Slicing bacon

How do you guys slice your smoked pork belly to get a consistent thickness?

The only way to get absolutely consistent slices is to use a slicer.

Full strips of bacon are roughly 9" in length. When looking at slicers it's not just the blade size you need to look at, but also the angle of the carriage and how far the back edge of the food carriage is from the blade. So, Be sure to pay attention to the maximum product slicing width!

As a rough guide:

9" -10" slicers: will slice about 7 1/2" - 8" length, depending on brand. A lot of 10" slicers aren't much better than many 9" slicers, and some are even worse!

If you don't mind 1/2 or 3/4 length bacon, then a good quality smaller slicer is perfectly fine!

12" slicers: will slice 9" or so length. <-- This is realistically what you need for slicing full strips of bacon!


I patiently watched ebay and jumped on a good deal on a used 12" light-duty commercial slicer. It was well worth every penny! It slices so much nicer than the 9" home-grade slicer I started out with.





Another option, if you have a smaller slicer, is to make jowl bacon (from hog jowls).

Thanks so much

Something I meant to mention above is if you don;t mind slicing 1/2 or 3/4 length bacon, then a good quality 8", 9", or 10" slicer is fine.

When I slice my pork bellies, I just eyeball the thickness of the slice I'm cutting. I strive for uniform slices, but in reality, some slices are thick and some are thin. The good thing is...they all taste awesome.

I wish I read Tenthunter’s post before I bought my 10” slicer ��. Oh well, I will make the best of it when I finally try making my own bacon. It works great at what I bought it for which is slicing my own homemade lunch meat.