I haven't smoked anything for a couple of weeks. So I decided to start my Buckboard Bacon project last night.
I thought I would start a thread to get some feedback and have some discussion during the brining process (to make sure I am not doing anything glaringly wrong) from others more knowledgeable than me.
EDIT: I cut the Sugar and Brown Sugar in half below as my first run turned out to be a little sweeter than I like. If you like a sweeter bacon, you can double the sugar below.
I used Pop's Brine as the base:
• 1 Gallon Water
• 1 Cup Non-Iodine Salt
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 Ounce (weighed) of #1 Instacure
Then added the following to kick it up a notch:
• 1 TBSP Minced Garlic
• 1 TBSP Onion Powder
• 2 TSP Ground Black Pepper
Here is my rough plan as of now for the instructions (I am totally open to suggestions from the bacon pros):
1. Mix ingredients until the salt is dissolved and the ingredients have melded.
2. Cut boneless Pork Butt into half or thirds to get 1½”-2” slabs. I made my first cut along the line where the bone was removed. So, that slab is a nice even 1½”-2” slab. This left a thicker and slightly short other half. It was probably 2½ to 2¾ thick. So I debated cutting it in half too. But, in the end decided to leave it a little thicker and just put this slab on a lower rack during smoking to compensate for the slicker slab.
3. Brine for 8-12 days depending on thickness of slabs. Because of the one slightly thicker slab, I am going to push the brining days to 12+ to make sure the cure gets penetrated all the way.
4. After brining is complete, remove and discard the brine.
5. Thoroughly rinse the slabs under cold water.
6. Pat dry, and then place back into the fridge overnight to form a pellicle.
Note This would be when you would want to apply cracked pepper, Maple Syrup, etc. if you so choose.
7. Add additional pepper, syrup, etc. and then add the slabs fresh from the fridge into a cold smoker with 4-6 ounces of Hickory.'
Note My plan is to use a combination of Hickory Chips and A split Hickory dowel. My purpose in doing this is to get smoke at a lower temperature with the chips and longer with the split dowel. That's my theory anyhow.
8. Smoke per the following stepped up plan to internal temp of 140°:
• 125°/4hr
• 150°/2hr
• 175°
9. Remove the slabs from the smoker, allow them to come to room temperature, wrap in plastic wrap, and then refrigerate for 24-36 hours before slicing.
I bought the boneless Boston Butt at Costco primarily for the ease of already having the bone out. But they did a pretty terrible job removing the bone in my opinion. If this goes well and I do this again, I will be buying bone-in butts at Sam's Club and removing the bone myself as I will do a much better job. It looks like they did it with a meat cleaver.
