New Batch of Dry Cured Bacon
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GWG8541 Regular Contributors Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Team Blue Power User Military Veterans Ohio
I picked up a 11 lb belly at COSTCO and made some Bacon in anticipation of some fresh garden tomatoes coming on soon. Nothing like a BLT with your own Bacon and home grown tomatoes. After the curing, I seasoned the bacon with the Excalibur 20 mesh black pepper, which gave a good consistency, and some brown sugar before I smoked it.
A little sample for breakfast and man was it good. I just need that garden tomato to ripen up now.
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cdavis Masterbuilt Canning Kamado Joes Regular Contributors Power User Sous Vide Oklahoma Team Camoreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by
GWG8541 oh man that bacon looks tasty
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glen Regular Contributors Team Grey Sous Vide Canning Dry Cured Sausage Masterbuilt Power User Meat Hack Winner Veteran Kansasreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by
GWG8541 Hurry up tomato!
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bocephus Team Orange Power User Canning Masterbuilt Regular Contributors Veteran New Mexico Sous Vide Gardeningreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by
GWG8541 Great job, you are right about the BLTs, nothing like fresh from the garden tomatoes and lettuce.
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That looks great!
I wish someplace around here carried pork bellies besides the locker. I only buy them on special occasions cause the lockers charge a premium price for them. I can buy bacon from the locker cheaper than a belly. -
I definitely need to make some more bacon here soon. This is good inspiration
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GWG8541
Beautiful! -
First of all, that looks incredible! 2nd, great job on the slicing. I have never noticed pork belly at Costco. Where was the Costco? I would definitely do this in my Recteq smoker if I could find a good pork belly like this. My wife and I both love BLTs with good lean bacon!
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camoreplied to Ted Frodyma on last edited by
Ted Frodyma said in New Batch of Dry Cured Bacon:
First of all, that looks incredible! 2nd, great job on the slicing. I have never noticed pork belly at Costco. Where was the Costco? I would definitely do this in my Recteq smoker if I could find a good pork belly like this. My wife and I both love BLTs with good lean bacon!
The Costco near me has had good pork bellies for the last couple of years and is my go-to source for them.
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Bob Stehlik Team Blue Colorado Military Veterans Veteran Traeger Masterbuilt Power User Old-Timer Canningreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by
GWG8541 That is some good looking bacon! I can almost smell it cooking out here in Colorado.
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by
GWG8541 great looking bacon!
I finally found a pork belly at Costco myself, $4.50 / lb but I wanted to try bacon so bought it. I’m doing my first one now, an Equilibrium brine with just 700 ml of brine injected and bagged around bacon. I’ve done a good bit of dry cure on other things and liked it, was just trying to speed up cure from 12 or 14 days. A wee bit of mess compared to dry cure though.Do you have any thoughts on dry cure vs a small volume wet cure? For end results, taste, spatter while fry, etc? If I can find a cheaper and constant source for bellies (Costco rarely has them here), I can see constantly having bacon curing, so speeding the cure wouldn’t be an issue.
Thx, love to hear more of your experience! -
Grimpuppy hate when that happens, tends to give me a bellyache!
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camoreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ said in New Batch of Dry Cured Bacon:
GWG8541 great looking bacon!
I’ve done a good bit of dry cure on other things and liked it, was just trying to speed up cure from 12 or 14 days. A wee bit of mess compared to dry cure though.I am interested to know what guideline you use to determine this cure time for a pork belly?
I don’t think I have ever done a dry EQ cure of a belly that was longer than 7 days for complete penetration and cure and I thought that was being pretty conservative at that.
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GWG8541 Regular Contributors Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Team Blue Power User Military Veterans Ohioreplied to Grimpuppy on last edited by
Grimpuppy yeah, one of the reasons I renewed my Costco card was they sold pork bellies and our Sam’s club do not. I have memberships at both now. The Pork Belly was 4.29 lb. and the Costco brand bacon was 4.89 lb. There is not much of a savings by the time everything is factored in, but making it is satisfying.
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GWG8541 Regular Contributors Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Team Blue Power User Military Veterans Ohioreplied to Ted Frodyma on last edited by GWG8541
Ted Frodyma Thanks, I finally got to use my Hobart slicer on bacon. I picked up on Market Place. The Costco is in Centerville, Ohio. I would ask the one near you to see if they could get them in. Pork belly has become a popular or fad BBQ meat so the prices increased prior to this inflation we are experiencing. Pork Belly is crazy expensive for what it is.
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GWG8541 Regular Contributors Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Team Blue Power User Military Veterans Ohioreplied to Dave in AZ on last edited by
Dave in AZ I’m really to new to the bacon game. I have only done the dry cure so far, but plan on trying other methods down the road. I liked how easy the dry cure is and it is pretty hard to screw it up. The biggest thing I have learned from others on here is to rinse and re-rinse before smoking to avoid being too salty. I’ve never had issues with being to salty, but I also add brown sugar and black pepper before smoking. That may help counter any excessive salt from the cure.
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GWG8541 Regular Contributors Cast Iron Sous Vide Canning Team Blue Power User Military Veterans Ohioreplied to processhead on last edited by
processhead yeah, mine was 5 and a half days. That seems like a long cure for that thin belly.
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processhead Power User Regular Contributors Smoker Build Expert Bowl Choppers Nebraska Veteran Team Camoreplied to GWG8541 on last edited by processhead
GWG8541 said in New Batch of Dry Cured Bacon:
Ted Frodyma Thanks, I finally got to use my Hobart slicer on bacon. I picked up on Market Place. The Costco is in Centerville, Ohio. I would ask the one near you to see if they could get them in. Pork belly has become a popular or fad BBQ meat so the prices increased prior to this inflation we are experiencing. Pork Belly is crazy expensive for what it is.
I can’t remember if you ever shared a picture of that slicer you picked up? Do you recall the model number?
The bacon looks excellent. I suspect you will be making it regularly from now on.
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Dave in AZ Military Veterans Sous Vide Canning Traeger Power User Arizona Dry Cured Sausage Dry-Cured Expertreplied to processhead on last edited by
processhead Well heck, you’re right! I’ve been using the calculator at genuineideas dot com, brining time tab. All my prior stuff was loins and butts and thick brisket, so 3 to 6inches. I was just guessing bacon would be 10 to 14 days or such! I just went and put in 2 inch thich flat, amd it gave 5 days, 1.5" is just 2.8 day! Lol… thx for asking me, I actually hadn’t looked at bacon and was gonna look it up after a few days lol.
So… with just 6 days or so, I probably can just dry cure. Only other reason to inject wet cure was that sugar burn issue you have from exterior rub and low sugar penetration giving 100% at surface, vs liquid giving lower concentration distributed throughout meat. But then I bet wet cure spatters more. I’ll just have to try both and see which I like, unless you fellas have inputs as to both results.
