Bacon Recipe?

[TrickyDick]

Had to use fans to get a pellicle. Cold smoked it overnight with tube smoker only, then warm smoked to 152 on Christmas Day. I tried out the 9" food slicer from Amazon.com Works pretty well. There is a gap between the food tray and the blade about 3/4 inch though and was hard to get the bacon sliced full length. It had started warming up halfway through the slicing, so I halved the bacon for the remaining slicing. There is a definite learning curve to running a slicer. Best part was that I didn't hurt myself. Got a vac sealer from Sam's club. I just couldn't justify the $400 Cabela's model that was recommended on another thread (yet). I'll post some pics later. Looks good and tastes GREAT!

TD

 

[TentHunter]

Hey buddy, where's all the pics? We'd love to believe you're really making bacon, but no pics...

He he


TD, what's been working well for me is to pat the bacon dry with some paper towels and then let it sit on a rack under the hood of our stove with the vent fan on for a 2 to 4 hours at least. This seems to pull just enough air across it to let it dry and get a nice tacky pellicle.

 

[Kite]

That is a great idea.. I am thinking just about any fan set at the proper distance to create a light flow of air would work.

 

[TrickyDick]

I have made a lot of bacon, last batch was 16 lbs so in regard to your last question, here is what I would do. I would smoke/cook the entire 5lb slab until done. After that you can do one of two things. Slice the entire 5 lb slab, package into individual packages, vac seal and freeze or cut the 5 lb slab into 1 pound chunks, vac seal and freeze them individually and then slice when needed. Either way will work fine.

What are the backing boards you've used to seal your bacon? I had never used a vac sealer before, and ended up taking shipping boxes lying around the house, and trimmed them to size, then wrapped with wax paper before putting the bacon into the vac sealer bags. Then in freezer.

I learned a LOT doing this.
I didn't realize the importance of trimming up the pork bellies first for a more uniform shaped finished product.
Also, better to partially freeze the bacon before slicing, though was quite chilly when I started, had warmed up by the time I was through..
I think I'll slice a bit thicker next time.
The bacon tastes great!

Here are some pics of the slicing and packing.

TD

 

[TrickyDick]

Whoops! Here should be the correct photos...

 

[TentHunter]

It looks great & sounds like your first bacon was a real success!

Once you try this, see that it's not all that difficult, and taste the results, you wonder why you never did it before.