Makin the Bacon

[Jims5543]

I decided a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to make my own bacon.

I did some reading online, and then gathered the items needed, the only thing holding me up was curing salt which arrived Tues.

Instead of driving all over town looking for it, I ordered it on Amazon, found a good brand that is made in the USA. So win win!

The curing salt or Prague powder is what is needed in order to safely store the pork long term.



Pic does not really show it, it is shockingly pink.



This is roughly the recipe for the rub:
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pink curing salt (aka Prague Powder #1)

I picked up a 7lb pork belly, my mistake was getting one with the skin still on. It took a decent amount of work to get the belly skinned. I will do a better job next time finding a skinless belly.



I rubbed the pork and bagged the slabs in freezer bags, now they site for 7 days in the back of the fridge, I have to turn the bags over every day and massage in the rub / juice.

Before tossing in the fridge I tried to get as much of the air out of the bags as possible.



More in 7 days.   ;D

[jeff10049]

Watching with interest.

[MiniGene]

This a cool idea.  We stopped buying regular bacon and will only get the nitrate free kind.  Chemicals taste great but are not so good for the body. 

If this turns out well for you I might give it a stab! 

[MiniGene]

Question time!

When you're flipping it and rubbing it daily, do you take it out of the bag or do you leave it in?  I wonder if "food saving" it would work well.

What's your plan for slicing?  Do you have a deli slicer?  I think I need to convince my wife we need one.

[ve9aa]

I don't know about you guys, but I suddenly got hungry......and thirsty for a cold beer !  38.gif

[John Gervais]

Mmmmm, pork - Love it!  I've been buying our bacon at the local butcher shop but would love to make my own - it never occurred to me and I'd love to hear how this works out!

For the past couple of years I've been using 'the WORST Christmas present EVER' (which Hyacinth now loves...) meat grinder and grinding large slabs o'pork into 'ground pork' for use in frikadellar (basically a Danish meatball made from ground pork).  On Monday, I bought a 5 kilo boneless pork roast and cut it into cutlets; bagged and frozen for future meals.  After seeing my butcher grab a big pork roast and cut the same when I needed boneless cutlets, I figured - hey, I've got a knife...

[Jims5543]

Question time!

When you're flipping it and rubbing it daily, do you take it out of the bag or do you leave it in?  I wonder if "food saving" it would work well.

What's your plan for slicing?  Do you have a deli slicer?  I think I need to convince my wife we need one.

Flipping inside the bag every day while massaging the rub and juice back into the meat. The curing salt, which contains nitrates, is the reason the meat does not spoil.

I wanted to go nitrate free, it is too risky. I can end up with spoiled meat that will sicken everyone. I do not have the facilities to process nitrate free meat. I did a lot of reading, and nitrate free is negligible, the risk associated with it, for a beginner like me is not worth it.

Slicing will be done by knife, this is a $26 great American made knife that is used in restaurants and is highly regarded. It will not be as good as using a meat slicer, I am OK with that.
https://www.amazon.com/UltraSource-449221-Sanisafe-Butcher-Knife/dp/B00SWXYN6Y/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dexter+meat+knife&qid=1587349132&sr=8-1

Mmmmm, pork - Love it!  I've been buying our bacon at the local butcher shop but would love to make my own - it never occurred to me and I'd love to hear how this works out!

For the past couple of years I've been using 'the WORST Christmas present EVER' (which Hyacinth now loves...) meat grinder and grinding large slabs o'pork into 'ground pork' for use in frikadellar (basically a Danish meatball made from ground pork).  On Monday, I bought a 5 kilo boneless pork roast and cut it into cutlets; bagged and frozen for future meals.  After seeing my butcher grab a big pork roast and cut the same when I needed boneless cutlets, I figured - hey, I've got a knife...

You are on the right track, many times we are paying a premium for a butcher to make some cuts for us. As far as this bacon is concerned, I have had to invest a weeks time into it, I am OK with that, I hope this turns out good, I have a American subscrition to a company called Butcher Box, I get 3 packages of bacon that cost me good money and are not worth the cost, but are so good I can overlook it.

"during these difficult times"  -  LOL!!  I would prefer to ditch the bacon and get more proteins for dinner, hence my mission to make my own bacon, I can cancel the Butcher box bacon and include more dinner meats.

