These pieces of belly were superb. Some nearly three inches thick in some places and, as I’ve said many times before, with perfect steaky layering of fat and meat indicative of this rare heritage breed. No other bacon compares to Tamworth.
Last time I did bacon, I did a brine – and obviously did not do it right. I left the belly in the brine far too long and had rubbery bacon when I was done. So it is the dry road (and the high road) for me from now on.
For the dry cure I mixed up a 25 pound batch of cure, which included. 10 ounces of non-iodized salt, 15 ounces of brown sugar, one ounce of instacure #1 and one ounce of hickory powder. And yes, I’m going to smoke the meat, but I like the way the hickory powder tastes. I packed the bellies in the mixture and put them in a meat lug in a 42 degree fridge for 3 weeks (one week for every inch of product thickness). I then took them out, double rinsed them in warm water and hung them back in the same fridge on bacon hangers for 3 more weeks, frying up a little piece to check for flavor which was spot on.
When I found the coolest night in July (62F) I then smoked the bacon on the FEC 100 at 165 degrees using pecan pellets and a green hickory branch on the log burner for about 10 hours to an internal temp of 150 degrees.
The smoked bacon went back into the fridge to equalize for a week then sliced and packaged.
Great flavor. No real tweaks needed for my taste. I yielded about 20 pounds of slices and ends.
By the Way, Saw some Smithfield ‘prime reserve’ pork belly at Sam’s club the other day. Pretty lean, but Full of water and nothing I’d really like to smoke, but I could not believe it was $4.28 per pound.
