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making bacon

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fleener

50 Cal.
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Since I had the camera out I thought I would take a picture of 14 lbs of pork belly going on the smoker. Been in the salt and spice cure for a little over a week. Now it has to smoke until it gets up to 150F.

Fleener



 
No watching needed.... The big green eggs make things very easy. I can set the top and bottom vent and leave it alone. It hits 225 degrees and just sits there.

I sliced it up yesterday and had to fry some up for breakfast. I think it is my best batch so far. I added sorghum to the mix, and let everything sit for 8 days instead of 7.

I got the little extra salt taste I was looking for and just the right amount of sweet.

Fleener
 
The egg is the best and simplest smoker I have ever used. I would highly recommend one to anyone. :grin:

Fleener
 
Crewdawg445 said:
To modern! At any rate, invite me over and I'll QA that bacon to find out! :grin: :haha:

Ummm. Fleener's may be made of modern materials but the design was originally made of clay and virtually unchanged for half a millennia. originating in China in the Qin dynasty and popularized in Japan.

Here is an ad from a California newspaper in 1963.

image004.jpg
 
I have a couple of pork shoulder roasts in the freezer that I picked up cheap at the local grocer when they were on sale. I am going to pull them out and get them cured and smokes for a buckboard style bacon in the next few days. They are around 10 pounds fresh weight together.
 
Fleener, my wife and I put up a lot of bacon. She does the curing " between five and seven days". We cold smoke for almost a day light day . Then when we think it's had enough smoke , I'll light a small propane stove and bring up the inside of the meat temp to the 150 you mentioned. When you cook this bacon for breakfast, all you have to do is a real quick light fry. Purchased store bacon can't hold a candle to it.The pork belly is kinda hard to locate sometimes. Sams club has had some real good stuff lately.
 
I have my pork shoulder roasts thawing in the refrigerator right now. I did a couple of them about a year ago but made some mistakes and tried two different recipes at the time. Neither was to my satisfaction although it all got eaten. I'm using the roasts as the price I got them on sale was $.99 as opposed to about $3 for pork belly in the store.

Pork shoulder is more lean than bacon, but I am giving it a shot. I will use Pink Salt in this recipe. Pink Salt is a sodium nitrite mixture and I was able to get some from a local meat market. I lucked out and they gave me enough to cure several batches for free. I had looked at the local supermarkets and outdoor stores and only Academy had it and theirs contained a number of additives. Instacure #1 contains only the sodium nitrite and table salt. I couldn't find it locally.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'll also review my ability to post pictures and see if I can get some here, but I had trouble the last time I tried to use Imagur.
 
Kansas Jake said:
I'll also review my ability to post pictures and see if I can get some here, but I had trouble the last time I tried to use Imagur.
Try https://imgbb.com
Once the image is uploaded, select BBCode full linked, copy and paste in your post.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
fleener said:
The egg is the best and simplest smoker I have ever used. I would highly recommend one to anyone. :grin:

Fleener


My son has one and has using it down to a science. His meats are better than anything you will ever get, even in a high end restaurant. And, he often uses less than premium cuts. Only downside is he doesn't invite us for dinner often enough. :wink:
 
Art, thanks for this thread. I had a very brief visit to Iowa over Columbus Day weekend, and my daughter's future father-in-law in Indianola treated me to some thin-sliced side pork done on his Big Green Egg with his favorite hot rub. Omigosh it was good -- and I'll bet your bacon is even better.
 
I'll be smoking my bacon in our Traeger. I hope it works well. Mine is an older model without the adjustable heat range. It has a smoking setting and Medium and High. My thought is to smoke it good and then go to medium and bring the temp up to 150 internally or to just heat it in the oven to 150 after a good dose of smoke.

Suggestions?
 
I’d use the smoker for the whole process. Don’t forget pictures

Fleener
 
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