The final taste of my of new bacon

I’m eating a BLT right now from my second cure and Its very very good. I found out that I had a lean pork belly and because of the salt cure and It disolveing the fat I had to cut back on the salt. Because I had a lean porkbelly I cured it with the salt for 2 days instead of the 5 days I tried before,, dried it in the fridge for 2 days then smoked it last night for 2 hrs with apple wood, thus not disolveing the fat I thought I had to do too make bacon.

What I have found out is the finished product is what you want on the amount of fat thats left on the slab after the curing process. Beings I had a lean porkbelly with more meat then usual I had to cut back on the salt and that left more fat, which I wanted. Take it from me, bacon has to have some fat on it for a number of reasons, to make it slice better and taste good, and too just be good plain bacon.

I didn’t run this bacon through a mechanical slicer this time, like before, and I cut it with a knife to make the slices come out thicker,,, and bar none its better then any store bought bacon. The taste is so much better that I’m kinda surprised more people haven’t heard about it and are already making their own. Price comparison pound for pound it may be a little more expensive then store bought but how do you weigh water impregnated bacon compared to the real thing. Want a good bacon for your recipes?,,, make your own, its finger food any time of day just as it is. It tastes better, it crunches better, even after the first attempt its better then store bought, kinda like a rough fish fillet compared to a walleye fillet, its a no brainer and it only costs 32 bucks for maybe 10 meals, thats better then anything you can buy and slice to what you want, I’m glad I tried. PM me if you want my input. Boy this BLT is good! and from easy to cure, smoke, slice and eat bacon.

Some Garden fresh green beans, new potatoes and onions with some home made bacon in the boil and ,,it doesn’t get any better then that.

I’ve done a lot of bacon over the years and I have tried the dry rub as well as a brine. Personally I like the dry cure as you are doing over the wet cure.

I wrapped my cured meat in cheesecloth and added hanger clips to smoke it. I did mine over a cool smoke using apple wood for 4 hours, then I allowed the smoker to cool down naturally with the bacon left in it. When the smoker was cold, I removed the bacon and hung it to mellow out for a week in a cool garage. When the chessecloth came off the sides were cut down to roughly 1 pound chunks, vacuum wrapped and sealed and froze. As I got them from the freezer for use I got the slicer out and cut the bacon just prior to cooking.

I have to agree 100% with you that the home cured bacon is way better than store bought products. I used a rub made from equal parts of brown sugar and Morton’s Tender Qwik cure.

Now that you’ve done bacon bacon, trey a cottage bacon made from a boneless shoulder. Rub cure it just like your bacon, keeping it in a large plastic bowl in the fridge turning it over and re-rubbing the brine into the meat every morning and every evening for a week. Wrap tightly in cheesecloth and smoke for about 6 hours in a moderate heat smoke. Again, I like apple for pork. Let the meat cool in the smoker naturally and then hang for a week to 10 days in a cool garage. Remove the cheesecloth and slice as you wish before packaing to freeze. Cottage bacon is awesome and cut into chunks and added to some home-made baked beans it is to die for.

Ya Tom, I hear your last quote to die for, It really is, the whole process really is. I’m going to try your boneless shoulder recipe, If it turns out like the simple bacon I made to the way your describing it,,,it ought to be to die for, I believe it and I’ve got a couple basket loads of aged apple to use too. Got anything for chicken and turkey etc? using apple wood.

I do a brine for chicken and completely submerse the bird for two days in it in a fridge. I use the same ratio and ingredients as for the rub but I use about four cups of the rub mix to a gallon of water for the brine.

I leave the skin on the whole bird and still wrap the cheesecloth loosely around the bird for smoking. Cheesecloth allows the smoke to get to the meat but it stops and holds the bitter tar that smoking with wood creates and coats the meat’s surface. The cheesecloth can be soaked in a strong dish soap solution and hand worked for a while to break down the tar and any oils or liquids from the smoking process, rinsed thru several changes of hot water and then hung on a line loosely to dry. Bag it in a gallon zip lock for another time in the future. I’ve done three or four sessions with the same piece of cheesecloth but after three it gets hard to keep together just because cheesecloth itself is not a real durable cloth.

Instead of turkey, try doing a couple pheasants that have been picked instead of skinned. Ya, I know, picking pheasants is a pain but leaving the skin on helps protect against drying so doing a super clean pick is not needed as you’ll be peeling the skin off to chew on the morsels underneath. A roughed grouse or two that have been picked are another bird that can be pure heaven when smoked. When doing any birds I get the smoke on the meat early on at a cooler temp, then finish the process by booting up the heat until the meat is cooked. Leave them wrapped in the cheesecloth for the whole process and you’ll be amazed at how much more juicy they are will be.

I got hungry for a good smoked meat sandwich so I bought a pork roast and am smoking it right now. I’m going to smoke it for 4 hrs and add some heat to it to cook it then slice it and add barbeque sauce for pork roast sandwiches. Add a slice or two of onions and maybe some cole slaw and it ought to be good for a sandwich around 10:00 tonight. I am going to try your recipe Tom with the boneless pork shoulder but I have to find a place to buy some cheese cloth. What kind of dry rub do you use for the cure.

Mmmmmmm bacon.

Excellent!! I’ll be trying this soon. Thanks.

Man did the pork roast come out good. I smoked it for 3 hours under pretty heavy smoke and my taste buds couldn’t stand it anymore, I had to eat. I took it out of the smoker and sliced it into about 1/2 thick pieces, put some mustard, salt and pepper with sliced onions and ate two sandwiches. Even the wife said it was good because she not a big fan of heavily smoked meats, but if its done right she’ll eat and like it.

I told her before work this morning to take the roast and put it in the oven for two hrs at 250, add a cup of water and about an hour before its done to put some barbeque sauce on it. She did that with some onions and when I got home we had smoked pork roast sandwiches covered with barbeque sauce. We grilled some sesame buns until brown and dug in, good stuff my friends!