All this Gay, Muslim, Politics talk...
Community
...got me to just about give up on the CF, but instead, let’s make BACON and keep this awesome forum flowing.
I took the coming week off of work to tear out and install a new kitchen for my wife (sans granite since I know my limits). I also planned to make bacon this week, and figured I might as well document it to lighten this board up for a bit.
Why? Because if you don’t like bacon, then you are just wrong, and making it is so fricken simple. I do believe a few of you on here will be thanking me when you make your own once this is completed, which takes 3-5 days of curing (depending on how salty you like), and a few hours to smoke then prep for the freezer. Best part is you know exactly what went into the food you feed your family. Nitrite, and Nitrate free. No water, or chemicals injected. Just pure mouth watering goodness.
So here comes a how-to updated daily as I do “something” in the process. Just got done starting the cure on what I hope to be 41# of soon to be bacon. You don’t have to make this much at one time. We do, because it is easy, we all love it and it takes the same amount of effort to make 10# as it does 40#, just need to do it less often. You could start with one belly, but you will quickly wish you had made more. Pics are coming...so check back in daily for an update.
Start with fresh pork bellies. I buy ours from Costco. Much to the delight of my wife I built a kitchen in the basement to do all of my meat processing a few years ago as she didn’t like me “clogging up” hers.
Make your cure. I use these 3 ingredients ONLY per EACH pork belly.
1 Cup of kosher salt
1 Cup brown sugar (light or dark is your choice)
2 Tbs of fine ground pepper
I cut my bellies into 1/3rds, or approximately 7”, to fit my slicer (you will see that in later installments) then rub my cure into each belly.
Then I flip and rub the other side with the other 1/2 of the cure. Each pan will have 2 bellies in it.
Place the curing pork bellies in the fridge to rest for 24 hours. That is it for day one. I could easily get all 4 slabs in the top container, but it is a royal pain in the rear to drain the liquid from, as you will see that tomorrow when you check back in. Not filling the containers to capacity makes life a bit easier.
I'll watch this one too. My neighbor gave me venison bacon and I had it a couple of days ago...it was pretty good.
Great thread! Following... but your cure needs a little maple syrup. :>)
You’re a workin man. Nice.
You owe me a keyboard!
The Creator had a really good day when He created the pig!
Following. This is frigging awesome Mike! And correct, bacon is the best. As the meme says: step away from anyone who doesnt like bacon, you dont need that kind of negativity in your life!
I've no idea how to do it, so this educational too!
Something seriously wrong with you.
If making and eating bacon makes me a racist, then I’m guilty because there is no better of a simple pleasure on this earth. Now go away and gum your tofu granola salad.
If Mike was gay he’d make a fine dude to a dude with those cooking skills lol. Freeglee what the hell is wrong with your dumb ass?
This next installment is just for you Freefruitee. Hope you like...
A couple years ago I wanted to try taking a hog from live-in-a-pen to dead-in-my-freezer.
The meat was phenomenal and the smoked Head meat was enjoyed by everyone who wanted some. My wife wasn’t so fond of the presentation, but I never really cared what others thought. She knows it and just laughs most days.
"I will NOT be following along hope you Choke on the home made garbage!!!!!!!!"
Must be a vegetarian. His loss! I didn't realize that loving bacon was known as "racist"!? I guess that puts me in the KKK!! I'm ok with that...carry on Mike, you have our attention!!!
“If Mike was gay he’d make a fine dude to a dude with those cooking skills ”
Thanks B-Rad. I’d double my wardrobe and always have a fishing buddy too, but alas, I’m HAPPILY married, AND my wife wouldn’t approve.
Now, Freefruitee can we please get away from all the BS that clogs up the natural flow of fun? If you don’t approve of the message, here is a simple solution...Start your own “whatever” thread and teach others something they didn’t know. It’s call helping others. It’s kinda what the good guy does in life.
With the amount of bacon I eat (BLT’s with my garden tomato’s are a little slice of heaven!). I expected my cholesterol to be through the roof but thankfully it’s not so I’ll continue to enjoy them! Great job Mike
As you can see, the salt is extracting all the liquid from the bellies. This is also why We salt our hides to preserve them.
Go ahead and pour all that liquid off.
Make sure to pour out as much as possible.
Now, take the bottom piece that is meat side down, and put it on top meat side up, and do the same with the upper piece (now on the bottom). Do this to all of the bellies. Basically you are just shuffling the deck so that everything has the same opportunity to sit in the brine the same amount of time. I let it sit before without draining, and it was extremely salty when finished. Over the years, I’ve found that this way works pretty well for our taste. Your tastes may be different. That’s the best part of making your own, you get to do it YOUR way.
