Make your own BACON

This week, it's all about  BACON

For starters to eat bacon you must make Bacon , so here we go

We started off with some fresh pork bellies that I picked up at Weston Abattoir .I ask for them skinned. I find that they soak up the smoke flavour better

To transform a pork belly to bacon the meat must first cured There is many different methods to cure bacon .I prefer the dry method

This is mine.....
I cut the bellies in 1/2 . easier to manage and bag up.
 Once they are cut the process begins ,
Mix up the Ready Cure curing salts, sea salt and sugar. Rub the mixture on each pork belly and seal them up in a Zip lock bag or Food saver bag. Make sure to remove all the air

In the Fridge they go for 6 days. Turning them daily

 After 6 days they come out of the bag and get rinsed in cold water to make sure all the cure mixture is removed. Before you smoke the bellies , you must make sure they are fully dry. I place them on a wire cooling rack in the fridge overnight so they form a pellicle on the outside of the meat. A pellicle forms as a result of the cure pulling water soluble proteins up to the surface of the meat. When these proteins dry , they form a shiny , sticky coating over the meat which will absorb the smoke much better.

  After the overnight dry time , it's time to get ready to smoke the bacon. For this i am using my  Pellet smoker ( Whole Hog ) using cherry wood pellets for smoke and flavour. Before putting the on . I like to rub them with maple syrup and sprinkle some black pepper on them

  Now we are ready to start smoking the bacon. On it goes till we reach an internal temp of 145 F.

Smoking all done , Off to the fridge they go for the night to firm up.

 Next day it is ready to slice.I like to put in freezer for 15 minutes to firm it up a bit more to help slice it. Once sliced into food saver vacuum bags and in the freezer they go.