making bacon, silly asians

[Troy]

i started some bacon tonight.

i was at the asian market yesterday and I asked if they had pork belly (and if so, how much).
He replied with 1.50/pound, so i bought 10 pounds.

I went to start the cure tonight and i noticed that each piece of meat is already cut into 2lb pieces and the PERFECT size for bacon - WOO

But then i noticed that EACH F'ing piece is riddled with bones and cartilage for about half of each.
By the time i got each trimmed and bone-free, the pieces were too small for picture perfect bacon

I complained to my wife, and she re-assured me that at asian markets pork belly has cartilage and bone.

ahh well, i'll cure it and smoke it and eat it anyway.

[Vermin99]

The only place I have found pork bellies is at Asian markets and I have never gotten bones or cartilage in mine.

[Duke]

I need to check the mexican store near me. I am sure they will have it, but if they don't they will get it for me. They are the best! I just need to figure out how to say it in spanish. Pansa de puerco maybe?   

[landgraftj]

My butcher orders pork belly for me on request. Usually 5-10lb pieces.

[Eastex]

No Asian markets around here but plenty of Mexican ones. So how low do you need the temp to be to smoke your own bacon?

[Troy]

for temps, i usually go with 180ish pit temp and pull at 145 internal

most bacon nowadays is hot smoked and completely cooked (even the store bought stuff)

[landgraftj]

I never let my pit go over 200F...pull at 140F.

[Cookingmama]

I need to check the mexican store near me. I am sure they will have it, but if they don't they will get it for me. They are the best! I just need to figure out how to say it in spanish. Pansa de puerco maybe?   

Pansa de puerco yes......but be careful because in a Mexican store they might think you are wanting beef tripe, for menudo.   Which when described in Spanish most say it is 'la pansita' .....so say you want it for Tocino,  which is bacon is Spanish.

[Troy]

that reminds me, i need to figure out how to make filipino tocino

[bama bbq]

I'm new at making bacon (not THAT makin bacon), I mean breakfast food bacon.  Can I get your recipe/procedure?  I think I might like to try this.

[Troy]

i'm working on a meatninja.com blog post about it, but since i won't have pictures until i find a better belly - sure!

1. find a pork belly. skin on is fine. i really like nippled bacon.
2. mix mortons tender quick with equal parts brown sugar and maple syrup (maple sugar works really well too, but seems hard to find)
    - 1 tablespoon of tenderquick per pound of belly
3. add some granulated garlic and some freshly cracked black pepper if you so desire.
4. mix up into a slurry.
5. put belly in a big ziploc bag, add all of the diarrhea looking salt and sugar mixture.
6. massage the shit-looking sauce all around the belly so it's evenly coated
7. squeeze out the air from the bag, don't squeeze the shitsquirt out though.
8. leave in fridge for about 7 days. flip the belly over once per day, massaging each time to evenly coat the belly
9. after 7 days, discard the bag and the liquid and give the belly a good rinsing under cold water. to test for saltiness, slice a tiny piece off and fry it up. if it's too salty, rinse it some more or soak it cold water for a while.
10. place belly on a cookie cooling rack or drying rack over a sheet pan in the fridge - let it stay there for 8 hours (i let it stay for 24) - this will develop a pellicle which helps with smoking
11. smoke over low temps until the internal temp is 140 or 145. I try to use lower temps to get more smoke - this helps with milder woods like apple and peach. If you're using hickory, you won't need to prolong the smoke as much.
12. after it's smoked, peel the skin while it's still warm - pinch those porky nipples one last time.
13. cool the belly in the fridge. once it's cool, you can slice it. sandwiching the belly between two cutting boards gives your knife a nice guide for even and thin slices.
14. enjoy the best F'in bacon you've ever had
15. be miserable every time you have to eat store bought bacon because your homemade stuff really IS that much better.

i'm drunk as shit - hopefully that made sense.

[bama bbq]

clear as mud...thanks for the recipe.

[landgraftj]

Bama here's the one I use...stolen from "the other site"

Maple Cured Bacon

One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on
2 ounces kosher salt
1/4 C. pure Maple syrup
2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawain stuff)
1/4 C. Maple sugar (pricey, worth it)

Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly). Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use one of the cheapies from walmart used for allowing cookies to cool) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle).

Next, take the bacon out of the fridge and hot smoke it (about 200 degrees) until your therm reads 147. Take the slab out, place it in another zip lock bag, and immerse in a cool water bath to cool it quickly. Put it in the fridge, and now you've got bacon!!!!

[pbe gummi bear]

I made bacon for the first time a few weeks ago. I used the Maple recipe from "smoke" which uses a 2 day brine, one day air dry, and hot smoke to 150F. I also used 2 lb pieces from as asian market. My only gripe was that one belly was pretty thin, but otherwise the meat didn't have bones in it.

I was really surprised by how much the maple permeated. I think next time I will try a cold smoke with the same brine and see how it goes. Here are some pics.

Air drying


Halfway done


Pulled


Sliced