Mike,

Fantastic looking bacon.

As much as I truly love the magic of combining smoke and pork, there are times, especially when I can get bellies as beautiful as the ones you got, when I prefer to simply cure the belly with some spices and hang it to dry bringing out the silky texture and concentrating the porkiness. This can be sliced thinly liked lardo or cooked.

The last time I did this was using the recipe in Charcuterie. I ended up broiling it and serving on a bed of couscous with the drippings from the pan.

Just something to consider, especially since you have such a great source for bellies.

Bill/SFNM

I figure I will try some other things next time out, I should branch out, partly this was just a time crunch issue that kept me sticking to what I knew how to do and get curing quickly. But I am so happy with this pork that it won't be the last order I place, I know that. Any other suggestions-- either for bellies or any other parts I might order-- most happily welcome!

Second post. made a mistake and thought i was putting it here. Anyway,
pointers and advice are appreciated. see below if you will.

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:17 pm Post subject: n00bs first bacon

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howdy. so to make it short and sweet.
I got about 4 pounds of pork belly soaking in:
a gallon H20
about 8oz brown sugar
about 7 oz seasalt
1 clove mashed garlic
about 3 oz of maple syrup
a touch of hot pepper oil
a couple bay leaves
1/2 teas poon garlic powder
1 dry red pepper
just went in about an hour ago. planning to let it go for 4 days and then smoke it for 4-6 hours. apple hickory mix. this will be my third time using the WSM (hey. just got it last weekend) pointers and suggestions appreciated.
Cheers
D

Recipe looks good, but 4 days seems short-- it's worked before?

First time makin bacon and no nitrates either.
you think 5days would be better than 4? how about safty with the meat?

at some point I'll need some pointers on the smoking as well.

I was going to get a medium fire going, full water pan set the bottom vents about half closed and keep adding smoke chips (apple/cherry and a touch of mesquite) till I got the internal temp registering 135. try and make that last 4-6 hours as well.

I have indonesian mangrove charcoal. good flavor for sure.

no smoke chunks yet, I'll be picking those up when I get back to the states in August along with some of that pink salt.

like i said something I should know i am all ears.

I think 10 days would be better than 4. I think you have to feel the meat every couple of days to get a sense of how it changes as it cures, but unless you had a belly that was too thin anyway, 4 days doesn't seem nearly enough, based on my experience (which is pretty much all in this thread). But then I haven't done the cure without curing salt (nitrate),

How I smoked mine is described above in this thread. I didn't worry about meat temperature, just smoker temperature we tried to keep no higher than 150F.

my first step toward my ultimate goal of taking over for Mario Batali's dad when he retires

Get in line.

Mike G wrote:I think 10 days would be better than 4. I think you have to feel the meat every couple of days to get a sense of how it changes as it cures, but unless you had a belly that was too thin anyway, 4 days doesn't seem nearly enough, based on my experience (which is pretty much all in this thread). But then I haven't done the cure without curing salt (nitrate),

How I smoked mine is described above in this thread. I didn't worry about meat temperature, just smoker temperature we tried to keep no higher than 150F.

sans nitrates is its ok to go 10+ days in brine without starting to turn rancid?

I was under the impression that taking the dome off was generally considered 'Bad'. I need to go pick up an oven thermo as well. settin it right on the grill with the meat and checking at intervals is the best way? anyone make an 'oven' thermo with a probe and a cord? I'll have to go see what they have at the 'home center'

I don't know what 10 days without nitrates will do, I've only done it 10 days with nitrates. The point of any cure is to retard spoilage, so if you have enough salt, maybe that will cure it sufficiently.

As far as the dome on the WSM goes, when you're cooking something, sure, you don't want to lift the dome and lower the cooking temp any more than you have to. Here, though, you're smoking while trying not to cook it too thoroughly (it will cook around the edges, and that's okay), so the point is getting smoke flavor; if you lower the temp along the way, that's fine. The real issue is that you want to keep an eye on the temp so it stays closer to 150 than the usual 225-250F of a WSM; and because you've just built a small fire inside the WSM, you'll have to keep an eye on it and feed it every 60-90 minutes or it will burn out.

