Homemade bacon (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

copasspupil

copasspupil

Joined
Feb 21, 2009
Threads
170
Messages
1,009
Location
Enumclaw, WA
Ever done it? I tried it at the fire station and I now can't eat regular bacon anymore. For the >40 y/o crowd that remembers when bacon was good, thick as in 1/4" thick slices and had meat attached on each strip.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup sea salt
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup molasses
pork shoulder/butt or boston butt

Mix to a cookie dough like consistency, cut the shoulder in 2" thick sections and place in a zip lock. Depending upon the size of the shoulder, you may need to make more of the mix. Place it flat in the refrig and flip everyday for 5 days.

Remove and let soak in water for 15 minutes to remove the excess salt and pat dry. Once that is done, apply pepper - more than you like and place on a rack in the refrig for 1 day. Pull it out and place in a smoker for 3-4 hours on a cold smoke. Once done, cut 1/4" slices and fry it up. It won't take more than 2 minutes to finish. Way more meat than today's bacon and the taste is unbelievable...

I made 20 lbs. of it and my kids and friend's kids ate so much of it, I only have 1 (3lb) slab left after.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^
Liam knows his meat.....any shape, size, or color.
 
I feel lazy now just going to the butcher if I want big thick delicious bacon.
 
Good Eats had an episode where he cold smoked some bacon.

1 cup sugar
1 cup salt
8 ounces molasses
2 quarts water
2 quarts apple cider
2 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
5 pounds piece raw pork belly from "lion end"

In a large non- reactive pot, bring half the water, 1 cup of sugar, salt, and 8 ounces molasses to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour into a large container with the remaining water, and the apple cider. Place in the refrigerator and cool to 40 degrees F. Press the black pepper into the pork belly. Once the brine has cooled place the peppered pork belly into the mixture until completely submerged. Refrigerate for three days.

After three days have passed, remove the pork from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Lay on a rack over a sheet pan and place in front of a fan for 1 hour to form a pellicle. Lay the pork in the protein box of a cold smoker and smoke for 4 to 6 hours. Chill the meat in the freezer for 1 hour to stiffen for easy slicing into strips of bacon. Slice what you need and keep the remainder in a freezer safe bag in the refrigerator or freezer.

Place the strips of bacon onto a sheet pan fitted with a rack and place into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your bacon. Remove from rack and drain on paper towels. Enjoy.

Yield: approximately 4 pounds of bacon

Source of Recipe: Alton Brown, Good Eats
 
Damn I like me some bacon!

I need to take the time to use one of these recipes. Thanks for sharing!!! :cheers:
 
Be forewarned: It will be darn near impossible to eat store bought, even the natural style bacon from WF's, after you make your own! The good thing: Homemade bacon freezes well ;)
 
Made another batch of homemade bacon...well its actually 'un-bacon' because I didn't use nitrate in the cure. But its still very tasty and experimenting is 1/2 the fun ;). Here's the low down:


I started with Alton Brown's non-nitrate salt brine for 8 pounds of Devil's Gulch Ranch pastured naturally raised belly. For those of you not familiar with Devil's Gulch Ranch in Marin County California: http://www.devilsgulchranch.com/


Alton Brown's Bacon Brine recipe:

1C sugar
1C salt
8oz molasses
1/2 gallon water
1/2 gallon apple cider
2T course ground black pepper

Press the black pepper into the pork belly (if skin on then just rub into the flesh portions of the belly). Combine remaining ingredients in a suitably sized pan and heat until the salt and sugar is dissolved then chill to 40 degrees F.

Using large ziploc bags (I used the 2.5 gallon size, double bagged) combine the pork belly and prepared brine and refrigerate for 3-days.

After 3-days remove the pork belly, pat dry and place the pork belly on top of a cooling rack atop a sheet pan. Alton states to set-up a fan on the counter and 'blow dry' the pork belly at room temp for an hour. I, however, with the pork belly resting on the cooling rack atop the 1/2 sheet pan let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours to form the pellicle.

His recipe doesn't state what temp to smoke the pork belly...just "...smoke for 4-6 hours". Using info I found on another site I decided to pull the belly pieces once the internal temp of the larger cuts got to 150 degrees F. This took about 2-1/2 hours over apple wood with a temp within the kamado of between 160 and 200 degrees F.

Although this "un-bacon" won't be confused with nitrate cured bacon it is still very good. The only thing I will do differently the next time is add 25% more salt to the brine mixture. And I'll smoke the belly to 170-ish degrees F. I think taking it to 170 degrees will bring additional tenderness to the bacon.


Devil's Gulch pork belly.jpg
Bacon 2.jpg
Bacon 3a.jpg
 
15 anyway :D.
 
I had some pork belly (4lbs) I kind of forgot about that I needed to do something with last minute. It was too far to the store today, so I made do with what I had. I made a brine of:

-half gallon water
-1 cup salt
-1 cup brown sugar
- half cup honey

Not your typical brine, but I'll let y'all know how it turns out after I smoke it and get to eat it. Since I'm not curing it, I'll have to smoke it at a higher temp.
 
Last edited:
Leave it in the brine for up to 72-hours. Smoke it to 170 and you should be golden. Don't forget the pellicle...

Course cracked black pepper is a good add if you have some.

Your only danger...if like me...will be being unhappy with commercial bacon here on out :)
 
Catch me up on pellicle?

Right now we buy the thick apple smoked bacon from Costco. It's good, but figured I'd try something else.
 
After you pull the belly from your brine dry it...paper towels work great...then on a cooling rack or similar and back in the fridge for 2-3 hours. The resulting meat surface texture is called the "pellicle". Then into the smoker.

To be fair I've always done this with salmon and pork belly before smoking and can't tell you the difference if you don't allow the pellicle to develop before putting in the smoker. 'If it ain't broke...don't fix it' :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellicle_(cooking)
 
Last edited:
Bacon (uncured)

image.jpg
image.jpg

Got the bacon out of the smoker at 170° and sliced a bit to fry. Not bad I'm surprised how easy it is to make. Reminds me of my dad frying fatback (the thick pieces I fried were almost all fat). The salt could be reduced to a 2/3 cup or 3/4 cup per half gallon of liquid and 4 lbs of meat. I want to buy a full belly when I do this again, the butcher gave me a hodgepodge when I bought the meat.

I need to price the bacon we normally buy, I figure this cost me $6lb after buying pork belly, ziplocks, and fuel for my smoker, but I enjoyed making it and that's worth something.
 
Last edited:
^ looks tasty! Based upon my experiences, homemade bacon notwithstanding, its cheaper to buy it at the meat counter/deli. But then...it doesn't taste like what I make at home. I tend to be more conservative with the bacon I make at home :D
 
spresso, been wanting to do this for some time. Thank you :cheers:
 
I asked my wife tonight if she at the few pieces of bacon I cooked last night... She said no, it was all fat and threw it out.

:( I feel sad inside.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom