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...
Oh man I always wondered about the feasability of doing this. I wonder if one could get a belly from a butcher.
Airplanes and guns should always be made out of metal.
Looks good, don't forget to make some jowl bacon too. It's my favorite.
Ed Barrett
AKA; elbStJoeMO
If vegans love animal so much, why do they eat all their food?
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.
My Gosh , that looks good !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Facta non verba
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.
Yummmmmmmmmm.
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.
Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway!
Men who don't understand women fall into two categories: bachelors and husbands!
I can almost hear the sizzle and I can smell it frying. As 725 said yuuummmm!
Mark 5:34 And He said to her (Jesus speaking), "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
Thats good looking stuff there.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid.
I am envious!
Echo
USAF Ret
DPS, 2600
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O&U
One of the most endearing sights in the world is the vision of a naked good-looking woman leaving the bedroom to make breakfast. Bolivar Shagnasty (I believe that Lazarus Long also said it, but I can't find any record of it.)
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
Holy Bacon Batman!!! My kids would be in hog heaven if I did that.
As soon as i saw the title of your thread, my mouth started watering!!!!!!
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.Originally Posted by LIMPINGJ
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
"The trick is to stop thinking of it as 'your' money" (Tax Auditor)
Life is not waiting for the storm to subside, life is about learning to dance in the rain.
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.
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!
I came into this world kicking, screaming, and covered in someone elses blood. I plan to go out the same way.
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.
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.
Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway!
Men who don't understand women fall into two categories: bachelors and husbands!
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