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Making
Pork Belly
Bacon
What is Pork Belly Bacon?
The term pork belly bacon probably sounds a bit disgusting to
you but it shouldn’t. It’s the bacon you buy in the store and eat for
breakfast, make your BLTs with, put on your salads and pizza – It’s Bacon!
Here’s our little piggy (I love piggies!)
You can see by the picture the bacon comes from the belly section of the pig –
hence the name Belly Bacon.
First you’ve got to find a good pork belly. I finally found pork
bellies at a Chinese Grocery store called Chinatown Food Center. They were
having their Grand Opening and a real sweetheart of a lady I work with named Mabel told me about
the place. Woo Hoo! Thank you Maybel!
I owe you big time!
Cut the bellies into nice squared off pieces that will be about
what you might want to use. Some people keep them whole but I like piece that
are easy to work with. This belly which was 14 pounds I cut into three pieces.
Save the scraps for Baked beans, clam chowder or anything you might use salt
pork for.
To making regular bacon or belly bacon you need to brine or
pickle them. You can purchase curing packages from various suppliers or make
you own. I choose to make my own.
1
gallon of ice water at 38-40 degrees
1/2 cup powdered dextrose
1/2
cup real maple syrup
1/2 cup Kosher salt or Sea Salt
*Prague powder #1
(by
meat weight * NOTE: this is what gives
meat that pinkish color and prevents bacterial build up while smoking for long
periods at low temperatures. If you plan to smoke you should use it!)
** If you don’t have or don’t wish to use nitrates you can use
½ ounce of cream of tartar per ½ gallon of brine to help maintain that pinkish
color in brined meats.
·
NOTE: You may
use Instacure, Morton’s Tender Quick or Prague Powder #1 just be sure to follow
the manufactures instructions on how much to use based on the weight of the
meat you intend to cure!
·
You will notice
I reduced the amount of salt from 1 pound to 1/2 cup. This is up to you. I
don’t like things really salty and I have spent the last 6 months experimenting
with the amount of salts in my recipes which has proved to work well with these
brines. If you like your bacon saltier you may add up to the 1 pound of salt.
We all eat to much salt anyway!
Mix all your ingredients and make sure they are dissolved
well. Place meat in the brine and pump your bellies with brine to about 8% of green weight. After weighting and re-weighting the bacon
several times this seems to come out to about the same as injecting the all
over meat at intervals of about 2 inches apart.
Pumping is simply injecting the meat with the brine water.
Chill at 38-40 degrees for about 5 or 6 days. Make sure the meat
is fully submerged in the water. The best way I know of to do this is to either
put a plate with something heavy on the meat or use a vacuum sealer – which is
what I do. Turn the meat every few days.
After about 5 to 7 days remove the meat and rinse it really well
under luke warm water. Pat the meat dry with paper towels and start you smoker
while it dries out some. Bring the smoker up to 130°F to 135°F with the dampers wide open and no wood. If your smoker doesn’t
have dampers prop open the lid. Place the water pan in the smoker but do not
add water – this will just act as a heat shield for the meat.
Once temperatures are stable place the meat in the smoker and
allow the surface of the meat to dry for about an hour. This is important that
the surface be dry because the smoke will not penetrate wet meat evenly (if at
all) and your bacon end up looking blotchy with uneven color.
After the surfaces of the meat have become dry close the dampers to 1/4 open or
close the lid and add wood to smoke the
meat until internal temp hits 128°F. Don’t go beyond this or
you be cooking the meat.
I’ve decided that I personally prefer to smoke my bacon using a
50-50 mix of Hickory and Apple occasionally throwing in some Cherry or using all Cherry for the
last several hours. It gives it a nice mahogany color with a slightly sweeter
aroma.
Reduce temperature of your smoker and smoke your bacon until it
turns a nice reddish-brown. When the
color looks right you, remove the bacon and chill at least overnight. Don’t try eating it right away or you may be
disappointed. It needs to firm up and let the flavors meld.
You find it much easier to slice bacon when it’s chilled almost
to freezing – stiff but not frozen solid.
Whatever happened to that belly I showed you earlier? Here it is
right out of the smoker.
Enjoy!
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