Makin' bacon today - 18 pounds of it

Northwood said:
Yeah I made Montreal style smoked meat a few months ago using beef brisket I found on sale.

Making salamis and stuff is pretty easy, but as you said does take some equipment. I use a bar fridge with humidity and temperature controller. I cure my homemade cheese in there too. The thing with making fermented/cured raw meat products is that you need to get the proper bacterial inoculant and ensure you get a fast enough pH drop over the first 48 hours of incubation. There are several internet forums on the craft, but my favorite "how to" and recipe compilation is Len Poli's site: http://lpoli.50webs.com/page0002.htm
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That's a pretty good site. Bookmarking it. :peace:
 
Northwood said:
Pork bellies here in my city in Ontario were $2.99 a pound, so I went hog wild. I make bacon every winter, and haven't tried store-bought bacon in over 25 years. I just remember it tasted awful compared to homemade maple cured/triple smoked bacon. Homemade bacon also is much firmer in texture when raw and contains less moisture. Winter is a good time for this because I cold smoke it when temperatures in my smoker are safe (3 degrees Celsius or less).

I dry cure bacon in vacuum-packed bags using this cry cure calculator: http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/calculator/dry_cure_bacon/
I also add some crushed peppercorns and some garlic powder that I don't measure very carefully. Everything else including the meat, but especially the Prague Powder #1, must be weighed very carefully. I triple-check at this point because a fuck-up with the Prague Powder will result in failure. It must be the #1 powder because it contains only nitrites - NO nitrates. Prague powder #2 is the one that has nitrates in it, and it's for dry cured sausage (salami, old world pepperoni, etc.) that is slowly aged while it dries. The bacteria in the meat slowly convert all the nitrates to nitrites over time. It's actually illegal to put nitrates in Bacon here in Canada and most other countries because when heated with the high cooking temperature for bacon, nitrosamines are formed which cause cancer. So use the right version if you try this: #1

No need to use the mix as a "rub". I just sprinkle it over the meat while in the bag, trying to get some spread somewhat evenly over both sides. I don't worry about it too much, because the cure will dissolve, pulling the water from the pork, and eventually equalize. I put two belly portions per vac bag:
View attachment 4811519


These get put in the back of the fridge for at least 3 weeks, or until most (or all) of the liquid the cure has drawn has receded back into the pork. So I'll post an update here in about 3 weeks, for the drying period. They must be dried until a nice pellicle forms over the surface so that the smoke sticks to it nicely. Until then... happy bacon makin' all! lol

Edit: Nothing gets wasted in this house. My wife skinned all these belly portions for me and boiled the skin. She will scrape any leftover fat off now, and into the dehydrator the boiled/cleaned skin goes. This is the process for making chicharron. We know it in Canada as "pork rinds". I'll update on this process sooner here. Here is the skin she harvested and boiled, ready for scraping:
View attachment 4811533

I'll update on that process too, since the two kinda always go together. She will scrape off everything white, until just the darker stuff is left (that's the skin). After boiling it comes off really easily. You can do it with a spoon.

And they say we cannabis daily smokers aren't motivated. WTF???? Lol
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Holy shit man. That's freaking awesome. You're a man of many talents. I'm truly impressed. And now hungry.
 
Northwood said:
The wife just fried up some of the pork rinds. The 2 little pieces on the left are the dried skin before frying. They grow many, many times the original size once fried.
View attachment 4812490
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Oh man you're getting me so excited! I'm even looking at new smokers. My webber the bottom vent I just can't get to seat properly and leaks air. So smoking low is been tough since the middle of last summer.
 
DarkWeb said:
Oh man you're getting me so excited! I'm even looking at new smokers. My webber the bottom vent I just can't get to seat properly and leaks air. So smoking low is been tough since the middle of last summer.
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Mostly I cold smoke now, and even that bacon will be cold smoked. I'll be doing salmon soon. This is kind of a funny story...

I got sucked into buying a digital Bradley Smoker years ago, and got the cold smoke attachment too. Any way, also years ago the puck advance mechanism broke. I fixed it with warranty parts sent, but it only lasted another year. Finally the element in the back and all the fittings just rusted to shit, and all fell apart. Hahaha

I must say though, that I still own the Bradley, and it's the best smoker ever now that it doesn't work. I just put an "A-Maze-N-Pellet-Smoker" into the cold smoke unit lighted at both ends. It actually creates more smoke than the original Bradley pucks, but for 1/100th the price and lasts at least 6 hours without worry.
 
