TentHunter
Moderator
Done!
My new toy arrived the other day (Christmas gift) just in time.
With a lower salt brine (4% salt) and only 1/3 the normal amount of cure #1, seven days turned out to be the right amount of time for wet curing. The salt leveled out nicely and the bacon was evenly cured throughout.
After draining the bacon and patting it dry, I turned on the stove's hood fan to keep air circulating and let the bacon air dry for a couple hours to form a pellicle.
Into the MAK (upper rack) on smoke mode with Apple pellets until an I.T. of 120° then bumped the temp up to 200° and let it go to an I.T. of 150°. Total time: approx. 4+ hours.
The excess fat was rinsed off, bacon patted dry & allowed to cool down overnight in the fridge. Ready to slice...
Sliced...
Quality assurance
...
All I can say is all the tweaking with the ham brine recipe to get the salt, cure & sugar levels right for a lower sodium ham paid off for this bacon.
The salt level is nice, the Apple Wood smoke is up front, but not overpowering and the sweet tang of the Apple Cider comes through at the end. The wife really loves it too and she's the pickiest one to please with bacon, ham, etc.
I just wish I had done this a long time ago.
Thanks for looking!
Cliff
My new toy arrived the other day (Christmas gift) just in time.
With a lower salt brine (4% salt) and only 1/3 the normal amount of cure #1, seven days turned out to be the right amount of time for wet curing. The salt leveled out nicely and the bacon was evenly cured throughout.
After draining the bacon and patting it dry, I turned on the stove's hood fan to keep air circulating and let the bacon air dry for a couple hours to form a pellicle.
Into the MAK (upper rack) on smoke mode with Apple pellets until an I.T. of 120° then bumped the temp up to 200° and let it go to an I.T. of 150°. Total time: approx. 4+ hours.
The excess fat was rinsed off, bacon patted dry & allowed to cool down overnight in the fridge. Ready to slice...
Sliced...
Quality assurance
...
All I can say is all the tweaking with the ham brine recipe to get the salt, cure & sugar levels right for a lower sodium ham paid off for this bacon.
The salt level is nice, the Apple Wood smoke is up front, but not overpowering and the sweet tang of the Apple Cider comes through at the end. The wife really loves it too and she's the pickiest one to please with bacon, ham, etc.
I just wish I had done this a long time ago.
Thanks for looking!
Cliff
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