30 Pounds of Bacon

I am doing my first pork belly now and was going to let it cure for 14 days, do you find that 7 days is enough time?

My pork belly came with the rhine on and I removed it, wasn't sure if I was supposed to or not. Can you tell me why you left it on some of the pork bellies?

I am new to this and trying to learn the best way to do it.

Thanks,
Tim

I Don't care for the rhine either; but, two people at work who wanted bacon, wanted it on, so I left it on that amount. What are you curing with? I've used the Hi Mtn Buckboard bacon cure which is designed to cure boston butt into very lean bacon in 10 days. I use it on pork bellies, just not as long, 6 or 7 days in enough. Two weeks might be overkill, unless you're doing 'only salt' cure. Really good discussion here on bacon http://forum.cookshack.com/eve...1028883/m/7642944896

That is the discussion that helped me give this a try. I am using the cure that tigerfan suggested. He says to go for 2 weeks, but I don't want to wait that long :-). Maybe I will try some of the Hi Mtn Buckboard bacon cure for future attempts as I want do try making the buckboard bacon as well.

Thanks for replying!

Tim

Ok, been a week, all 31 pounds of bacon is in the smoker. Rinsed good last night and soaked for 3+hrs in cold water, changing it twice. Then I rubbed them down with brown sugar and back in the fridge overnight. This afternoon, I dried them off and put them in then smoker. I didn't wait for the film to form; as, it never made much difference in the past. The FEC 100 smoke seems to penetrate more than lay on top. Using cherry pellets, got the FEC stabilized at 158, been on for almost four hours. Probably go another four or until internal of 145 or so.

Bill,

Looking forward to the photos. I LOVE Cherry on pork, gives everything a great color.

Just a question guys, I was going for extra smokiness so I smoked all my cured bellies (31 LBS) at around 160 for 10 hours, most got up to 135 and a couple to 140. Do I need to cook them some more? Will they be safe. They're pink from the cure/smoke.

I think you're fine. As you prepared them and smoked them so long, in reality you did basically a cold smoke.

Sorry Guys, No Pics. We fried a little and it tasted amazing. I think I can taste the cherry. Is this actually possible? Rubbing the brown sugar on them the night before the smoke, really helped. When the meat on the bacon cooks up it is VERY RED, more than usual. I processed 31 pounds of raw. Sliced and vacuum sealed 11 two-pound packs of sliced, one 4 pound slab and about a pound or two of ends and pieces. Some all fat. Some all lean -- we've just got to get these hogs to be more consistent. Next time, I will seek better, more consistent bellies. Maybe a good marbled pork butt. I will do the low and long smoke again, maybe try hickory, but I really liked the cherry. It’s hard to explain, but some of the fat in the bellies, kind of separated from the meat, making some not-so-purdy slices. I'm thinking if I would have brought the temp up to 145-150 like last time, some of the fat would have softened enough to fix this as they were cooled in the fridge. Also, they were a little more flimsy after being cooled after the smoke, than I remember last time. Again, probably because I didn't bring the temp up a little higher. But the combonation of the cherry wood, the cure and the brown sugar was perfect. And yes, the outside was darker than last time, but still not as dark as they turned out in my SM 66, but with the FEC, the smoke was all the way thru, you can really taste it!