Bacon 1st shot

[Barrel99]

Man, that looks darn good to me Greg.

[gregbooras]

Man, that looks darn good to me Greg.

Thanks Arnie,

When I told my wife I was going to make bacon she just looked at me an rolled her eyes

She then told me that you can buy bacon in the store.... I thought wow really.

Tomorrow night, may be BLT night if they taste good!

Greg

[swthorpe]

You just have to wow her over with the smoking expertise of Greg!  She will forget about store bought bacon!   

[gregbooras]

You just have to wow her over with the smoking expertise of Greg!  She will forget about store bought bacon!   

The good news is that she said it tasted good:)
Greg

[DivotMaker]

Great looking bacon, Greg! 

[TmanEater]

Good job Greg. I've been contemplating doing this myself so I'm still waiting to see your final results and if you believe it was "worth the effort" or if it's something you'd just do on special occasions or never again. It looks mighty fine by these first pictures to me.

[gregbooras]

I sliced the bacon this morning, wasn't to bad about 15 minutes or so. In stead of slicing the bacon long way, I cut the belly in half and made smaller slice. The slices ended up just being the right length for a slice of bread.

The beginning weight of the belly was just slightly under 4 lbs., the final weight ended up being slightly over 2 lbs. I thick sliced the bacon and got about 55 slices out of it with a few smaller pieces at the end I will use in pork and beans.



Greg

[Pork Belly]

I'm still waiting to see your final results and if you believe it was "worth the effort" or if it's something you'd just do on special occasions or never again

Bacon is not hard to make or really any effort at all. It is by far the easiest curing project you can attempt.

[gregbooras]

I'm still waiting to see your final results and if you believe it was "worth the effort" or if it's something you'd just do on special occasions or never again

Bacon is not hard to make or really any effort at all. It is by far the easiest curing project you can attempt.

I agree with Brian making the bacon was easy, but only because Brian and a few others posted how they did it

As I said in my earlier post, my biggest obstacle was finding the belly. 

Greg

[gregbooras]

Good job Greg. I've been contemplating doing this myself so I'm still waiting to see your final results and if you believe it was "worth the effort" or if it's something you'd just do on special occasions or never again. It looks mighty fine by these first pictures to me.

Tony,

It was really easy I just had two obstacles. Find a belly, 40+ miles away and the be around to flip the darn thing every day, since I travel so much. Smoking the belly was easy and so was cutting it (need a sharp knife).

Is this the best bacon I have ever had... I would probably say no to that, but it is good tasting and I know how it was made.

I will give it another shot later this summer.

Greg

Give it a try, heck you should be able to find some good belly in Iowa.

[TmanEater]

Thanks Greg-

I'll likely give it a try sometime. I'd think I should be able to find some good pork around here too but I haven't tried that hard to search for it.

[gregbooras]

I gave some of my bacon to my neighbor friend who also smokes and he said the bacon was Awesome. They had it two days in a row....

I guess I am more critical of the stuff I make than others.

Greg

[BedouinBob]

Once you have had the real thing made at home from scratch, you are ruined.  There isn't a store brand anything like it.

[elkins20]

Hey Greg, have you tried RD for pork belly? I have been toying with the idea of making this. As I only have 2 packages left of the 15# I purchased at RD in June. I go thru a ton of bacon. But, as most say everything is better with bacon. I might try the buckboard bacon as have never seen pork bellies. Or might ask the butcher at Sam's if they have it or can order it for me. 

[gregbooras]

Hey Greg, have you tried RD for pork belly? I have been toying with the idea of making this. As I only have 2 packages left of the 15# I purchased at RD in June. I go thru a ton of bacon. But, as most say everything is better with bacon. I might try the buckboard bacon as have never seen pork bellies. Or might ask the butcher at Sam's if they have it or can order it for me.

Hey Bill,

I didn't notice if they had pork belly at RD the last time I was there, I will have to check. I did buy a 5 lb. belly from the butcher last month and was planning on doing it with the grand kids. But we ran out of time, so once I get a week or so off the road, I will give it another try.

Greg