Makin' Bacon

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Finally got serious about my bacon making this year. I did a better job cutting the side and belly meat off the pig (Berkshire) than in the past, added some maple syrup to the cure, cold smoked it for 8 hours, and used my new (to me) commercial meat slicer to make uniform slices. I'll have to say that I am pretty pleased. One side netted between 10-15 lbs of bacon and I still have one to go. Here are a few pics...

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/2012Oct007.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/2012Oct009.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/2012Oct008.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/2012Oct019.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/mlindsay527/2012Oct013.jpg

[AviatorTroy]

Oh man I always wondered about the feasability of doing this. I wonder if one could get a belly from a butcher.

[Ed Barrett]

Looks good, don't forget to make some jowl bacon too. It's my favorite.

[LIMPINGJ]

Troy try a Mexican grocery store that has a meat counter, none of the name brand grocery chains seem to have anything but shrink wrap Styrofoam tray packages now. Or if you are lucky to still have a real butcher shop around you should be able to get Pork Bellies.

[Reg]

My Gosh , that looks good !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[runfiverun]

now i have to figure out how to hide a thread from littlegirl.
i made some jerky from our deer,and she asked about getting a pig.
i knew where that was going so i told her we couldn't do it at home.
maaan if she sees this,,, i'm toast.

[725]

Yummmmmmmmmm.

[stubshaft]

After eating homemade bacon the store bought stuff doesn't cut it. I usually use Tenderquick and brown sugar for a cure and smoke over apple or alder.

[smoked turkey]

I can almost hear the sizzle and I can smell it frying. As 725 said yuuummmm!

[plmitch]

Thats good looking stuff there.

[Echo]

I am envious!

[Box13]

I bought 2 berkshire pigs last year,a sow and one of her piglets.Raised the piglet to 6 mos and had it processed by a pretty good local guy.The chops and hams are good but the bacon just doesnt taste as good as Id like.Im thinking I could do better myself if I built a little smokehouse.Any chance I could get your recipe for your cure?I just bought another boar to breed to the sow and Im hoping for some more little berks after the first of the year...Robin

[**oneshot**]

Holy Bacon Batman!!! My kids would be in hog heaven if I did that.

[farmallcrew]

As soon as i saw the title of your thread, my mouth started watering!!!!!!

[Junior1942]

Troy try a Mexican grocery store that has a meat counter, none of the name brand grocery chains seem to have anything but shrink wrap Styrofoam tray packages now. Or if you are lucky to still have a real butcher shop around you should be able to get Pork Bellies.You'll also find a real meat counter in the black section of town. With a little luck, they'll make cracklins, and you can buy the oil/lard leftover from the cracklin making for next to nothing.

[Olevern]

Wow! Can I come over for breakfast?
Very nice commercial slicer. Great pics.
Thanks for posting and reminding us of the joys of self-reliance.
vern

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I bought 2 berkshire pigs last year,a sow and one of her piglets.Raised the piglet to 6 mos and had it processed by a pretty good local guy.The chops and hams are good but the bacon just doesnt taste as good as Id like.Im thinking I could do better myself if I built a little smokehouse.Any chance I could get your recipe for your cure?I just bought another boar to breed to the sow and Im hoping for some more little berks after the first of the year...Robin

Just kosher salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of maple syrup. I din't measure anything, just used enough to form a "crust" of salt. Every few days it would be absorbed into the meat, and I would add a little more salt, total cure time was two weeks.

[x101airborne]

Very nice. We brine our bacon then smoke it hanging in a small homemade smoker. In Houston, there is a commercial hog processing plant that will sell anything that you could want from whole scraped hogs to bellies or halves or heads. Last time we went we bought 200 pounds of bellies and 4 halves. Thank goodness for Globe slicers and Butcher Boy bandsaws!

[Moonie]

I'm lucky to have found a butcher shop in the next city over that can get pork bellies. I've got 9lbs of a large belly I got awhile back in the freezer. I split it and did a wet cure on half and a dry cure on the other, then smoked.

[stubshaft]

I made some a couple of years ago and shared some of it with the butcher at the local Safeway. Now whenever I'm in the mood to make some bacon, he'll pull out the bellies and let me choose which cut I want. I usually buy between 10 and 20 pounds.

[Lefty SRH]

Did you recover the boolit?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Did you recover the boolit?

Nope!