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Here goes my first try at curing pork belly to make homemade bacon. I got half a slab of pork belly from the local grocery(9lbs). The plan is to let it cure for 7ish days, smoke it low and slow, and then slice it up for some deliciousness.

Has anyone on here made home made bacon before? I hear it is so much better than store bought.

On the top is garlic pepper, and on the bottom is maple brown sugar.


Vacuum sealed up and ready to cure.

Never have, but that looks awesome. Let us all know how it turns out.

scottcgrable wrote:I hear it is so much better than store bought.

Is that because you can custom cure it with whatever you wish? How would that compare to buying regular store bought bacon and curing it like you are? Keep us updated on your meat candy bacon project.

I have made "home made bacon". The hardest part for me was finding pork belly that wasn't extremely expensive.

I cured mine for about a week. Then smoked it (not cold smoke) with apple and hickory chips, IIRC until it hit 165.
Cutting it can be a PITA. It was some of the best tasting bacon I've had, even my wife agreed.

JustAGuy - That looks pretty good to me. Hopefully mine turns out just as good. The first store that I went to wanted $8.99/lb. I eventually found this half slab for $3.99/lb on sale for $2.99/lb. I see you left the skin on in picture 2. Did you take it off after smoking? That is the approach that I am taking this time. Though, I did hear after I had mine curing that the smoke has better penetration with the skin off. I also heard to help with cutting you should refrigerate the whole pieces after smoking to firm it back up before slicing. We will see how this goes for me.

Alan - Thanks. I am hopefully going to be smoking it on Sunday.

DFW - Actually, I don't think that they ever mention why it is so much better. Maybe freshness and custom flavoring. I am no expert but I think most store bought bacon is already cured. I think one of the main reasons for curing is reducing some of the spoiling organisms in the pork belly which would extend the shelf life. I know also that the curing process changes the flavor profile slightly.

Here is a good thread from the Big Green Egg forum that I stalk just as much as ATY:
http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1190 ... r-again/p1

If you own a slicer it would probably make it easier to, well, slice-go figure. Firming it up in the fridge makes sense. I've got one of these brisket knives:

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-12-Inc ... B0000CFDB9

And it works pretty well. If you own something similar you should be able to slice it easily, especially if it's 'firmed up'.

scottcgrable wrote:JustAGuy - That looks pretty good to me. Hopefully mine turns out just as good. The first store that I went to wanted $8.99/lb. I eventually found this half slab for $3.99/lb on sale for $2.99/lb. I see you left the skin on in picture 2. Did you take it off after smoking? That is the approach that I am taking this time. Though, I did hear after I had mine curing that the smoke has better penetration with the skin off. I also heard to help with cutting you should refrigerate the whole pieces after smoking to firm it back up before slicing. We will see how this goes for me.

The skin was removed. What you are seeing is the darkening from smoking.

I kept mine whole in the refrigerator and cut it before cooking. It only lasted a week.

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scottcgrable wrote:The first store that I went to wanted $8.99/lb. I eventually found this half slab for $3.99/lb on sale for $2.99/lb.

Check out Grand Asia Market next time. I don't know the price offhand but I remember it being pretty cheap. I'm sure they move a lot more pork belly than "normal" grocery stores so they can make up on volume.

Reminds me of a t-shirt...

LoL!

Alan - A slicer would definitely be a upgrade for me. I just need to convince the wife that a $300+ slicer is what we need. I ended up using my electric knife and it worked pretty well. Many people on the Egg forum have a knife similar to yours and they agree is works really well.

JustAGuy - Got ya. I took the skin off two of the 2 pieces before the smoke. It was a lot easier to remove after the smoke. The skin basically just peeled off. I hope everything I made lasts a little longer than a week. Or you might find me in the hospital.

Ware - Looks good to me!

Eck - Thanks for the recommendation, I didn't even think about going there. I will have to try them next time if Harris Teeter is out.

Oookkkkkk. Here is the final product. All went well. Cooked on the Big Green Egg @ 275ish until it reached an internal temp of 160. It was delicious. I think I ended up with about 100 slices sealed up and ready to eat.

Yummm!!!

Round 2 with smoking a pork belly. This one was around 13 pounds pre cook. I decided to try a cold smoke this time. 13 hours at somewhere between 50-100 degrees. Cured before hand of course.

My cold smoke set up. Coals and wood in the Webber vented to my BGE.
Here is the belly after smoking. You can really see the nice smoke color. Pork has now been sitting in the fridge for a few days. They say that it's best to sit for a few days after smoke so that the smoke really penetrates the meat. We will see.

If it turns out good then I will probably buy a pellet smoking tray for the next time. My set up was a bit much and you can buy the pellet trays for around 30-40 bucks. I think the company is called Amazen.

I'll post a few more pics when I am slicing and vacuum sealing the meat.


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And here is the finished product... Taste testing to commence tomorrow morning!

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WOW!

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