Now, here is the hard part...put it back in the fridge and wait 24 hours then repeat the same steps on day 3 as you did on day 2.
Following this, looks tasty. "Racist"? Is there a race that doesn't eat bacon? I know some religions don't. My 7th day Adventist neighbors don't, but they are Caucasian. I worked with a middle eastern guy who was an atheist but could put a hurt on a plate of pork ribs.
Cool. Keep us posted Mike!
And yet another use for bacon........This is what we had for dinner tonight. Not my pic but it looks exactly like this. I use a marinade of olive oil, liquid smoke, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Famous Dave's pork seasoning, ground red pepper, and enough brown sugar to make it as thick as a Slurpy. Let it marinate for at least 8 hours and then wrap it in bacon and grill it.
You have to send some for us to taste, will pm address....;^)
After sitting another 24 hours, you can see there is about 1/4 the amount of liquid as yesterday. The salt is doing its job quite well.
Once again, drain the liquid from the pan.
Shuffle the deck again, just as you did the day before. If you notice, it’s starting to look like bacon from the side. Also, removing all that liquid has firmed up the bellies too. Maybe I should try sitting in a salt, sugar and black pepper cure as a last ditch effort to firm up my belly. HA!!
Then, back in the fridge for yet another 24 hours.
Did you put any more salt on before going back into the fridge again?
Nope. The “cure” is still encased on the bellies and there is a slurry on the bottom of the pan. That’s the reason for shuffling the deck daily. If you follow along with the pictures, the process is exactly as I’m posting the pictures.
" (BLT’s with my garden tomato’s are a little slice of heaven!). "
Finally something Fav and I can agree on. ;)
Enjoying this post Mike. And I agree with gflight too, you need to send a sample to all of us.
Mike, ok. Are you done adding stuff?
Patience Grasshopper. This is Bacon, you simply cannot rush the nectar of the gods.
Following and going to give it a shot once you've posted all the instructions.
Great thread - very interesting!
I'm pumped... what's next :)!
Love the thread... next to the Bible, Bowsite is the manual for life. I have learned more on this site in 9 yrs then a lifetime of trial and error, thanks guy's!
Yeah...at what point do we get to wrap it around a snickers bar and deep fry it?!
Boring, I know, but so worth it in the end.
As you can see, the liquid being extracted from the meat is minimal now. Once again, drain it out.
Looking like the real thing now.
Seeing as there was minimal amounts of liquid today, all I did was take the bottom piece and put it on top (keeping meat side down). It works in my mind, have no idea if it scientifically works or not, just how I do it.
Back into the fridge for yet 24(ish) hours. I promise this is the last time to drain and shuffle. Something different (but simple) happens tomorrow. Then we can get to smoking it on Thursday.
In case anyone was wondering, kitchen is completely done except for granite tops and flooring. My goal is to have the floor done before I go back to work Monday. Wife is pleased she could get the house back in order now. That is all that really matters to me.
Tomorrow, complete brake job on my truck and then the next step in the makin’ bacon process.
Thanks for the thread. I am planning on raising some Tamworth hogs next year and building a smoke house on the place.
Very little liquid now so today will be the last day of playing the “shuffle and wait” game.
Drain the liquid out again.
I transferred all the bellies over to the larger container so that I can rinse out the empty container.
Now rince all the caked on rub off. What I’m trying to do is to remove as much salt as possible, but I do NOT agitate the rub, just let the water wash it off. This way the black pepper stays on for the most part. You can see how it remains in the next few photos. It doesn’t take much time under the water to achieve this.
Yeah, I think this batch just might be a winner. You’re probably wondering what I’m gonna do with those two pieces, aren’t you?
There is only one answer to THAT question. Our boys devoured this, and my youngest asked if he could take a whole one to school for lunch tomorrow. I’d say that would be a “Two Thumbs Up” review. Now we have made phenomenal salt pork, but it is not bacon yet. There is one more step to fulfill.
I then put all the bellies back in the containers. Do not stack them neatly, as You want the water to drain off them after they were rinsed. Then back in the fridge. I will go down in a couple hours and drain them one last time and then back into the fridge to let them firm up overnight. I started with almost 47# of raw pork bellies, and tonight, they weigh in at 40.6#. My SWAG was 41#, not bad for an amateur.