I will be smoking this on 23 April then cutting it up and either putting in fridge or freezing it for future use.

The following weekend we either enjoy great bacon or get food poisoning.

[John Gervais]

Occasionally I'll buy a thick slab o'bacon and rather than slicing it thin and frying it, I simply whittle chips off of it and fry those.  Mmmm, there's nothing better on a baked potato or mixed into scrambled eggs...  When we eat bacon strips, we never fry them - we bake them in the oven, flipping them at half-baked. 

I'd almost forgotten - I do a fair amount of fishing, so Hyacinth took a couple of trout filets from the freezer for dinner this evening.  She chopped up a package of ordinary bacon strips and fried them, removed them from the fat, sweated/wilted some fresh spinach down with a bit o'tarragon and just a hint of the bacon fat (could also use butter, the the bacon juice is right there...) a squeeze o'lemon.  Here's the fun part - in a shallow porcelain baking container with just a drizzle of olive oil covering the bottom lay 4 or 5 lengths of tying string across, lay a fish filet (trout or salmon) skin down on the strings (you're going to tie the fish together), add a dash of salt and pepper, lay on the bacon bits and sweated spinach, lay on the 2nd fish filet, tie it all together, brush the skin with a bit of olive oil and bake it for around 15 - 20 minutes (or until cooked - keep an eye on it, because thin filets require less time, thick require more...).  Served with little new potations and a bit o' hollandaise sauce. 

Bacon is versatile.

[BruceK]

The following weekend we either enjoy great bacon or get food poisoning.

Could be both!! ;D



Seriously, can't wait to hear how this works out.

[Jims5543]

I am at the 1 week mark. It was time to wash the rub off the meat, pat it dry and let it sit 24 hours in the fridge.

Tomorrow I put it in the smoker.

Before washing.



Washed patted dry and on the rack for 24 hours. They passed the sniff test, no odor at all.  I am somewhat relieved.




Tomorrow I have to get the smoker set down to 200° then smoke these bad boys until they hit an internal temp of 150°, this is supposed to take 3 hours.

[John Gervais]

Mmmmm, bacon... 

[Jims5543]

I have Zero Minutes to waste right now...  So quick and dirty.

Smoked it last night, it was hard to get smoker down to 200°  I am still learning how to do that. I will have to take a pic of the drafts on the BGE because no one will believe the bottom draft was open about 1/8" as well as the top. That is what it took to get it to smolder.

Here it is going on. right below that grate is a heat diffuser and a foil catch pan for drippings.



It took 3 hours almost to the minute to hit 150° internal.  Here it is right after I pulled it off:



Sliced up:


Bagged up, ended up with 4 lbs of bacon. We need to get freezer bags so we can freeze some. Right now it is in the fridge. I plan on cooking up a couple of pieces tomorrow, if it does not make us sick, then win!  If I do not post again, I killed myself. Death by Bacon.  Allah Akbar!!

[Jims5543]

Today was bacon day.

I cook it in the oven, I set it at 425° and cook for 15 minutes.  I started preheating the oven.  I pulled out a package of bacon and put half of it on a tray lined with foil.  It looked and felt like store bought bacon, as soon as I opened the saran wrap, I could smell the smoke from cooking it on my smoker. No foul smell at all, so I was relieved it came out good.



Pulled it out patted it dry, gave one a taste.... I turned the oven back on and plut the rest of the package in.  I knew we were going to eat a lot.

Damn!! That is some great bacon!! When I tried the Butcher Box (the meat service I use) Bacon I was blown away how good it was, this is on level with it. So I am cancelling my bacon from them and making my own from now on.



This is a huge game changer.

[BruceK]

It looks damn good!

[Jims5543]

Best news?  No one got sick or died!!!  Wooo!!

[Jims5543]

When I say this is right up there with Butcher Box, I mean dead level with them, same of the best Bacon I have ever had.

I got my reminder in my email yesterday that my Butcher Box order it about to ship and I can change it.

I took all the bacon off and put in more beef and other items. They were running a deal for a precooked spiral cut smoked ham. IIRC it was 7.5 lbs for $45. So I added that with the idea of breaking it out into a several 1 lb packs and using it for lunch meat.