Northwood said:
Mostly I cold smoke now, and even that bacon will be cold smoked. I'll be doing salmon soon. This is kind of a funny story...

I got sucked into buying a digital Bradley Smoker years ago, and got the cold smoke attachment too. Any way, also years ago the puck advance mechanism broke. I fixed it with warranty parts sent, but it only lasted another year. Finally the element in the back and all the fittings just rusted to shit, and all fell apart. Hahaha

I must say though, that I still own the Bradley, and it's the best smoker ever now that it doesn't work. I just put an "A-Maze-N-Pellet-Smoker" into the cold smoke unit lighted at both ends. It actually creates more smoke than the original Bradley pucks, but for 1/100th the price and lasts at least 6 hours without worry.
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Once I went out and got a new metal garbage can......this electric george foreman grill would fit perfectly in the bottom. I cut access for the power on the bottom......drilled 3 holes about 4-5 inches down from the top. Put bolts and nuts in those holes as a ledger and dropped a round grill grate on them. Placed some chips on the heat. Used 2 flattened thirty packs on top with a small overlap in the middle......a meat thermometer got stabbed into those as a pivot point to control heat and smoke by opening or closing the cardboard vent........that damn thing did well, really well......and cost basically nothing but some fun with a challenge.
 
DarkWeb said:
I know it's big but the 2 burners are nice for control.....it gets cold, extra firepower could be nice. https://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Glo-DGW...et-20&linkId=af0092422d614d4e9355e6c2e47bc9e8
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Nice, but I don't know if I'd put expensive salmon in there that shouldn't even get warm. lol

I guess my disadvantage is that I'm stuck with cold smoking, even it I put the smoker in the bottom of the Bradley (which I've done). With the sun on the smoker and both ends lit in outdoor summer temperatures, it did reach 140 degrees once. :p

What I do is sometimes alternate between the smoker and then grill, or the other way and back on for a bit. I've also smoked sous vide cuts, and then give them a hot grill. It does work, but not like those guys in Texas that can just use length cut steel barrels with charcoal and chips. That's obviously an art into itself.
 
Northwood said:
Honestly, I don't think so.
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More thinking about this.....I think so......just don't turn on the gas. And run a briquette in a small box with chips in the bottom. Gas when the heat is needed. Should work....it can get cold and I think the single burner one might be small.
 
DarkWeb said:
More thinking about this.....I think so......just don't turn on the gas. And run a briquette in a small box with chips in the bottom. Gas when the heat is needed. Should work....it can get cold and I think the single burner one might be small.
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Honestly I think you'd be better off with A-Maze-N and the mailbox mod with your setup for true cold smoking. You don't want burners (including briquettes) going at all, not even for the smoke, and you certainly don't want it going on inside where your product is. If you do a very hard cheese, you might be okay but most of the best cheese for smoking has a pretty low melting point - like it turns to mush just a ways higher than comfortable room temperature. Once it cools again, it takes on a "different" and inferior texture.

If you can keep the air/smoke temperature below 85 degrees F, then you'll be okay. Smoking cheese pretty much follows the same rules as cold smoking coho salmon.
 
Northwood said:
Honestly I think you'd be better off with A-Maze-N and the mailbox mod with your setup for true cold smoking. You don't want burners (including briquettes) going at all, not even for the smoke, and you certainly don't want it going on inside where your product is. If you do a very hard cheese, you might be okay but most of the best cheese for smoking has a pretty low melting point - like it turns to mush just a ways higher than comfortable room temperature. Once it cools again, it takes on a "different" and inferior texture.

If you can keep the air/smoke temperature below 85 degrees F, then you'll be okay. Smoking cheese pretty much follows the same rules as cold smoking coho salmon.
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I was running in the 70°'s in the can with one briquette and some chips.....two briquettes was too many it would melt.

I like the idea of the A-Maze-N
 
raratt said:
Alder is the wood of choice for smoking salmon in the NW. Mild flavor.
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True, and also of course it's the only wood in the NW that grows that you CAN smoke. Otherwise fir, spruce, pine? Lol *kidding*

Yes I do use alder to smoke, but mostly apple now. It's pretty mild too, but I use it mostly now because of availability. Some folks use maple and I decided to try it once, but I found it a little bit off for my tastes with really good pacific salmon (not pinks). Alder or apple works well.
 
Every time I read the title I think of the game Pig Out that I played as a kid. They call it Pass the Pigs now. Political correctness I guess, lol.

  • Makin' Bacon (or Oinker) - If both pigs are touching in any position,[2] then the total score is reset to 0 and the turn changes to the next player
 
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