Makin’ Bacon

Posted by DibS in Bacon, DIY      No comments

Oct
26

I’ve been inspired by The Champagne of Blogs to make my own bacon because who doesn’t like bacon??? Bacon makes everything better, and I’m about to have 15 lbs of prime, apple smoked bacon of my very own. Finding a pork belly wasn’t exactly easy. I finally spoke North End Quality Meats where Jimmy said he could order me one. He was funny because the day it arrived, he called me and said he didn’t like the looks of it so he wondered if I could wait one more day until he got a nice fresh one.I left with this:

Notice the spare ribs Still attached

Also from the skin side.

Removing the spare ribs.

Cross section when I split it into 3 slabs

I then rubbed down the meat with salt, pepper and brown sugar. Two of the slabs got maple syrup as well and one got fresh chopped garlic, bay leaves and cracked coriander. They were put in ziptop bags and set in the fridge to cure for 7 days.

The slabs were then rinsed and left unwrapped for a day in the fridge. Then they were smoked with a combination of apple and maple wood.

UPDATE: I regretted the maple wood after the fact. It took away from the nice clean bacon flavor. In my second batch I only used apple wood and it was spectacular.

It ain’t enough to bring home the bacon…. One then must fry it up in the proverbial pan. Mmmmm… Bacon….

UPDATE: As I stated above, I did another batch since this was originally written. The second batch benefited from one less day of curing, a purer (all apple wood) longer smoke and my grandmother’s slicer. The rustic hand sliced feel of the first batch was nice, but nothing beats the control of a real slicer. The first batch had a slight ham flavor to it that I think came from having about 24 hours to long in the cure. That was rectified in the second batch. The second batch is fabulous. All In all, a great project.

Some pics:

Much nicer cuts the second time around.