Advice about smoking bellies needed

[coachB]

About to do my first pork belly for bacon.  I am doing Brian's cure method and will be smoking according to his instructions.  This belly does not have the skin still attached.  My question is whether the belly is loaded on the rack fat side up or down.  I know it has been discussed before, but I couldn't find the thread with the answer.  Thanks guys.

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[mizzoufan]

While I admittedly haven't done a belly yet, my first rule of smoking (so far, at least) is that the fat caps always go up so the meat can self baste.

[BedouinBob]

Since bacon temperature is no more than 150 at this stage it's sort of a mute point. The fat won't render much if at all so smoke away!

[NDKoze]

While I admittedly haven't done a belly yet, my first rule of smoking (so far, at least) is that the fat caps always go up so the meat can self baste.

I always do fat-cap up, but as Bob mentioned if you are rendering fat when smoking you are smoking at too high of a temperature for belly bacon. No matter what you are smoking, there really isn't a good reason for smoking cap down that I am aware of.

If you are doing a warm smoke, you may get some "slight" fat rendering, but should not be that much.

I have changed over to a long cold smoke, so never have fat rendering issues.

[coachB]

What I was planning Greg, was 2 hrs @ !00, then bump to 200 until IT reached 145-150 on the Auber.  I have the SI cold plate.  Should I be using this?

[Pork Belly]

Check out this last bacon smoke I did.
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=3034.0

The long cold smoke was great for the color and taste. Defiantly better overall smoke penatration and flavor. The color was fantastic. That was a skinless belly. I do all bellies fat side up regardless of skin or no skin.

[coachB]

OK, so cold smoking it is--12 hrs @ 80, bump to 175 until Auber hits IT of 145-150.  When I pulled the bellies to brine them I discovered they still had the skin on so I will remove later as you suggest and smoke them fat side up. Does the curing actually penetrate through that thick skin layer?  I know it must, but boy, does it look like it would be difficult.  I plan on using the cold plate rack and ice during the smoke and will be using Traeger pellets in the SI smoke box.  Hope the pellets stay smouldering.  So far they have worked fine in my other smokes, though none of them have been cold smokes. 

Thanks again, you guys are amazing.

[Pork Belly]

If you are following the recipe I posted your are curing the bellies not brining them.

Yes the cure will penetrate the skin it is not an issue. Removing the skin is easiest when the bellies are hot out of the smoker. You can cold smoke for as long or short as you like. I have started doing longer cold smokes prior to hot smoking my bacon in search of stronger smoke flavor. I started at a few hours, then progressed to 4, 6, 8 now doing 12.

[coachB]

Brian,  they are curing according to your recipe.  The brown sugar/maple syrup solution in the ziplocs has already increased in volume after 24 hrs so I am assuming that is moisture being pulled out of the bellies.  It is interesting to watch the progression of the curing process.

[Pork Belly]

It is kind of odd, the extra sugar seems to generate a lot more moisture than just the dry cure. I did equal size pieces of belly last week. One section was dry cure, garlic and spices and shed less than 2 tablespoons of liquid. The bacon with less than 1/4 cup of sugar and syrup lost about a cup of fluid.

[wmeister1]

To confirm earlier posts on my couple of bacon trials..
1.  The fat will not render (melt) at the low temps you are smoking at.  It does sweat though so I leave the fatty side up. Actually, I take a few minutes to trim most of the fat off before I even cure it.  Not sure why anyone would really need 1/3+ of it fat anyway.
2. Sugar, especially brown sugar in the cure seems to pull more juice / water out of the belly during curing.  I have seen this as I made two at the same time, one with the brown sugar (sweet), and one not (black pepper).

[Pork Belly]

Actually, I take a few minutes to trim most of the fat off before I even cure it./quote]

That is a bit sad, Crispy bacon fat is a culinary treasure.