For more sophisticated cold-smoking, you could rig an apparatus like the one shown in this thread, but for bacon, a few hours in the 150-175F range in the WSM works fine.

picked up a thermo for the rack today. trying like heck to find some nitrates. may have fond some but untill the gf gets home and translates what they are. well.. they won't go near the meat.
cool smoke'n. I'm tracking now. small smokey fire.

**on a side note after reading your link, not worried about the glue and crap leaching out of the cardboard?
Dam but thos pictures make my mouth water. i did a summer out of Cordova fishing for the Copper River reds.

should the meat loose some of its "flabbyness" as it cures? become more bacon like for lack of better terminology.

should the fire be hot enough to have the water in the pan boiling? or would you say thats a wee bit too hot? hot enough to maintain 130 for 3 hours anyway. I'll work it out. got beers, got tunes. get the cook on!

Hmm, I'd be afraid of messing with any chemical like that without absolutely knowing what I had. There are various curing and sausage sites online that might give you better guidance, but we're talking something that's potentially fatal until mixed to the proper, low proportions, so I'd proceed VERY carefully under your circumstances.

The texture won't change radically but you can tell the difference between a belly that's firmed up with the salt and what it's like when you first buy it (floppier).

No, I'm not worried about anything from the cardboard under those conditions; the cardboard isn't really even getting that warm or anything.

It'll probably boil the water a little, to tell the truth I never noticed either way. The real point is, temp around 150F at the top.

back in Japan, found a few Oz of curing salt/pink salt in some "kits".
the first bacon I did was......good. wow what freaking HUGE differance.
got some juniper berries and that curing salt, I'll go longer on the soak and add some brownsugar/molases alone with a little more spice to the brine.

cooling down here as well (ha ha ha, as in its just 75 at 930pm now)

looking forward to the next cook. going to do a 4-5 lb pork roast on Sunday. I love my webers.

For those who say "everything tastes better with bacon" and other bacon lovers:

Maple Bacon Morning

Hi,

Last Sunday, I purchased about 9lbs of pork belly, of decent thickness, from Peoria Packing. My motivation to smoke my own bacon had not only come from this posting but from this blog as well.

I started the cure a week ago, pretty much following his steps verbatim. I washed off the cure yesterday and have the three slabs on the smoker this very moment.

My question, stemming from re-reading this posting, is about the length of time to cure the bellies. Since the cures are without pink salts/nitrates, is 7 days long enough? Smelling the cured bellies after 7 days didn't reveal any offensive odor. Should I have left them in the cure a few days longer?

My other question has to do with smoking on the WSM. I should have read this before I started the fire. I used the same procedure in the KISS/5 step method, and had the sand-filled 2 gallon pan in place. After a half hour, the temp in the smoker had hit 250 already and the meat thermometer already showed 180. (cardnial sins, I know, to check temps and to even have thermometers involved. mea culpa!)

I closed all three vents by about 1/3. That was about 90 minutes ago. I'll be checking it in about 5 minutes. How should I have done the fire? I think I will be doing this a few (dozen) more times, at least. Practice makes perfect.

Thanks,
Joel

PS - took the bellies off when I posted initially and they were way overdone. Advise for my next go is welcomed!

I can't answer all of your questions but as far as a fire in my WSM I prefer to use the Minion method.

Typically I can get over 12 hours between 225 and 250 degrees without reloading the charcoal. Of course on a very cold day your times my vary.

Saw this a few weeks ago and look at it everyday.

Quick question: I got a great piece of pork belly today and am thinking about making (my first attempt at) bacon. But I don't have any Prague/pink powder, although I've got TenderQuick. Can anyone make an informed guess for me about what compensation, if any, I'd need make in order to use the TenderQuick instead of Prague powder?

TIA!

Geo

Sorry,l cant help you with your question, but where did you get your belly?

