Henry Rifle Forums

Day three update on my bacon curing process. I flip them once a day. You can see that the dry cure has pulled enough moisture to make a wet brine cure. This is a dry cure that makes a brine. Once the meat is cured, you can do a number of things.
Cold smoke, IE smoke under 110 degrees F,
Hot smoke, smoke over 110 degrees F,
Bake to temp (not necessary, but improves its cookability of it)
Or rinse it off, slice, and freeze.
This recipe is the dry bacon cure, with a heavy Molasses brown sugar from Mount Hope wholesale. I'll link it below.

There is no known cure for bacon. Once you eat it you’re hooked.

lol

That looks pretty darn good. I've brined and smoked a lot of brisket and pastrami in my day, but haven't done bacon yet.
Of course I probably won't because we have a butcher out here in the sticks that has won all kinds of awards for his
bacon and ham, and we have some, and it's terrific! We purchased a half hog from him last Fall and are loving it.
Pastrami is merely brisket, brined, rolled in pepper and smoked. If you do it long enough it tastes like meat candy.

If you hot smoke it only, it is basically corned beef. True pastrami is both cold and hot smoked. (yeah, it is a purist thing)

Venison and beef pastrami.
Here is the Venison just out of the wet cure, about 4 weeks if i remember correctly.

This is the pastrami rolled in toasted coriander and black pepper. It is drying before i cold smoke it.

As it came out of the cold smoker,

After cold smoking and a hot smoke up to temp.

It sliced,

I tried making bacon a few years back. Brined it and smoked it. Ended up tasting and smelling like smoked pork instead of bacon.

Did youbuse insta cure 1?

I've been making my own bacon for about a year now. I have a dry cure that is simple and takes week. After curing I rinse and let the bacon dry in the fridge for 24 hours then hot smoke it to 160 F. My wife loves it and she two votes to my one.

Paul

Lots of pictures of yummy food here!!!

Day 9 bacon update:

It has firmed up nicely. I let it sit two days on one side before flipping it this morning. I'll take them out of the bags tomorrow. Rinse off. and hang in the cooler over Friday night.

Hanging them will help form the Pellicle, a thin layer that allows smoke to pass through.

As of now, the plan is to cold smoke for 12 hours on Saturday and a few hours of hot smoke to bring them to temp. Bringing them to temp is my way of getting rid of some of the extraneous greases they will have.

I'll post a photo of them rinsed and then hung up late tomorrow evening.

Bacon hanging to tack up last night.





Bacon & smoker: a timeless tale of scrumptious love, desire, and a little bit of fire.

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:17 am

Bacon hanging to tack up last night.





Bacon & smoker: a timeless tale of scrumptious love, desire, and a little bit of fire.

Wow that looks really good and you seem to have a nice mini production line going! We enjoy bacon once a week on Sundays with pancakes.

Almost ready for slicing.

I am letting the smoke settle a bit before slicing and packaging.