3rd attempt at bacon 🥓

[Bowfineater]

3rd Bacon Attempt

I’m using half a pork belly (1971 grams) from the pig I bought last fall, from Walker Farms in Princeton MN.

cure formula
Pork                          100%                          1971 grams
Salt                              2%                              39 grams
Maple Sugar                  1%                              20 grams
Prague Powder #1      0.25%                          4.92 grams


The maple sugar is something I always thought was just maple flavored sugar, but it is not.  I got it last fall on vacation visiting a “sugar house” in Vermont.  It is in fact 100% maple syrup, cooked to the hardball candy stage, and mixed with a paddle, until it crystallizes.

I cured the pork in a 2 gal plastic bag for 10 days, rinsed it (not soaked) in cold water, and let sit uncovered in the fridge for 36 hours.

I then smoked using 3.25 oz of smokinlicious maple wood, cut into 8 pieces of various sizes.  My smoking wood has gotten a little dry, so I would guess it would be approximately 4 oz of wood at the appropriate moisture content.  I have a photo of a chunk that would be 2 kids blocks, and it weighed 3.21 oz. 

I smoked @ 150F for 2 hrs
                  175F for 4 hrs
                  200F until done

Total smoking time was 5 hrs and 10 min, so it never got to 200F
I pulled the bacon @ 137F, much lower than the recommended 150F, because I wanted to try it at a lower temp, and it was late and I wanted to go to bed.

The end result is this is the best batch of bacon so far, I have noticed that the salt and smoke levels, do deminish some what after being sliced, packaged, and frozen for some time, and what we tasted is fresh, smoked last night, so we will see what happens, in a month or so when I get to the end of this batch.

 

[kona77]

Looks great. Appreciate your updates on all your bacon smokes. Waiting to see some better/meatier
pork bellies at my local Costco store so I can smoke some more bacon.. 

 

[Bowfineater]

Costco is where I get pork bellies from when I’m not using the pig I bought from Walker farms. 

If you want meatier bacon, have you tried “buckboard bacon”

You just make bacon from a pork shoulder instead of the belly.  Just cut the shoulder into pieces that approximate the thickness of a belly.

This website is a great place to start if you are interested in finding a farmer to buy from local to you.

http://www.eatwild.com/products/

 

[kona77]

Appreciate the additional info.. Have seen past posts about buckboard bacon and may give it a try sometime

 

[old sarge]

Nicely done Gene.

 

[NDKoze]

Who doesn't love a good bacon post?

Nice job Gene!

 

[kona77]

David/Greg-  While I always appreciate kind words, it was Phil who did all the actual work on this post and some other recent bacon updates.. Actually came on today to post on my first attempt at Canadian bacon.. Hope to find some good pork bellies on my next trip to Costco..

 

[NDKoze]

David/Greg-  While I always appreciate kind words, it was Phil who did all the actual work on this post and some other recent bacon updates.. Actually came on today to post on my first attempt at Canadian bacon.. Hope to find some good pork bellies on my next trip to Costco..

LOL!!! I forgot to look for the OP's first name before typing my response, so ended up just copying from Dave.

Thanks to you both for your posts! How about that?  ;D