REAL MAN TRUCKWORKS & SURVIVAL
FOOD CORNER => Share Your Recipe => Topic started by: Nate on November 01, 2015, 09:27:43 AM
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so here is the recipe / instructions that I am using for my first time EVER making homemade bacon.
For a 10lb belly (scale this by weight), prepare a cure mixture of:
10g pink salt (instacure #1)
66g salt
33g sugar
125g brown sugar
Mix well.
Set aside a container with 1/4 cup of molasses.
Put the belly in your curing bag skin side down. Apply the cure mixture fairly evenly to the topside, then pour the molasses over top. The molasses just gets swirled around the top -- do not worry if it is not particularly evenly spread.
Squeeze the excess air out of the bag and seal. I the bag is oversized fold the top over to create a package the size of the belly. Put this in your refrigerator.
Each day for 7 days:
Take the bag out of the refrigerator and turn it every which way so all of the edges of the belly are "wetted" by the brine. Put it back in the fridge flipped with the opposite side up this time.
On the last day, take the belly out of the bag and wash it with water. If you do not wash everything off, it will end up too salty. I've not needed to "soak" my bacon. Washing seems to be enough for me.
Pat dry with paper towels.
I put it in the refrigerator on a rack for an hour or two at this point.
Pre-smoke, I take just a tiny bit of brown sugar (1 or 2 tablespoons for a 10lb belly) and gently drop it on top of the belly trying to be as uniform as I can. Then I go over the whole top with maybe twice that much fresh ground pepper.
I dump maybe 1/2 a chimney of coals into my XL BGE and throw in some peachwood chunks. I get that thing smoking and put the belly in the smoker --cold-- the smoker is cold. I do not let it warm up before putting in the belly.
I let the BGE come up very gradually to 200F and leave it there until the belly is 150F at the core.
After it comes off the smoker, if it has skin I trim it while things are still warm. It is much easier to do it then.
Once things cool a bit, I wrap the bacon in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight. It needs to be COLD to slice.
The next day, I pull out the slicer and slice it, relatively thick.
I changed 2 things, 1. I got an already trimmed pork belly (no skin) and 2. I used the shallow hotel pan you see in the picture and used a few paper clamps to ensure that it stays closed (I hate wasting money on foil pans and zip lock bags when not necessary).
here is the thread that I got the information from: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219608
and as this progresses, I will update with pics and how its going.
day 1:
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Nice.
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here it is turned for the second time at day 3!
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So...bacon yes? Soon? You ate it already?
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the cook/smoke has begun! rinsed, rubbed with brown sugar/fresh ground pepper, temp probe in and on the smoker all by 0630 mountain time!
more pics will come as the smoke progresses!
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Oooh Nate.
Can't wait to see the results.
A buddy of mine makes his own, all I got is wow!
If I get home for some point long enough I NEED to do this too.
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4 hrs in and 135deg IT
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6 hrs in and 153deg IT
almost done!
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complete and chillin in the refrigerator until tomorrow.
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I just could not help myself and then messed myself when it was all over...... :o
I really truly just ruined store bought bacon for myself and family! kyle, when are you gonna get that pellet pooper up and running and do some of this yourself?!
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Man that looks good. I'll be there with some fresh eggs at 0700 Sunday. :thumbsup
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come on, ill have the flat top waitin
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Darn that looks good! Thanks for sharing this.....so you just buy a slab of pork belly? I HAVE to try this. Might be a fun surprise on fishing trips too. ;)
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so this morning I started 5lb of bacon.
heres the recipe that I am using for this one:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-bacon-3362606
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I need to try that out.....
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and here it is after 7 days in vac pack and 2 days in the fridge. I put it on at about 0745 this morning at 150deg and it was done about 0910. its now cooling in the fridge and will get sliced later this evening.
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so here are the final results:
out of a 5lb belly, i got just about 4.5lbs of slices (they are nice and thick) and the rest is the ends and bits that will get chopped and used in meals.
ill let you know the taste results when i make brunch this morning.... :beercheers:
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It does have a little bit of a backend nip, but it is not a lingering nip.
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Nate question about making bacon
When you are smoking I assume the temp should be as low as possible and your just trying to get it saturated in smoke?
From a food safety issue meat at temps below 140 for any length of time is no bueno
So does salt play a role in that?
The reason I ask is that I have a smoke tube that puts out a bunch of smoke and I was thinking of maybe not even using the pits flame but just the smoke tube.
Thoughts?
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Nate question about making bacon
When you are smoking I assume the temp should be as low as possible and your just trying to get it saturated in smoke?
From a food safety issue meat at temps below 140 for any length of time is no bueno
So does salt play a role in that?
The reason I ask is that I have a smoke tube that puts out a bunch of smoke and I was thinking of maybe not even using the pits flame but just the smoke tube.
Thoughts?
1. the smoke is more a flavor kind of thing
2. as far as food safety, the danger zone (according to health depts) is said to be between 40-140deg with a time frame of 4 hours. if something is kept in that zone for more than 4 hours, it is then considered by health dept standards to be bad. is this a fact? no health dept that i have ever dealt with can show me actual scientific proof to back this claim up! also one of the things that health depts looks at is how long it takes the cooler/fridge to cool it back down to that 40deg temp.
so for example. when i just did this one, my smoker/cooker temp was set at 200deg and it took just shy of 2 hours to hit an internal temp of 150deg. so according to health dept rules, it did not reside in the danger zone for more than 4 hours going up and when i put it in the fridge it took less than 4 hours going down to 40deg.......so it would be considered good.
3. so I am not using regular salt, I am using #1 (prague powder) curing salt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curing_salt
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hoosier-Hill-Farm-Prague-Powder-2-1-lb-plastic-jar/110885258?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227050674268&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=146282093236&wl4=pla-260814876882&wl5=9024746&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=110885258&wl13=&veh=sem
note: attached to this post is a copy of the "texas food establishemnt rules field inspection manual" there is actually some good info in here, as well as a bunch of stupid rules.
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I just picked up a couple more bellies at Costco. I am going to play with my recipe a bit. I thought my last batch was too sweet. Kind of sticky even. Everyone else liked it. I got a hold of real maple syrup from one of my east coast buddies. I'm going to put some of that on one and the other I am going to play around with some garlic.
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Heres a nitrate free recipe that i found last night?
https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/how-to-cure-bacon
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heres round 2 of bacon making.
I used this recipe this time: https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3912659&postcount=18
ill let you know how it turns out tomorrow morning when I make some for breakfast..... :beercheers:
a 5lb belly netted me about 4.25lbs of sliced bacon.
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Since ill be stuck at home tomorrow, i figured i would finish the last 9f the bacon.
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Bacon makes everything better. Speeds healing I believe
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Bacon makes everything better. Speeds healing I believe
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well if that's the case...………….
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Heal quickly Sarge! :wink:
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and the cold smoke is rolling early this morning
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in the fridge chilling down should be slicing tomorrow
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Nice! :likebutton:
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Finished
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Thanks Nate! When should I expect to receive it?
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Thanks Nate! When should I expect to receive it?
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:beercheers:
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I have some cureing in the fridge right now. Will be smoking next Saturday.
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:likebutton:
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30lbs of belly going into cure...... :beercheers:
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Nate, you are slowly moving toward industrial production...
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I need a bigger kitchen and fridge/freezer for that....lol