Success!! - Our own bacon

Spoiler alert - the bacon turned out very well.  Salty, smoky and fried up nice and crispy.  We were all pleased, relieved and a bit surprised that the process was easy and straight-forward with a predictable, positive result.

 Yesterday afternoon I removed the pork belly from the ziploc bags and rinsed under cold, running water and then patted dry with paper towels.  You can see the cured pork belly in the photo on the left.

 The Primo Grill was then set up for indirect smoking with a mixture of lump charcoal and hickory.  The smoker  temperature was set for ~200F - low and slow.  An instant read thermometer was inserted into the thickest piece.  ~155F was the target internal temperature.

A couple of cold drinks later (~2 hours) and the pork belly was at 155F and I removed from the smoker to cool.

I could not wait for the bacon to cool for the full hour as directed - too anxious.  You can see the result below as I sliced a few thin pieces to fry up and taste.  Overall, it's pretty cool.

A couple of notes for next time

• four days is plenty long for the salt cure in the refrigerator; I went closer to six and likely contributed to the salty taste
• I'll rinse with cold water more thoroughly
• other than that the process and cure mixture will remain the same.

Have a great weekend!!

Aaah bacon! An Ode to Pork

I've written on and off about the skills and knowledge of our ancestors.  How did they ever survive without a refrigerator?  A modern grocery store?  A cold 12-pack?  They raised their food, preserved and stored it for winter.  Their survival depended on it.  They also accomplished this seemingly herculean feat without modern chemistry of dyes, hormones, pesticides and preservatives. 

Part romance for simpler times and part curiosity has led me on my latest quest - curing/smoking my own bacon from a pork belly.  I ordered my pork belly from an organic farmer (Arnold Farms) at the Davenport Farmers Market about a month ago.  It was $5.75/lb and was nicely wrapped and prepackaged when I picked it up on Saturday morning.  This slab went about 8 pounds.

 I modified a recipe that I found in Men's Health Magazine of all places.  The cure recipe that I used:

2 1/2 cups of salt
1 1/2 cups of  brown sugar
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
3 tsp of allspice
2 tsp of coriander
1 tsp of red pepper flakes

I cut the pok belly into four pieces and then liberally coated all sides with the salt mixture.  The slabs were then placed into ziploc bags, air removed and sealed.  They will now sit in the refrigerator for a few days before smoking at the end of the week. 

I have no doubt that it will be delicious, edible and likely different than our store bought, pre-packaged bacon.  Time will tell.