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I am so excited.... pork bellies

Ok found a butcher shop that will bring in pork bellies for me. I want to try making my own bacon. The butcher said to tell him how I want to order it, rind on or off, more fat cap, less fat cap. Don't know where to go from here. I say an older post from U tarted but I couldn't find the recipe from his post. Anyone out there have one that they could share. Every since the eggs landed on our porch, I have been stirred onto trying different things with it, and seeing how our bacon consumption has gone up as well, I thought it would be fun to give curing our own bacon a whirl. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, enjoy yourselves.
Scot
Large, small, and a mini

Comments

  • Nice....it becomes addicting. Here's a thread of one I did a few weeks ago...recipe is in first post. http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1145448/maple-cured-smoked-bacon-pics/p1
  • Thanks so much MQ I will get to reading it.
    Large, small, and a mini
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    I'm embarrassed to say I've not yet done bacon, but I'm working on it!  I hear it's much better than anything you can buy at the grocery.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • Hey NOLA, hope your day went well. Just reading the info MQ sent. Either of you guys know after the ingredients are mixed, what is the process, how does the cure go down, hang it in a cooler, leave it in the fridge, or what. I am grass green at this and need all the pointers I can get.
    Cheers

    Large, small, and a mini
  • Mighty_Quinn
    Mighty_Quinn Posts: 1,878
    edited November 2012
    Here's a decent walk through...only real difference is I hot smoke mine at about 180-190 to 150 internal instead of cold smoke. I highly recommend the Ruhlman book referenced in that blog.(great blog too btw) Edit...I forgot the link. http://frombellytobacon.com/2010/03/17/making-bacon-at-home-the-ruhlman-way/
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    That's a great book - I recommended it to a guy at work today. 

    I've not made bacon before, but the cool thing about curing is there are only a limited number of processes that are applied to many different end products.  Once you learn those, you can get creative and almost "predict" how to make something.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • U_tarded
    U_tarded Posts: 2,042
    i did my first last week 5 pounds.  I got mine rind on and no idea on the fat cap.  Basically I went into the mexican grocery store and said pork belly? they looked at me suspiciously and then went to the back and came back with a monster belly.  i said 5 pounds holding up my hand he cut it in half i think it weighed 5.5 pounds.  Removing the rind is a hassle but in the end it is the best I have ever had I told the wife to never buy bacon again.  I think i ended up with just over 4 pounds and i divided it into 8 slice packs and put it in the freezer.   So delicious, super cheap too i think i got the belly for 2.50 a pound.  Let us know how it goes!
  • GlennM
    GlennM Posts: 1,360
    I've made it three times now. It turns out great! Just rub it down with the cure, put it in a zip loc bag and flip it every day or so for a week. After a week, take it out of the bag and rinse it off. Put it in the fridge on a rack for a day to dry it, then smoke it at 200 with apple or cherry chunks to an internal temp of 150. I find it takes quite a while to smoke it, last one was about 6 hours. I did mine indirect, does anyone smoke it direct? Btw, the skin comes off easily once it's finished and still hot
    In the bush just East of Cambridge,Ontario 
  • U_tarded
    U_tarded Posts: 2,042
    i'm going to try rind on next time if i can't figure out how to overcome the language barrier and buy it rind off.  thanks for the tip @GlennM