7 Slabs of Bacon in the FEC

So, Chaplain,

Is there a post with the details, prep, curing, etc?

Cold or hot smoked? How long? What wood?

Dang Bill, After seeing that pic, I don't want to know anything else. I just want to sit here and look at them.

That is one of the best food pics I have seen.

Nice.

Do you ship, or deliver.

I don't even know if someone around here would have the pork bellies available.

RandyE

Thanks Randy. I guess I should add some details, but was a little short on time when I posted. This is 35 pounds of skin-on pork belly I acquired at the Fort Leonard Commissary for 2.06/per pound. I dry cured it with three different cures from Indiana Butcher Supply, sweeter than sweet (10 pounds), Maple (10 pounds) and Golden brown sugar (15 pounds). I cured them in 2 gallon zip top bags for 10 days, pulled them out and rinsed for two hours, installed on bacon hangers and put them back in the fridge for three days to dry good. Put in the FEC at 180 for seven hours with BBQ Delight Hickory Pellets. I am sure they are overcooked (140 is my target internal temp), but I could not locate my thermometer after the move and all the boxes. The bellies are back in the fridge on the hangers for a couple of days before skin removal and slicing. I'm interested to see if I can tell the difference between the cure flavors. I've promised my relatives a taste test, so we'll see how it goes. Attached is a pic of the cured bellies hanging in the fridge before smoking.

Have to agree with Randy E. Those hanging in the smoker are works of art.

Very nice.
Thanks for posting details.

Bill what kind of fridge are you using? I'm constantly running into problems of having fridge space in my kitchen Fridge-Freezer combination.
I have been looking at small fridges but they all have the small freezer compartment and don't have the space for example curing hams or turkeys.
It would be great to have something that controls the humidity for possible use of dry aging meats. Is there any thing available that wouldn't put me into bankruptcy?
By the way your Bacon looks great, looking to hear about the taste test.

The Fridge I'm using is simply the one we took out of old house. It has a bottom freezer on it and I took all the shelves out in order to hang the bacon. I have no Idea what the humidity is inside, but it's never been a concern. I want the bacon to dry some after curing for two or three days, so it does nicely. If I had my way, and needed to buy one, I'd get one of the all refrigerator models, a cheaper one which I believe is under 400.00 most places. This would be for home use. I called the health dept here in Oklahoma, Food Service Fridges must be stainless steel, but freezers don't have to be. Home use of course does not matter. I'm just really glad to have an extra fridge and freezer. Our last place we lived I did all my curing and prep in the family fridge. There is nothing like having 3/4ths of your family fridge annexed by constant meat projects.

OK, finished slicing and packaging the bacon last night and enjoyed some this morning. Very good, the best I’ve tasted. Here’s the math. I began with 35 pounds of raw bellies with the skin on, which I’d mentioned cost 2.06 per pound. After curing and drying and smoking, the bellies weighted in at right at 28 pounds, indicating a 20 percent weight loss. The majority of this was water weight, as there was hardly any fat loss during smoking. Anyone who has dry aged a piece of beef can tell you that dry aging concentrates the flavor. This is also true with Bacon. Well, we cut the skin off the finished 28 pounds and it weighted about 3.5 pounds or 10 percent of the starting weight. We sliced it all and were left with about 2.5 pounds of ends and pieces and about 22 pounds of great bacon which we vacuum sealed in family sized packages. Most of the bacon looked great and some of it had lots of fat, but unless you’re growing your own hogs (like I will be soon), you can’t control that. All and all, my cost for the sliced bacon is about 3.40 per pound, not including pellets, cure and packaging, which I’d add another 30 cents per pound. Attached is a close-up of some of the sliced bacon.