Tomorrow, we smoke. :-)
So, Mike... Um, you cool with all of us showing up for a bacon fast over the weekend :)?
Come on over. Trying to get a ton of things done before bird season starts, and this and my wife’s kitchen was highest in the list. Truck brake job done today, also installed a Catch Can from the PCV for the truck too. I’m actually looking forward to going back to work to take it a bit easier on myself. HA!!
I like to use Cherry wood when smoking. I really like the aroma. I’ve used just about every type of hard wood that Michigan has (minus poplar) and to me, there is no difference in taste. Your tastebuds might be different. I just go with what smells good when cooking.
First container is in the smoker. What you want is an internal smoker temp of 225*-240*, and a finished meat temp of 160*. USDA says pork is good cooked at 145*, but I don’t trust the Government to give me the correct information, and nobody has gotten sick from me smoking it to 160*, so 160* it will always be. Also, taking the temp to 160* means it is fully cooked and ready to be eaten (bonus for those who cannot wait). This way, when it comes time to cook it for a meal, all we are really doing is reheating it and crisping it up. First meat on the smoker at 9:30 am.
I rely on an external Bluetooth temp gauge, as I want to know what is going on at all times and I don’t trust the probe in the top of the smoker. The one attached to the smoker is OFTEN wrong and it is at the top of the unit instead of where the meat is located. Using charcoal, there is usually a constant adjustment needed to the lower vents to get, and keep, the temp correct. I enjoy the work and it keeps me busy and makes it more personal than the “set it and forget it” type electric smokers (ovens). I’m not saying one is better than the other, just that I prefer charcoal and real chunks of dried hardwood.
Progressing just as it should. As you can see in the picture, I removed the lid and repositioned the temp probes in the meat. Should be a “finished smoking” pic in the not to distant future along with the next step as well.
You have no idea how much will power you possess till this is staring at you, and you tell yourself you’re gonna wait till it’s sliced and pan fried till you have some.
Now to STOP the cooking process you need to cool down the meat. I use a 7# bag of ice inside of a garbage bag.
Place it on top of your now smoked bacon. After a few minutes, shuffle the meat from the bottom to the top and then put the ice on it. All you are trying to do here is cool the meat down to stop the cooking process from raising the temp even more as it sits.
As one batch comes off, another goes on. The whole house and neighborhood is smelling amazin. After I put the meat in the smoker, I then put 4 more chunks of cherry on top of the coals to start the whole process over again. It won’t take to long for the meat temps to even out a little closer together.
Top rack is done. Time to get it off and cooled down.
Obligatory drool pic opportunity.
After getting the initial “chill” done, you guessed it, back in the fridge to cool down the rest of the way.
Been an awesome few hours outside today, just chilling with our youngest boy.
I’ve found that if you take proper precautions, clean up is SIMPLE!!!
In my opinion, there is no better product for this than the quart sized freezer bags made by Ziplock. They hold 1# of bacon (twenty 7” pieces) with ease.
I may suck at doing a lot of things, but I believe I excel at making bacon. “Stick to what you know” is what my Dad used to tell me. I try to do everything at least once, just find out my limits. You never know what you can accomplish if you never try it.
I’m getting zero complaints from the taste tester.
Coming along nicely. As I mentioned in the beginning, I cut my bellies into 1/3rds to fit my slicer. As you can see, all my slices are right about 7”. Fits my slicer perfect, and because there was zero water or chemicals injected into the bellies with the cure, there is pretty much ZERO shrinkage when cooking, which gives you that perfect piece of bacon to put on a samich. There is 20 pieces per pile (almost spot on 1# because of the thickness I cut them), and that gets me two weeks of breakfast...3 eggs and 2 pieces of bacon every morning M-F. There is enough “grease” in the skillet, from cooking the bacon, that I’m able to fry up my eggs without adding anything else to the skillet.
40 quart bags ready for the freezer...39 with twenty pieces in each, and one with ends and pieces, which is perfect for a pot of homemade potato soup.
It really is this simple to feed yourself, and your family healthy, chemical free food. Please give it a try, and post your progress here. We truly need something other than how this thread started to talk about on this forum. Thank you all for following along, and if there is any questions, please feel free to ask.
Happy Makin Bacon to you all.
Mike
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!!
Mike...just a little FYI.
You can "vacuum" seal those bags by sinking them slowly in a pot of water slowly pushing all the air out of the top. I have been using the Target brand of quart freezer bags with the zipper top. Think they provide a better seal.