This next Box delivery will have a lot of good meat cuts that I was not getting due to my bacon purchases.

As I said, game changer.

I am getting ready to call around and see if I can find a skinless pork belly and do this again.

[Jims5543]

Another game changer. All my friend are getting pellet smokers I just cannot bring myself to do it. It is like driving an automatic in my book.  A big part of the appeal of BBQ / Smoking is the challenge of getting it right.  Good coals + the right wood = magic!!

I did some research and found out there is a temp controller that works great for slow and low, not so much for hot and fast. It is limited and really likes 350 and under.  I tried to use it for steaks where I wanted 400 and it just could not do it, I can do it better naturally asprated.

So my BGE now is equipped with a flame boss. 



It drives a small fan that regulates the grill temp. It also monitors the meat temp.



It works via wifi so you can monitor it change settings etc...


Here is entire rig all hooked up the BGE



I did another batch of bacon this past weekend. This time I purchased about 11 lbs of pork belly for $30.  So close to $3 a lbs for bacon.



24 hour dry in fridge before smoking it. I have some experimental pieces in there. One with the skin still on want to see what that is like.



Sitting out letting the temp regulate while the BGE is getting set up.



Finished product.  Its been a while since the last batch and there was a reason. I will explain in a moment.



Our rescue Lucy knows what is up, she camps out when the softy (me) is in the kitchen she knows handouts will come.

This time I waited for her to give up and go lay down then gave her a treat.



The reason I have not done this in a while was due to Kung Flu retardation. The one butch shop I was using but wont anymore limited 1 customer at a time and made everyone wait on the sidewalk out front.

I found a different butcher shop that is not so anal and they have a much better selection.

So I will be doing this much more.

[Jims5543]

I am getting to the point where making bacon has become routine.

The wife suggest I make up a huge batch and we give it all out to family for the holidays to enjoy at home.

I was getting frustrated with the inconsistency of slicing with a knife, plus it takes a lot of time.  I purchased a meat slicer.  This will come in handy when I make my next batch.

It made short work of the slicing duties. A great addition to the kitchen.

Bacon all sliced up and bagged will be bringing some to the office tomorrow to give to the employees. 

Off this weekend to get the holiday bacon.  LOL

[jeff10049]

Very nice Jim looks good.
we bought a pig from the kid down the street this year and had a butcher set us up with a standard cut list. Everything has been great except the bacon is not awesome.
I think it is not cured just sliced up pork belly I wonder if I could still cure it. I mean it's ok just not real bacony tasting. I have one of those automatic transmission tragers maybe I can smoke it before cooking to help.
I brined a ham the other day and smoked it on the trager best ham we ever had.

[Jims5543]

Next time have the butcher just give you the pork belly with the skin removed as on big solid piece.

Then you can follow the directions here and you have bacon!!

https://jesspryles.com/recipe/how-to-make-bacon/

For now, try cooking the bacon on the Trager it may make it taste better.

When I cook on my smoker, I am only taking the meat to 150°, the main function here is to get the smoke into the meat.  I used a lot of apple wood this time.

[Jims5543]

This bacon shit is becoming a problem.


Just a FYI - I had enough "amazon points" to buy the meat slicer for $15.

I just plopped down another $80 on a vacuum seal bag machine and lots of extra bags.

I figure if I am going to give this bacon out I should make it look presentable and not look like a dime bag.

[Jims5543]

Now I need cheesy holiday bacon names

Like: Do you smell what I smell?

[Jims5543]

Mrs5543 was on fire this morning. LMAO she kept texting me bacon names.

We wish you a merry Bacon

Deck the halls with boughs of Bacon

Keep the Bacon you filthy Animals  <--- modified quote from the movie Home Alone  (edit)

Non Holiday themed:

Let them Eat Bacon

[Willie_B]

Take off from an old song, Bacon Whoppie.

[Jims5543]

Brilliant!!  Adding to the list of names.

Just ordered about 7 lbs of Heritage Pork belly, this is hormone free and antibiotic free.  As in good high quality stuff.

Still heading out to get some local pork belly tomorrow. I brought the E21 home to be my errand running vehicle its been months since I have driven it.

Going to make some calls in the morning to see if anywhere in 40 miles has pork belly skinless.