Giving homemade bacon a whirl

[DFBrews]

With Gilpinguy posting all the bacon pron i decided to give it a whirl.

picked up half a belly at a local meat market 3.5 lb total 14 bucks out the door.

went to rg woods and picked up some pink salt and a couple grinder plates for next weeks fun of homemade bratwurst. trimmed the bellies into 2 1lb and one 1.5 lb chunks measured out my cure using a nifty calculator and put them in the fridge for a week turning daily so the juice will get all sides evenly. Pulled them out last night and rinsed and soaked in ice water for about an hour. did a salt test which is just pulling off a couple slices and frying up see if it is to salty it is right about perfect. let them sit uncovered over night to form the pellicle.
threw them into the smoker at 8 this morning i will pull them off around 4 today.

I am doing a cold smoke where gilpin is hot smoking i will not let the temp in the smoker get above 100deg.

I will add some pictures of the final product on 8 hours
cure applied sitting in the bags


IMAG1165 by post_james86, on Flickr

after sitting open in the fridge all night


IMAG1182 by post_james86, on Flickr

one plain one pepper and one spicy for blt's


IMAG1184 by post_james86, on Flickr

after smoke

smokin..


IMAG1186 by post_james86, on Flickr

63 deg ambient 73 degree smoker temp


IMAG1188 by post_james86, on Flickr

[spleify]

mmmmm bacon!!

[spleify]

We need a bacon smiley

[00tec]

[meatman]

Gotta love how bacon making is part of the Survival forum.

and stealing this:

[spleify]

Oh yeah baby I love the bacon dance!!

[DFBrews]

8 hours of maple


IMAG1191 by post_james86, on Flickr