Home Made Bacon
 

Last night was the culmination of seven days of curing a full slab of pork belly!

I started with a big, I mean big like around two foot by three foot, frozen pork belly. thawed it in the fridge overnight.

The next day I mixed up a batch of curing rub from kosher salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup. I cut the slab into two pieces and then applied the rub. Top, bottom, sides, just all over it.

Then each slab went into a two gallon ziploc bag. Then into the fridge for a week! Flipping each slab over once a day so that the brine that forms will coat the entire slab.

After seven days the meat is cured, you can cut it and fry it if you want but I smoked it instead! About an hour and a half in the BGE with hickory chips. I wanted to use maple chips instead but couldn't find any in town:(

This bacon is very rich. It would make for excellent BLT sandwiches instead of breakfast bacon. It's meaty and sweet. Very cool flavor and much different than store bought bacon.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

That is an interesting undertaking, sounds good.:tu

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Love me some bacon

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Interesting. Sounds awesome! I'll stick with turkey bacon though :)

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Wow, Andy. Sounds incredible!!!

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

I hate to say it.. but we need pics.


Like "bacon" doesn't already make me Pavlovs dog, I thought I would just get a bigger towel.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Most excellent. I've got two belly slabs, about 26lbs, in my freezer just waiting to be thawed, cured and smoked. Just waiting for a time when I know I'll be home long enough to go through the process. I've used maple syrup in the past but the flavor never seems to come through.

Here's a pic from the last batch.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Raisin (Mike) makes bacon like this, and fed an army at one of the Shack Herfs.....made the best BLTs I have had before or since. :tu

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

I have just got to give this a try but not sure where I could get the frozen belly slabs around here.:banger

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/photo-36.jpg
Raw, uncured pork belly.
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/photo-37.jpg
After rubbing the curing mixture on the bacon and placing in the two gallon ziploc bags. That should give you an idea of how big the slabs are.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

I'd start with any butcher shop. Grocery stores really don't carry a cut of meat like that.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Sounds delish!! :D

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

If I did that, i'd be eating bacon every day. It's like crack to me. heh heh.

Way to go, that bacon looks excellent!

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Yep, that's the best bet. They should be able to special order it for you. I've found a local farmer that raises hormone/antibiotic free pigs and get mine from him.

blugill, post how they came out.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

:dr :dr

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Oh my, that looks amazing! :dr

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm bacon..... Nicely done, thanks for sharing!

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Andy??? What the Heck's the matter with you????!!!!???!??

Don't you know I'm trying to lose weight? Ain't gonna happen with you posting threads like this.

Darn. Now I gotta go find me some bacon fat to eat!

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/photo-38.jpg

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/photo-39.jpg

Pictures as requested:)

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Kosher salt on pork hahaha very ironic

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

:tpd: :r

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Can you bomb me with some of that?:tu

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

add this to meats to smoke in the summer list :tu

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

That sounds amazing. I would eat it all too quickly, and then regret ever making it.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

likely the most delicious sounding thing ive ever heard of.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

BACON BACON BACON!! I think J Drew is working on making a bacon cigar, or was that the Flying Pig LOL.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Bacon makes everything better! :dr

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

Thanks for remembering, Tom... but actually what i prepared was "Buckboard Bacon", made from the shoulder of the pig which is 90% meat as opposed to the 90% fat in belly bacon.
http://shop.himtnjerky.com/online/pr...cat=252&page=1






This is not technically "bacon", either - no nitrates! If you want the real bacon color, flavor, and long shelf life you need the addition of nitrates to the salt. This is the difference between salt pork and bacon. I just this week had a BLT made from bacon 9 months old (unfrozen), i would not try that with bacon that was just salt cured.

Re: Home Made Bacon
 

This bacon will only last about two weeks. I specifically didn't want any nitrates in it. It is just salt and sugar cured.