Buckboard Bacon Baby!

[paidin]

First try at buckboard bacon.  Brined in 1/2 oz Mortons Tenderquick and 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar per pound of boston butt.  I deboned the boston butt and cut along the shoulder blade to roughly split the boston butt into two slabs.  Each slab was weighed and the associated cure and sugar were placed in a bag with only that piece of meat.  I turned it every 1-4 days in the refrigerator.  After about 10 days, I rinsed each slab of meat and I cut the thickest piece in half and sliced off a test piece.  I checked to make sure the cure went all the way through the meat.  Make sure it is all red throughout and not grey in the middle.  Fry up the test slice and taste to make sure it is not too salty.  My test piece was super awesome tasting!

 

[TARDISgirl]

Looks awesome!

 

[paidin]

After rinsing each piece of meat, I patted them dry and applied black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to the outside of each piece.  I then set up the AMNPS by nuking some pellets for 2 minutes, loading up the tray, and lighting both ends.  While that got started, I got the smoker ready with the PID.  I programmed it for 120 degrees for 2 hours, then 140 degrees for 2 hours, then 160 degrees until internal temp hit 120 degrees.  I think that is the correct internal temp.  I am going to search the interwebs to make sure that is correct.  Even though I am posting stuff, it does not mean I know what I am doing.  I then load the meat into the smoker with the meat probe in the thickest piece.  The cabinet probe is just dangling in the middle.  They are calling for rain this evening so I found a neat lid for the auber and a neat solution to keep rain out of the Smokin-It Bunghole (tm).  We will see how that works out.

 

[paidin]

Looks awesome!

Time and Relative Dimension in Space yeah baby!

 

[Pork Belly]

You do not need to weigh your meat and tender quick to figure a ratio. You can roll the meat in a pan of tender quick, making sure to rub it in and get it to stick. Add the sugar after the meat is in a zip bag. If your using maple or cane syrup as flavoring put it in the bag prior to adding the meat. You rub the bag to coat the inside with the syrup.
You likely didn't hurt anything but should have been flipping the meat once a day. Your cure time could have gone just 7 days.
After rinsing and patting dry, a day in the fridge on a rack helps dry the meat prior to smoking.
Your ideal IT is at least 150 on cured meat.
I am wondering why you are using the Jerky dryer, is it to keep your AMNPs lit? I think it is strange that the big bad #4 cant keep smoke rolling at low temps without the AMNPS.
It looks all good, you just need a slicer.

 

[paidin]

You do not need to weigh your meat and tender quick to figure a ratio. You can roll the meat in a pan of tender quick, making sure to rub it in and get it to stick. Add the sugar after the meat is in a zip bag. If your using maple or cane syrup as flavoring put it in the bag prior to adding the meat. You rub the bag to coat the inside with the syrup.
You likely didn't hurt anything but should have been flipping the meat once a day. Your cure time could have gone just 7 days.
Your ideal IT is at least 150 on cured meat.
I am wondering why you are using the AMNPS when the SI will make good smoke at the temps you ran it at.
It looks good, you just need a slicer.

Thanks for the input!  I am new to buckboard bacon so I am going by the guidelines of Bearcarver over in the smoking meat forums.  His tutorials are pretty step by step for a noob like me.  After all the reading I have done on the curing of meats, they scared me into making precise measurements based on weight when using cure.  The reason I did not flip every day was that I had to go on a business trip shortly after I started the curing process so I could not get back to it for a 4 or so days.  I did a test cut down the middle of the thickest piece to ensure the cure fully penetrated.  I calculated needing about 7 days but read somewhere the curing it for a longer period of time would not hurt anything so thats what I did to be sure.  I was doing some more reading on internal temps and found that some people smoke to a lower temp when they are planning on frying it up before eating and some people smoke to an internal temp of 152 degrees if they planned on eating without needed to fry it up.  I found a couple sources that say to smoke to an internal temp of 140 degrees so that is what I will try this time.  140 degrees in the thickest ones should be about 152+ degrees in the thinner pieces I have in the smoker.  I will gauge which one I prefer the best and note that for the next time I make BBB   Thanks again for the input!

 

[NDKoze]

I smoke mine to 140 as I will always be frying it before eating.

Here is a link to how I do mine:
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1640.0

 

[paidin]

Thanks for the heads up Gregg, I saw quite a few people using that method after I read up more on BBB while mine were dry brining.  I took out one of the small flat pieces to test because it was about 140 degrees while the largest is at 108 and a slab on the lower rack is sitting at 120 degrees.  It was a very thin piece and turned out to be quite salty.  It did smell great and taste pretty good too.  I added lard to the frying pan for half the pieces and found it to be perfect in taste!

 

[NDKoze]

I would wrap the finished pieces in plastic wrap and let them rest/mellow in the fridge for several days before you slice it. The salt level and smoke will stabilize and mellow a bit. My last batch of BBB rested in my fridge for a week before I sliced and packaged it.

 

[paidin]

I borrowed a slicer from my friend who owns a restaurant and sliced them up.  I vacuum sealed some for long term storage and ziplocked some for immediate use.  Turned out pretty darn good!

 

[NDKoze]

Looks pretty darn good!

 

[paidin]

Thanks!  I have another 20 pounds of meat curing for buckboard bacon.  Probably ready to smoke by next thursday.