Author Topic: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)  (Read 3854 times)

kona77

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1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« on: March 03, 2019, 12:54:31 PM »
 Did my first pork belly yesterday and it turned out great. As usual I poured through a lot of past posts from the folks on this forum to get ideas on the various process steps, cure, recipes etc. I decided I wanted to try a cold smoke process but I did not have the SI cold plate or the A-Maze-N type product folks like Gregg use. I ended up using Pork Belly's process of turning up my 3-D to 250 to get the smoke going and then add my belly and turn down to 100.. It was in the mid-20's here in Wisconsin and this process worked great for me. Below are the details and pictures.
Started with 10LB belly from Costco.. They had some nice meaty ones on my last visit ($2.99/lb).
Used Kari's brine/cure recipe of 1TBSP of TenderQuick/Brown Sugar to pound of belly. (also added some Maple syrup)
Cured for 7 days in the fridge and flipped every day. Removed from the brine on Friday and rinsed and let sit in a cold water bath for 10-15 minutes( tip from Gregg on past concerns about bacon being too salty).
Started with 6oz of apple chips and followed the cold smoke process noted above for 2.5 hours.
Added some more chips and set temp to 200 looking for a belly temp of 150.
Took two more hours to hit 150.. Removed and applied a maple syrup/cracked pepper glaze and let sit over-night.
Sampled this morning and it was delicious!!!  A couple of observations.
 
My meat slicer is 7" and I knew that was going to be an issue. I know there are a number of recommendations for larger 10-12" slicers but will probably just cut the belly's in half and have 5"-6" slices. Slicing all by hand would be a chore.
Bacon had some smoke flavor but I would have liked more. Next bacon attempt I will cold smoke longer or maybe add some hickory or maple.
The syrup glaze resulted in some burnt edges when fried this morning. My wife likes crisp bacon so that was Ok but I will omit this step on my next attempt. Lots of good looking brine recipes on the site and I will experiment more.
Gene from Wisconsin
SI newbie (3-D)
Live/breathe for the outdoors..

barelfly

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Re: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2019, 09:48:09 PM »
Mmmmmm. Looks wonderful! Dig the pig! I need to make some more! Thanks for reminding me 😁
Jeremy in NM
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Bullet 4 burner gasser by Bull Grills
Weber Kettle with a Slow n Sear

kona77

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Re: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2021, 05:23:42 PM »

 Smoked 2 bellies (22lb's) that I picked up Costco.. Followed my standard process noted above with the
only change was I purchased a 12" pellet smoke tube on Amazon and used that on the cold smoke portion.
Tube worked great. Just removed the fire box and lit the tube outside of my 3D and let smoke for 5-10 minutes.
Inserted into the 3D and it gave great smoke for almost 5 hours. Removed bellies and let rest overnight and then
smoked at 200 the next day until the bacon hit 150.. End pieces had a nice smokey flavor..
Smoke tube will be a good addition for future cold smokes.   
Gene from Wisconsin
SI newbie (3-D)
Live/breathe for the outdoors..

old sarge

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Re: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2021, 09:50:48 PM »
Nicely done.
David from Arizona
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barelfly

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Re: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2021, 11:16:34 PM »
A year after your first post on bacon.....scary!

Thanks for the tip on the smoke tube. I’ve looked at this a few times but haven’t picked one up. I like how you went about getting smoke to start then got it in the smoker. Maybe I need to pick one of these up!

Enjoy the pig!!!!
Jeremy in NM
3D for lazy q
Bullet 4 burner gasser by Bull Grills
Weber Kettle with a Slow n Sear

kona77

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Re: 1st Bacon Smoke (and success!!!)
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2021, 01:58:25 PM »

 Jeremy-  I did smoke 20lbs+ last March/2020 but did not post.. The main change/addition this year was the smoke tube and I know there have been some threads/comments about A-MAZ-N products on here. My old cold smoke process was to turn up the heat to 160-200 and then turn off my 3D(and repeat).. Some times the smoke would continue for 30-60 minutes and other times up to 2 hours but it was just inconsistent.. Also my internal IT would sometimes get up to 110-120 using this process which is hotter than I wanted.. I ordered the 12" smoke tube from Amazon (not an AMAZN product) and it was only $15.. Some guys had posted they had issues with keeping the tubes going in their SI units but I did a test run the day before my smoke and in both cases I got 5+ hours of really good smoke. Used Traeger cherry pellets. My IT temp never went over 80 so it would be good for cheese and other cold smokes. Was thinking about the Bella or other cold smoke options but for $15 and some pellets this is a great option for me..
Gene from Wisconsin
SI newbie (3-D)
Live/breathe for the outdoors..