Bacon questions?

I did some side meat a few weeks ago. I took off the rind before I cured it. For cure I used the Buckboard Bacon but next time will use TQ & dark brown sugar. I cured for 10 days at the temp you are using with no problems. I did not see the meat turn pink. The 2 problems I had were:

1) I did not let the slabs soak in ice water long enough to remove excess salt. So my bacon is quite salty.
2) I oversmoked it. Used corn cobs and wood. Next time, just the cobs and 2 instead of 3.

Bob

Bob,
Thanks for the reply. How long do you think you will soak the sides next time?
Mark

Im looking at 1 hour in ice water, then changing water. A second hour in water with less ice in it. Then the drying time which really needs to be done. If you dont dry it (air dry like salmon) it wont take smoke well from what I hear.

bob

I wonder what the difference is between leaving the rind on vs. skinning it before curing/smoking. I am wondering if I should skin it before I smoke it? As I said in the previous post the instructions I looked at (on another forum) showed the rind still on after smoking but I would think that would inhibit smoke absorption. I have plenty so I think I will try it both ways and see which way works best.
Mark

The reaction that creates the pink color is activated by heat, can't recall exactly the temperature. I dry by just putting in the smoker with no wood set to 100F until the meat is no longer wet. Then start smoking. Same process as for smoking sausage.

May I suggest something for the salty bacon. I have found a great and cheap cure mix from Butcher-Packer. They have several flavors, brown and maple sugar and hickory. Since I have used these mixes I have yet to have a "salty" bacon cure. When I pull my bacon from the fridge I rinse the meat off fairly well, then let it soak for one hour, pour off water and refill and let set for another hour then do another simple rinse. One other thing I measure pretty close to what the directions say to use for the weight of meat-I think this is important.HTH

Smoked my bacon to 130 degrees with pecan chunks 140 degree smoker temp took 51/2 hours. Fried some up and it has good smoke flavor but tastes like wonderful smoked ham. I followed the directions pretty closely. I used a TQ and turbinado sugar cure with some maple syrup added at day 4 when I flipped the fresh side. I cured for 10 days. Any suggestions?
Mark

Mark-Just did two boneless pork loins using Hi Mountains Buckboard curing mix. The loins also came out tasting like a smoked ham. Tasted good but did not give me that true bacon taste that I was looking for.

I have read quite a few different posts on the forum concerning bacon and do not recall anyone saying that they had gotten a true bacon taste from their bacon attempts. Do remember quite a few describing their bacon as having the smoked ham taste.

Has anyone been able to duplicate the commercial
bacon taste using a bacon cure and a CS?

Well, I thought mine was quite bacon-like. 2 thoughts: Don't use real lean meat like pork loin, use fatty pieces of shoulder or side meat. Smoke only until partly cooked, say around 125F or so.

I agree with tjr, alot of the flavor from bacon comes from the fat. Try using a fatty Boston Butt (shoulder) if you can't find pork bellies and you will have more of a "real" bacon flavor.

I used pork bellies (fresh side)for my bacon and certainly didn't think that I cooked it too much(I actually pulled the sides out at 127 degrees.) Could the cure or the amount of cure time influence flavor in such a way? Has anyone ever cold smoked fresh side? Do you think that commercial bacon producers just inject with a smoke solution instead of actually smoking?
Thanks for the input!
Mark

Certainly would image the cure could affect the ham vs. bacon character. Perhaps, altho you only smoked to 127F, it was smoked too long at 5 1/2 hours? Also, possibly, to get good bacon flavor, the final cooking needs to be at relatively high heat, like in a frying pan?

tjr,JP and Mark in Missouri:

Thanks for the info. When the loin is about gone I will be trying a couple of butts, smoked to 125*
then slice and fry.

"In search of that bacon taste"

Funniest thing,

I let the bacon sit in the cooler for a few days thinking that I would chop it up for beans since it didn't taste like bacon. Chopped it up and fried it up and lo and behold it tastes like bacon now. I am thinking that when I cooked the first few slices the flavor must not have developed yet (it was actually still warm out of the smoker.) Anyway, I had already chopped it and fried it so I drained it out, put it on a sheet pan and drowned it in brown sugar. Back into the smoker to carmelize the sugar. Voila "pig candy"! It's awesome.
Mark