This is a recipe I created a few years back, which was inspired by the Farmland brand "Cider House Applewood-smoked bacon." Ever since, it has become our overall favorite bacon around here. It has a nice hint of sweetness, balance with a slight tang from the cider. And the Applewood smoke just completes the flavor profile. We love the stuff!
Of course you can use whatever smoke flavor you like, but for this bacon, I really like the applewood best.
Start with fresh pork belly.
Skinned & trimmed into slabs.
I like to mix the brine in a large stock pot, where I can stir it vigorously without making a mess. As long as you use filtered or distilled water, there is no need to boil the brine. If you use tap water, boil and let it cool to room temp BEFORE adding the cure #1!
Single batch:(enough for a 10 - 12lb belly)
4 Quarts Water (preferably filtered or distilled)
2 Quarts Apple Cider
1 - 1.25 cups Pickling Salt (depending on how salty you want it.)
6 tsp. Curing Salt #1 (Insta-cure #1, Prague Powder #1, etc.)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
This recipe can be used two ways:1) Immersion Cure Only (just stick it in the brine) for 10 - 14 days, or...
2) Inject at a 30% pump rate, then brine for 3 - 5 days.
I now prefer injecting the pork bellies. It gets more of the cider flavor into the bacon and I just simply get better results. Not to mention it cuts the brining time down to 3 days!
To inject:1) Measure out 6 liq oz of brine for each 1.25 lbs of pork belly, or follow the "Brine Pump Rate Chart" for a 30%
pump in the
Ham Brining 101 thread - Section 4.
2) Use a regular meat injector and inject the brine evenly about every 2 inches or so. It does NOT have to
be perfect.
3) Some brine will leak out. Don't worry, just collect what leaked out and re-inject a second time. Most of the
brine will be absorbed, but you will have some that seeps out. This is fine, because the bacon will be going
into the brine!
Pour the remaining brine into your brining container and go on to the next step.
Cover the slabs with brine, add a weight to keep them submerged, cover and place into the fridge for: 10 - 14 days if not injecting, or 3 - 5 days if injecting. Overhaul (flip & rotate) every couple days.
Cured and, air drying on racks under a fan to form a pellicle.
I like to start off with a good 5 - 6 hour cold smoke using 100% Apple pellets in the A-Maze-N tube smoker to compliment the apple cider flavor.
Getting some nice color already! Next, it's time to hot-smoke at 165° - 185° (smoke mode on the MAK), until an Internal Temperature of 145° - 152° is reach. Again my preference is apple wood smoke.
Hot smoking to an I.T. of 145° - 152° sets the bacon a little better than cold-smoking alone.
Once cooled, it goes back into the fridge to rest for 48 hours before slicing, to allow the smoke permeate.
Sliced and ready for packaging.
Thanks for looking!
