end, 40° is noted most everywhere with the exception of Hi Mountain's instructions which call out 45° as the high end.
2 I realize with a salt/pink salt/sugar cure the "spoilers" are dealt with by the cure, but I have a hard time buying into having my fridge set at 45° because of all the other stuff in there. I do mine in my beer fridge which is 34° to 36° and the cure times I use verses the saltiness I get in the finished product is just right for me. I guess I've never done one on the high end to compare the taste. I would think it would be stronger.
3 On the positive side of the temperature question, I have NEVER had any product cured with the Hi Mountain cure turn on me, color wise, odor wise or texture wise.


Recipe Type
Meat

Recipe Source
Source: BGE Forum, Thirdeye, 2006/09/22

09/26/06: Thirdeye

The Hi Mountain instructions are written for electric smokers (they sell one) and that is why they mention heating the smoker to 150° and cooking for 45 minutes, then adding wood and increasing to 200°. They also let their meat sit out for 1 hour at room temperature. I have never figured out the 45 minutes at 150° without smoke. It seems that you are shortening the window for the smoke to penetrate the meat. Likewise with letting it sit at room temperature because colder meat will take smoke over a longer period of time. I have cooked on Big Chief electric smokers for about 35 years and all I can think of is that in the wrong hands, it is easy to over-smoke things in an electric smoker since you are burning all wood and because most people want to see smoke coming out of the vents all the time. I guess what I'm saying is their instructions are designed to prevent most people from over-smoking their bacon. I haven't ever made bacon in my electrics and I don't think I know of anyone else that does buckboard bacon in an electric smoker either. Maybe I'm missing something. LOL

So anyway ..., for butts I bone them out and keep them whole during curing and smoking. In my BGE, I cook them direct on a very raised grate about 10" above the coals. and put them on when the dome is 180°. About every 45 minutes I turn the butts to balance the color and drop a small handful of wood chips through the grate on into the coals. After about 2 hours, I bump the temp to 200°-220° dome and cook until they get to 150° internal. This takes another couple of hours so my total time to reach 150° is 4 to 5 hours.

For loins, I cut them so each piece is about 3 pounds or so. The smaller pieces are easier to get a balanced color on. They also cure faster and smoke faster. I use the same temperature ranges. I usually use apple wood with some cherry (mainly for the red color it gives), but on my last batch I used all maple and I really liked it. If you try guava let me know how it turns out. I sure like it on chicken and ribs.

Don't know if you saw my reply to fishlessman on the BGE forum but I relayed this information to him. I have not tried this yet, but I have some loins curing right now and might do it on one of them. Rick Segers, another buckboard fan sent this info my way: "I do the buckboard bacon with a maple flavor and i will also do it with apple. With the maple after it comes out of the cure and rinse I make a fifty/fifty mixture of water and maple syrup and inject the butt. I'll then rub the outside with about a tablespoon of syrup and then put it in the smoker with maple wood in the cooker. I've done the same thing with apple juice instead of syrup and apple wood in the smoker".

2006/10/05---Thirdeye

The amount of cure is based on weight, but the cure time is based on thickness. It's hard for me to find one in that 3 to 3.5 inch range, which calls for 10 days. I'll bet that the 9 days will work fine. Aftr rinsing, don't cut yourself short on the 2 hour soak time.

2009/01/27---Thirdeye---Most of my temps are actual (at the grate), but I have gotten pretty keen at calculating the difference between them and dome temps. With Buckboard, the lower you can maintain the first couple of hours is the real flavor delivery time, so go with what you can. Actually with my technique, I'm in the cooker so often adding chips, the pit temp will get zapped on it's own anyways. Like Nils mentioned, a forced draft fan is nice, especially if you are doing several batches......Regardless of the temp, I think the critical thing is to be able to drop a few chips into the coals on a regular basis. For the maple flavored Buckboard, I inject a 50:50 solution of good maple syrup and warm water about halfway through the rest period. (too early interferes with the equalization of liquids). Then, about a half hour before it comes off the cooker, I paint on a coat of pure maple syrup. (Richard, if you try this, use a sprinkle of that Maple sugar I sent on top of the syrup, it's a nice touch)

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2009/03/15---Grandpas Grub

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Hoss,

I'm a BB newbie and thirdeye is the king.

Which cure are you using?

If High Mountain... here are my thoughts. The cure time is probably more to do with the thickness of he meat.

I went 5 days on my tenderloin as per thirdeye's comments. That worked out great.

On my loin and Boston Butts all pretty close to 3#, some 2.5# others 3.5# I went the full 10 days, in ziplock and rotated at lest every other day sometimes every day - I wansn't too concerned.

High Mountain says the meat should not be much more than 3" thick. I didn't measure but a couple of butts were that or a little more.

I followed the amount of cure pretty close to their instructions.

If any of the cuts are 2" or less you might want to email Wayne and ask him he would know better than I.

Kent

Eggin in the High Desert, Utah ~ Cross Roads of the West

2009/03/15----Thirdeye---

Kent, I think that sums it up pretty good. For a rough guideline I use the following:

Curing time is based on meat thickness: I use 9 or 10 days curing time on a 3 to 3-1/2 inch thick butt. About 8 days on a 2 to 2-1/2 inch thick butt. About 6 days on an average loin. About 5 days on a tenderloin.

Hoss, just remember that the amount of cure used is based on weight, and the cure time is based on thickness. I'm in the process of redesigning my homepage.....The first revision is up now. Just click on "Recipes" then you can find Buckboard in the "PORK" section.

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WokOnMedium

Thank you, I missed that exchange. I think the kookie thing mighta had something to do with the wine...although I use that word sometimes, just not here.

Have a great day!

Hoss

NEVER!!! :evil:

troutman

I'm jumping on that short bus with you. I've ordered the Hi Mountain cure and just waiting for it to arrive. I plan to get boneless shoulder from Costco and try it out.

Great question and thanks to all for the responses. I'll use them too and post pictures when I'm done in 2 weeks or so.

Wokonmedium, if you beat me to it let me know how it turns out and what not to do. Thanks.

I may be on the short bus with ya, but I'll pass on sharing the fluffy Christmas sweater. It's too hot here.