Pork Belly 1st attempt

[elkins20]

Update, tomorrow will pull it from the fridge and give it a good rinsing and back in the fridge on a wire rack. Will also take a photo, but it has been in the fridge curing for 6 days now.

 

[csteele2144]

Hey Chris, I have also seen some people will wrap the belly loosely with wax paper and place in the fridge. But, if I was you would follow Brian's suggestion. Just tell the family not to bother it. Or have the better half to smoke it for you.

15-20 pounds are resting quietly in the garage/beer fridge.  My wife looked at me funny when she saw all of it yesterday....

 

[elkins20]

Hey Chris, I have also seen some people will wrap the belly loosely with wax paper and place in the fridge. But, if I was you would follow Brian's suggestion. Just tell the family not to bother it. Or have the better half to smoke it for you.

15-20 pounds are resting quietly in the garage/beer fridge.  My wife looked at me funny when she saw all of it yesterday....

Hey Chris, I must be living in the wrong city, where on earth did you get 15#'s of pork belly? I need to check out a couple of Asian grocery stores and a costco. But, the place that I found the 2, 3# packages was a speciality grocery store.

 

[elkins20]

Hi Everyone, Pulled the belly out of the cure/brine at 12:00pm, this was about the time I put it in the brine 7 days ago. I rinsed it all over for a few minutes and then patted it dry with some paper towels. Now is back in the fridge on a rack. I will start the smoke tomorrow night after it cools down. We are supposed to have cool nights this week ranging in the mid 50's. I think can do the smoke at 90 degrees also going to add a 2 liter bottle of ice to the #3. Will be using about 5 oz of maple wood. Also the belly was pretty stiff when I removed it from the cure.

 

[Bebe]

good looking slab!
Yes, it's suppose to be much stiffer, that's good. Maybe you wanna cut a tiny bit, fry it to check if too salty.

 

[elkins20]

good looking slab!
Yes, it's suppose to be much stiffer, that's good. Maybe you wanna cut a tiny bit, fry it to check if too salty.

Hey Pete, if I tried a sample am afraid would end up eating the whole thing. I have a fondness for bacon. Also have a bunch of tomatoes that I need to juice and cook to can for sauce. And I hear several calling my name saying it is time for bacon and tomato sandwiches.    :-\

 

[gregbooras]

good looking slab!
Yes, it's suppose to be much stiffer, that's good. Maybe you wanna cut a tiny bit, fry it to check if too salty.

Hey Pete, if I tried a sample am afraid would end up eating the whole thing. I have a fondness for bacon. Also have a bunch of tomatoes that I need to juice and cook to can for sauce. And I hear several calling my name saying it is time for bacon and tomato sandwiches.    :-\

Sounds like an excellent problem to have

Greg

 

[csteele2144]

Hey Chris, I have also seen some people will wrap the belly loosely with wax paper and place in the fridge. But, if I was you would follow Brian's suggestion. Just tell the family not to bother it. Or have the better half to smoke it for you.

15-20 pounds are resting quietly in the garage/beer fridge.  My wife looked at me funny when she saw all of it yesterday....

Hey Chris, I must be living in the wrong city, where on earth did you get 15#'s of pork belly? I need to check out a couple of Asian grocery stores and a costco. But, the place that I found the 2, 3# packages was a speciality grocery store.

I've picked it up in a few different places in Chicago.  One is a cheap wholesale butcher shop (its an interesting experience, you walk into the cooler, put on plastic gloves, and grab and bag whatever meat you want), I think it was $2.99 a pound, skin on.  Costco is walking distance from my place and they started carrying pork belly earlier this summer, $2.39 skin off.  The Costco bellies have looked amazing, but I'm just now smoking my first batch as I've run out of bacon from my first attempt.

 

[DivotMaker]

Can't wait to see the finished smoked bacon, Bill!  Looking good, brother! 8)

 

[elkins20]

Hey Everyone, Woke up this morning to a crisp 55 degrees and thought this would be a good day to smoke the bacon. I am using 2 oz of hickory chips in an aluminum boat, 2 oz of maple block and a couple of left over pieces of wood from a previous smoke. I also added a 2 liter bottle of ice just above the smoke box. Will do 5 hrs. smoke at box temp. of 90, then up to 200 for an internal temp. of 150. Was going to do an 8 hrs. cold smoke but did not want to stay up that late last night.

 

[Donmac]

Hey Everyone, Woke up this morning to a crisp 55 degrees and thought this would be a good day to smoke the bacon. I am using 2 oz of hickory chips in an aluminum boat, 2 oz of maple block and a couple of left over pieces of wood from a previous smoke. I also added a 2 liter bottle of ice just above the smoke box. Will do 5 hrs. smoke at box temp. of 90, then up to 200 for an internal temp. of 150. Was going to do an 8 hrs. cold smoke but did not want to stay up that late last night.

Bill is your first attempt at bacon? I have been wanting to do one but haven't yet, kind of scared of screwing it up.

 

[DivotMaker]

Good day for a bacon smoke, Bill!  Wishing you luck!

 

[elkins20]

Hey Don & Tony, First Don yes this was my first attempt at doing bacon. Next time will have a cold plate for my #3 and also a 12 a-maze-n smoker tube. But, the bacon was in the smoker for 8 hrs. at 90 degrees with an ambient temp. starting at 56 degrees and warmed up to 66 degrees. Yes, Tony was a great day to smoke the bacon. After the 8 hrs. at 90 the auber took the temp. up to 200 and was there about 2 hrs. to reach the internal temp. of 150. Pulled the bacon out, then cut the skin off, which was easier than I thought it would be. But, used a very sharp fish filleting knife. I actually thought the skin would be thicker than about an 1/8 of an inch. I did cut off a small slice and fried it, was out of this world good. A little salty but after a night in the fridge that should mellow out. Enjoy the pictures. One last note, thank-you Brian/Pork Belly for your posts on bacon and your advice. With your help turned out a great belly bacon.

 

[gregbooras]

Great job on the bacon bill!

I bought a belly a few months ago, but with all my travel it still is in the freezer. Most likely I will not get around to it until December. The one thing I plan to do different is to give it a pepper rub before smoking it!

Greg

 

[Donmac]

Looks good man, I will get around to doing one of those someday.

 

[elkins20]

Great job on the bacon bill!

I bought a belly a few months ago, but with all my travel it still is in the freezer. Most likely I will not get around to it until December. The one thing I plan to do different is to give it a pepper rub before smoking it!

Greg

Hey Greg, I believe I seen some instructions on doing the black pepper, but for the life of me can't remember who posted it now. Mine did not have as much of a sweet maple flavor that I thought it would have.

 

[elkins20]

Looks good man, I will get around to doing one of those someday.

Hey Don, It is pretty easy, to do. Just a bit time consuming except for the smoke. I think you can do 2 hrs. at a box temp. of 100 and then up the box temp. to 200 and look for the internal temp. of 150.

 

[DivotMaker]

Nice job, Bill!

 

[elkins20]

Nice job, Bill!

Thanks Tony, just got my computer back working. Windows ten froze it with a blue screen error. Long story short had to reload windows 8.1 and lost all my files. Sucks to be me. Most of the apps I can re-load as for the files some I can re-create. Am going to start saving files once a month to a cd.

 

[DivotMaker]

Oh no!  Had to revert to 8??  That DOES suck!  Worst version of Windows EVER!  I'd reinstall 10, and find out what your problem was.  I have had really good luck with it, and I've used every version of Windows since the beginning.