Pork belly and bacon

[Bustergut]

Just received my 8lb pork belly. I’d like to try bacon but I can’t find a fool proof recipe, considering it was fairly expensive, I don’t want to trash a good belly. Since this is my first shot at a belly should I just try to smoke it and then sear it off for thick cut bacon or cube it and make bacon candy? What will give me the easiest first step into the pork belly realm. Thank for your help

There us a Facebook group called Makin'bacon that I have found very helpful.

 

[DenStinett]

We've always steered clear of the Sodium Nitrites in the "Pink" or Curing Salt
We use straight Kosher Salt with 100% natural Maple Syrup in a ZipLock Bag
Flip the Bag everyday (in the Frig) for 14 - 21 days
Then LO and Slow for about 5 hours

MEAT

SMOKER TEMP

SMOKING TIME

MEAT TEMP

RUBS OR SAUCES

MISC INFO

Pork Belly / Bacon

LO + Smoke Tube

5+/- hours

140 - 150

1/4 cup Salt + 1/2 cup Maple Syrup + 1 tbsp Pepper / 5 lbs for 14 - 21 days

Pepper again before Smoking

 

[RezMonkeigh]

Bearded Butchers on YouTube did pork belly to bacon a couple ways that I thought was really good. Plenty of ideas out there on YT.

 

[FF Cory]

We've always steered clear of the Sodium Nitrites in the "Pink" or Curing Salt
We use straight Kosher Salt with 100% natural Maple Syrup in a ZipLock Bag
Flip the Bag everyday (in the Frig) for 14 - 21 days
Then LO and Slow for about 5 hours

MEAT

SMOKER TEMP

SMOKING TIME

MEAT TEMP

RUBS OR SAUCES

MISC INFO

Pork Belly / Bacon

LO + Smoke Tube

5+/- hours

140 - 150

1/4 cup Salt + 1/2 cup Maple Syrup + 1 tbsp Pepper / 5 lbs for 14 - 21 days

Pepper again before Smoking

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Wow! That looks amazing! I will do that. I froze it when I got it so it‘ll take a few days to start the process. I’ll take pics. Thank you!

 

[Greg Jones]

Last week I posted about the other half of this belly made for PB burnt ends, now I’ve finished making bacon with the other half. Frankly, this is probably the worst bacon I’ve ever made. First, the cure process was just ‘off’. There wasn’t nearly as much liquid extracted as I’ve seen with prior cures. Then, I smoked it yesterday and it seemed like it took much longer to reach an IT of 150°

Then today I went to slice the bacon and the belly was loaded with fat, so much that I ended up trimming the ends off of some of the slices which was complete fat, that I’ll mix with chuck roast that I’ll grind into ground beef. one thing that I’ll mention about the process-I like to smoke the belly on a wire rack to make grid lines on the fat side to aid in slicing. i cut two slices per grid to end up with slices about 3/8” thick. Fried some up today, and the flavor was still great, although with the high fat content the slices shrank down to- about 50% of the original size. Costco/Swift pork belly, in case anyone is interested.

 

[FF Cory]

Last week I posted about the other half of this belly made for PB burnt ends, now I’ve finished making bacon with the other half. Frankly, this is probably the worst bacon I’ve ever made. First, the cure process was just ‘off’. There wasn’t nearly as much liquid extracted as I’ve seen with prior cures. Then, I smoked it yesterday and it seemed like it took much longer to reach an IT of 150°

Then today I went to slice the bacon and the belly was loaded with fat, so much that I ended up trimming the ends off of some of the slices which was complete fat, that I’ll mix with chuck roast that I’ll grind into ground beef. one thing that I’ll mention about the process-I like to smoke the belly on a wire rack to make grid lines on the fat side to aid in slicing. i cut two slices per grid to end up with slices about 3/8” thick. Fried some up today, and the flavor was still great, although with the high fat content the slices shrank down to- about 50% of the original size. Costco/Swift pork belly, in case anyone is interested.
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Love the grid line idea. That’s heads up play