Start with fresh pork bellies. I cured mine in batches about 2 pounds each with the skin still on but the ribs removed. These are modified from the book Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn and by no means perfect. Feel free to add to the recipe and make it better.

Maple Cured Bacon

Trim your belles so they are pretty square. Mix 1/4 cup Morton Tenderquick with 1/2 cup of maple syrup (at this point i did add some honey and brown suger too). Mix it up and put in a nonreactive container (I use ziploc bags. See below the garlic recipe for further instructions.

Garlic Cured

It takes around 1/4 cup for a large chunk, but what is needed it taking Morton Tenderquick and Laying the peice on it. Then take the peice and do it on all the surfaces . Tap it lightly anthing that stays on is enough. Then add 4-6 crushed garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of crushed peppercorns, and two crushed bay leaves. Spread the mixture over the belly and add to the bag.

Put bags in the fridge and flip every other day for 7 days.

Remove and rinse the bellies.

Let them air dry (I skipped this last time due to being in a hurry still turned out good).

Fire up the smoker. I used two midsized (slighlty less than baseball sized) chunks of apple.

Smoke them till they reach 150 degrees. I did mine at a lid temp of 200 degrees.

Pull off the smoker and remove the skin while they are still hot. Slice off a bit and sample your creation!

This book recommends frying a small peice to see if it's too salty. If you think it is it recommends blanching the bacon in simmering water for 1 minute to reduce the saltiness.

Fry the bacon. If your cure had a lot of sugar such as the maple cured or honey you wil want to fry your bacon on a lower heat so the sugar doesn't burn.

I hope things turn out as well for you as they have for me.

Josh

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh Z.,

Was any charcoal used or just the chunks of apple wood?

Jason,

I used the WSM set up normal with charcoal and then added wood for smoke.

Josh

Just curious, can this be done without the skin still on. We butcher our own pigs on the farm, and we usually skin them when butchering. Will this work? or will it dry the bacon out?

No, you can absolutely cure and smoke skin off. I do it often. 'Drying out' comes from overdoing it, i.e., going to too high an internal temp. Keep your internal target reasonable and all will be well.

I think I prefer it skin off now that I've done it several times. When I wrote this post almost 3 years ago.. wow, I was just following the directions in a book. It's hard to believe that its been this long.

Thanks Kevin. We do our pigs in the winter time so that it is cool enough that the pigs can hang for a few days in between butchering and cutting. I will try this and try the peameal bacon the next time we do a pig.

I end up doing them whenever they're ready--or I am--and since we are rarely cool it's slaughter, hand, butcher, package all in one fell swoop. (It would be cool to have a cooler!)

Wow, Josh. I didn't remember it as being that long either. Time flies...with advancing age.

Well I just turned 30 so I don't know if I can blame the adavanced age, but I will credit the two children under the age of 2.

When I bought my berkshire it came without skin and I thought that bacon turned out better than the stuff I bought at the store with skin.

Can you tell me where you bought yours online? I cannot find any pork belly in Houston

quote:

Originally posted by Josh Z.:
Well I just turned 30 so I don't know if I can blame the adavanced age, but I will credit the two children under the age of 2.

When I bought my berkshire it came without skin and I thought that bacon turned out better than the stuff I bought at the store with skin.

Jason,

I actually bought a whole pig and I found the farmer through

http://www.eatwild.com/

and here is a link to a post about it

http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1780069052/m...870031654#1870031654


I hope this helps.

Two kids wil do it. (I was speaking mostly about myself re: advancing age. But you'll get there!)

EatWild is a great site. In Houston, if you are simply looking for belly, hit the Hispanic carnecerias. I rarely don't see belly. Ask in the back if it's not in the case.

quote:

Originally posted by Josh Z.:


When I bought my berkshire

Berkshire pigs are a rare breed that is raised mainly for specialty and higher end uses. The belly that you would buy in a store would like have come from mainline "white" breeds. Chances are it was the berkshire that made it taste better, not the fact that it came without skin. The reason that these breeds are not used more is that they grow slow, and feed conversion is much poorer than a traditional "white" breed pig.

I guess I should qualify this statement. When I said I thought it turned out better I wasn't so much talking about taste, which it did, but was more talking about I liked how it turned out with more smoke on the bacon because it wasn't blocked by the skin.

Since that point I have removed the skin on most of my bacon cooks when using regular old store bellies and I still think the results are better.

I called around in the town I work in and talked to the meat manager. He had bellies that he sliced for the asian community and upon further talking I found out he gets fresh hams that hey grinds for sausage.

The market is large store that caters to the ethnic population of the chicago burbs.

Its amazing what you can get nicely ask the right questions to the right people.

resurrecting an old thread as i'm really curious about trying this out. what inspired me was trying some some thick cut bacon that i thought were fantastic at some well-known nyc steakhouses(old homestead and peter luger). i thought maybe i could do as well or better with the wsm.

now to my question, can i use the buckboard bacon cure from hi mountain or is that a no-no?