Bacon, Bacon, Bacon!!!Started with approx. 50 lbs of pork bellies. Cut each belly into 1/3's so that I could seal them in a gallon ziplock nicely with the cure. After trimming I ended up with about 44 lbs. No fear, that extra 6 lbs all went back into the freezer for this years SausageFest Party :thumb:
Here is the stack all trimmed and ready for the cure.
I used 2 different recipes - one being just a mix of tender-quick and brown sugar and the other was using TJohnson's brown sugar cure recipe. Here is a pic of some of the slabs with the brown sugar cure.
After 10 days in the fridge I removed them and did a good rinse and a test fry and decided to soak for 30-45 mins. Sampled again and it was good to go! Here is a shot of all the slabs laying out to dry before going into the smoker. 1/2 of the batch that was just the tender-quick and brown sugar I added some fresh cracked black pepper.
Into the smoker @ 100° with no smoke to finish drying.
After an hour I started the AMNPS loaded with a blend of Hickory, Cherry, and Maple and lit it at both ends.
Here is a shot about 4 hours into the smoking.
7 hours in...
Finally out after just under 12 hours of smoke. Let them rest for an hour and then into the fridge to firm up.
Here is 1/2 the batch after 2 days in the fridge.
Slicing -
Here is 1 tray ready to be packaged.
Packaged and ready for the freezer.