Nice tutorial...all interested should mark this thread as a favorite for future reference.
“Mike...just a little FYI. You can "vacuum" seal those bags by sinking them slowly in a pot of water slowly pushing all the air out of the top.”
The Hillbilly in me uses a plastic drinking straw, as I don’t want to chance getting moisture in what I just spent a week taking moisture out of, and I refuse to spend the money on a vacuume sealer. Thank you for the tip though to anyone who would like to try it, but I’ll stick to Hillbilly ingenuity.
Plastic? OMG...thank goodness you are a fellow Michigander where they are still legal.
Nice job Mike. I’m glad you are only 1/2 hour away and can get a package every now and then. I will try it this winter myself.
Looks tasty!! You mention you got the moisture out. When you cook it in the pan like store-bought bacon, does it still put off a lot of grease like the store-bought bacon does?
Great stuff Mike. Thanks for taking the time to post it up.
I'm doing this after deer season, thanks Mike!
Gave a good friend a bag last night, and he sent me this picture this morning.
Thanks for the positive feedback guys. It’s nice to get away from all the crap that clogs up life and get back to the simple pleasures of producing something good.
Shrewski, anytime you need something, just ask. I’ll be on my way.
JL, I fry up 2 pieces of bacon every morning M-F, and there is always enough “grease” left in the pan to fry up my 3 eggs to go with it. When we cook up a batch, we have a cup that we put the drippings into to save for when we want to fry something else. Not much difference in amount of grease from ours to homemade.
Honestly, it’s a whole different experience eating your own bacon, versus store bought. My wife never wants to eat store bought again. There is a HUGE difference. Quality is 2nd to none once you get the recipe you like, and stick to it.
Thanks. That bacon in the pan sure looks good. Makes me want to get a meat slicer.
Makes me consider purchasing a smoker.
Well, has anyone taken the next step and make their own bacon yet?
I just fried up a pound to take to bird camp to have as an easy premade breakfast.
My boys said they want to make a YouTube video of the process next time. I’m not much into videoing stuff, but if that’s something this younger generation can relate to, I guess, Why not?. Whatever it takes to get people involved in doing stuff for themselves.
Mike...I bookmarked this thread and renamed the bookmark:
bacon
On my to do list, once we sell our house here and move to WY. Hard to get enthusiasm for new projects when mind is elsewhere ;o)
My mouth is watering. I love bacon and that looks so good. Next you need to do a venison pastrami tutorial.
Great job Mike....
When smoking make sure you "cook it" to recommended temps when not using a cure as Mike did.
Never partially smoke without using a cure.
I’m glad you’re not my neighbor. I’d be over there smelling that all day long. I don’t trust anyone that doesn’t like bacon.
Just got the smoker ready for tomorrow. Pork butt, two chickens and 3 slabs of ribs will be sending heavenly scents through the entire area.
Thanks for sharing the process. I wish I was you're neighbor!
Oh dang Mike this looks so good. So I chatted this all out to do this week and have one question. You said it would take 3-5 days but if I follow steps above and start Monday night it looks to me like I wouldn’t finish until Sunday night a full six days. Did I screw something up?
Awesome tutorial! Thanks for the inspiration.
Awesome tutorial! Thanks for the inspiration.
As others have said, this is an awesome thread. I have a batch in the fridge now as a result of this!
Nice to see someone got motivated. I was hoping for at least one guy to try it. You will soon be on the track of not wanting store bought again. Post up some pictures of your progress.
Geesh, how have I not followed this thread until now? lol
I haven't taken pictures up to this point but have followed your instructions precisely. I just completed the rinse and the meat is back in the fridge until I smoke it tomorrow. Its firm with a nice pepper coating like your pictures show. Since I just recently retired, I've been doing a lot of experimenting on my little charcoal smoker and this is going to be great! I'll post a pretty and post smoke picture later. Thanks again!
After the rinse
After the rinse
Completed the first run of Mike's bacon recipe. Everything turned out well with the exception of saltiness. I believe that's do to being too careful with the rinse, an easy fix for the next round. I'll include a few pics.
On the smoker!
On the smoker!
Looks pretty tasty
Looks pretty tasty
The final product
The final product
Love the home made Bacon!
Now we are gaining speed.
Excellent thread! Guess I gotta get some pork bellies now. I like smoking with cherry wood too. I made venison jerky last year with cherry cider (basically just cherry juice) and smoked it with black cherry wood. When it was done there was a faint cherry flavor.
Excellent thread, Mike! Thanks!
