Anyone here make their own bacon?

lukem · Nov 20, 2011

I recently bought a whole hog and left the belly fresh. I was iritated to find the butcher sliced it but i think i can still make it work. Was thinking of tying it all up, brining in salt and brown sugar and cold smoking.

I've got an entire pork belly i need to figure out what to do with....

gpcollen1 · Nov 21, 2011

Ouch, sliced it on you huh?! i just bought a book on curing meat to help satisfy my love of cooking and...well...cured meat. Have not cured a belly yet but have braised them and they come out great.

Try here and let us know what you find out...
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/

lukem · Feb 19, 2012

Finally got around to giving this a go. Brined in kosher slat, brown sugar, garlic, and jalapenos for about 6 hours. Skewed them up to get ready for the smoker.

I have and old SS mixing bowl with some holes drilled in it that I filled with apple and hickory and covered with foil. Used a very smalll flame from a propane torch to get it smoking with very little heat. I used the weber grill to serve as the smoke chamber. Two hours on the "smoker".

All in all it worked great. Would have been a lot easier if it wasn't pre-sliced.

It turned out amazing.....best bacon EVER !!!

Beats store bought bacon with a stick.

woodsmaster · Feb 19, 2012

Looks good! I'd like to try making some one of these days. I love smoked food and have smoked ribs, briskit, Jerkey, chicken,
turkey, but no bacon. I did have a large pig wondering around my yard the other day. Must have escapped from somewhere
near by or fell off a trailer. I considered shooting it, but figured about the time I did that the owner would pull in. It was so
big the only thing it would have been good for was sausage. Don't Know what ever happened to it. I seen It heading towards the woods. The neighbor said he was going to report it to the sheriff.

Village Idiot · Feb 19, 2012

Nice problem solving! Last year I asked the Rib for a couple of pork bellies for Christmas so I could smoke some bacon. The dear girl got me a couple of sliced pork bellies. Sigh, it didn't occur to me to mention that I wanted it whole. We ended up just using it in other recipes. I may have to experiment with the sliced bellies now that I have seen your idea.

On a related note, I have ~8 lbs. of pork tenderloin curing in the fridge right now for some Canadian style bacon. Next weekend I am going to cold smoke it. This is my first time curing tenderloin. Hope it comes out.

Battenkiller · Feb 20, 2012

Village Idiot said:
I have ~8 lbs. of pork tenderloin curing in the fridge right now for some Canadian style bacon. Next weekend I am going to cold smoke it. This is my first time curing tenderloin.

So that's how Canadians make their bacon. Sounds like a worthwhile thing to try. That stuff is tasty but dang expensive to buy in the store.

donnydonuts · Feb 23, 2012

Just got done making some buck board bacon using a pork loin and it turned out amazing. Cured it for 10 days in the fridge using Mortons Tenderquick and sugar and then hot smoked it to 160 degrees with hickory chips. I am going to try and do a pork shoulder next I hear it turns out more like real bacon because of the higher fat content.

There are several sites out there that tell you step by step how to do this

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Anyone here make their own bacon?

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