Smoking Bacon

So chilled after a night uncovered in the fridge, now ready for the hot smoke to turn our little innocent pork belly into sexy bacon. The hot coals are offset from where the pork will be. The indirect heat needed is 200 degrees F.

Since the charcoal alone won't give it enough smokiness, adding some applewood smoking pellets will produce the smoke needed. Tossing a small handful on the coals about twice an hour yields a pleasant smokey flavor and creates that beautiful smoky patina.

Internal thermometer is inserted in the pork belly, to make bacon it needs to rise to 150 degrees F.

Yes, hot smoke action.

Keep that heat slow and low 200 degrees F. I had a small Smokey Joe going with a few backup coals burning when I needed to add more to maintain the heat.

Reaching our goal of not only 150 internally, but also in creating damn sexy pieces of pork.

Skin is a little too chewy, so carefully remove it and reserve it to add to beans, soups and sauces. I chopped it up and placed in the freezer for future uses.

Sliced and ready to devour. However this bacon wasn't made to make bacon strips with eggs over easy, it was made to make more incredibly delicious meals and blog posts...nom, nom, nom

Making bacon

So here we go again another week long campaign in pork products, today we are starting on making bacon. First you have to cure it and the curing ingredients clockwise from the left are kosher salt, pink salt (you can only find it at the Barbie Store), brown sugar, black pepper and a little dried rosemary. Mix till equally combined.



Spread curing mixture equally over the bacon, today I had two 2 pound pork bellies.


Mmmmm salted and sugared.



Now they're bagged and tagged and I will gently flip them daily in the fridge for the next week before we rinse off the cure and then let them air dry over night in the fridge and before we smoke them. Cue Homer Simpson, Mmmmmmmmmmm BACON!

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