Geo wrote:Quick question: I got a great piece of pork belly today and am thinking about making (my first attempt at) bacon. But I don't have any Prague/pink powder, although I've got TenderQuick. Can anyone make an informed guess for me about what compensation, if any, I'd need make in order to use the TenderQuick instead of Prague powder?

My understanding is that TenderQuick has a lower concentration of sodium nitrite than pink salt (.5% vs. 6.25%) but it also contains sodium nitrate. I think it is worth making a batch of basic cure using TenderQuick, and trying it on the pork belly. Toss it if any off smells or colors develop over the week that you are curing the belly.

FrankP wrote: Toss it if any off smells or colors develop over the week that you are curing the belly.

The point of using nitrites/nitrates is to prevent the rare, but extremely deadly, formation of botulin toxins which are odorless, colorless, and tasteless. You will be cold-smoking the belly in conditions that require you to be extremely careful in the advice you follow.

Bill/SFNM wrote:

FrankP wrote: Toss it if any off smells or colors develop over the week that you are curing the belly.

The point of using nitrites/nitrates is to prevent the rare, but extremely deadly, formation of botulin toxins which are odorless, colorless, and tasteless. You will be cold-smoking the belly in conditions that require you to be extremely careful in the advice you follow.

You make an excellent point Bill. I could be mistaken, but I believe the recipe Geo will be using is from Charcouterie, which calls for hot smoking the bacon to a temperature of 150F. Not hot enough to kill botulin spores, but not as dangerous as cold smoking for long periods of time.

Bruce wrote:For those who say "everything tastes better with bacon" and other bacon lovers:

Maple Bacon Morning

I wish this came in little teabag-style packets. It makes me want to run out and buy a coffeemaker. (What exactly is universal blend?)

I can seem I'm not the only one fascinated by trying this myself... I'm wondering if there aren't other local options to Peoria, though. I Googled "Chicago Pork Meat Packing" and came up with a couple of possible options.

Anybody know anything about these guys: http://www.grantparkpacking.com/?

To quote their web site (emphasis is my own):
Although Grant Park Packing is known as a wholesale meat distributor, we also cater to the individual. Open Saturdays, we sell retail products at a wholesale price. Always on the go, we pride ourselves on our customer service and quick delivery as well as the quality and freshness of our products.

I don't know that I care so much that they are "always on the go" (I mean, hey, who isn't in this day and age...), but I am glad to know even The Pork King of Chicago has to work Saturdays.

Might I suggest

Eickmans Processing Co
3 00 Pecatonica Rd S
Seward, IL 61063
815-247-8451

as a possible solution to your pork belly quest.

Here is another question for you. Where can you get a WSM? I've looked all over...can't find one!

razbry wrote:Here is another question for you. Where can you get a WSM? I've looked all over...can't find one!

I'm sure there are places you can get it around town, but you can get one from Amazon for about $230 with free shipping and no tax.

Matt wrote:I'm sure there are places you can get it around town, but you can get one from Amazon for about $230 with free shipping and no tax.

Ace on Montrose has WSMs in stock ready for pick up at $189.

22 WSMs left as of 5 minutes ago

Ace Hardware
5848 W Montrose
Chicago
773-777-2606
WSMs, lump charcoal
Ask for Greg

Dang, I'm in the DeKalb Rockford area. I went on line to track a local source, but when I called each source...nada. Things got a lot more expensive from the original price of $140.00! Yeeesh!

razbry wrote:Dang, I'm in the DeKalb Rockford area.

Ace on Montrose will ship, probably still be noticeably under the $230 Amazon price.

Ask for Greg

I did call Greg at Ace...nice guy. For anyone following along, the grill is $190, shipping about $20.00, tax (near as I can tell) $17.57. Total cost: $227.57. This comes under (but still close) to the Amazon deal. I did find one in Rockford for $250. Anyway, I thought I'd go the Ace route to get the grill/smoker. It was the cheapest, and at least some of the money was going towards Illinois taxes. Heaven knows the governer could use the money!