I went to Costco and got 2 twin packs of deboned pork shoulder/boston butt. I brought them home and began by rinsing them well but didn't trim anything. I did split them in half so they would be somewhere near bacon size when sliced. bacon mix said any loose pieces of meat and be tucked in and would be fine, so that's what I did. The dry rub brine in the package is for a total of 25 pounds of meat and that is what I bought so I could use the whole thing at once. I followed the directions with the High Mountain brine by coating the meat and stuffing it all in a 5 gallon plastic bucket covered with Saran wrap laid right on the meat to keep as much air out as I could. The bucket was placed in the fridge for 5 days, turned then for another 9 days for 14 days total. The fridge temperature is at 36 degrees, a little cooler than High Mountain recommended but I also keep beer in the same box!
After 14 days, the meat was rinsed, soaked in cold water for 2 hours then rinsed again. Following directions, the meat was patted dry and left to dry for a couple hours. During that time, I got the smoker ready. I put all 25 pounds in at once and turned the smoker, a SM020, to 150 degrees and no wood. This dries out the outside of the meat and a glaze-like shell is now covering the meat. I think this keeps the bacon from drying out. Now, I put in 3 ounces of hickory and crank the heat up to 200. The trick now is to keep the meat under 140 degrees and cooking too much. As soon as smoke starts, I watch things carefully and when the smoke peters out, I open the door and cool the whole thing off. This is to maximize smoke and minimize the meat temperature. The hickory smoked well and an hour after the smoke starts, I open the box, cool things off and add 2 ounces of apple wood. I repeated this 2 more times using apple wood and hickory for a total of 6 hours before the meat got to 140. The directions say to turn off the smoker and let the meat sit in there for another hour. I did and the meat continued to absorb heat. At the end of the hour, the meat was 150. Now it's 7 hours in the smoker and I take the meat out and place it in the fridge. I let it sit in there for 2 days before slicing. The pictures tell the rest of the story....
Out of the fridge and ready for the slicer.
Slices up real nice and starting to look like bacon too!
Final product. From 25 pounds of raw, deboned pork shoulder, I finished with 22 1/2 pounds of bacon and scraps for the bean pot.
This bacon has a fine taste, not too smokey at all and very lean. It will be my bacon for the next year unless I give some away as Christmas presents! Ho! Ho! Ho!