Here is part 2 of how to make homemade bacon. It’s been a week, I pulled the bellies out of the fridge. One thing I didn’t show was draining the juice every day, the salt draws a lot of liquid out of the meat.
and unwrapped them and rinsed all the excess cure off
I cut the slabs into quarters to speed the smoke time up
man that looks good
so good I had to try a piece
I grilled it up, and was happy with the flavor
so I took the bellies into the smoker and grabbed my skewers
I set my smoking racks in place
and skewered the meat and hung them from the racks
I took the thickest piece and inserted my meat probe and set it on the lowest rack on the outside, this way, when it hit’s temp, I know the rest of the meat is done
and closed the doors
I use 3 different fuel sources, wood chips, charcoal and chunks of left over firewood. I find I can control the heat and smoke better this way.
I got some charcoal going in my chimney
and poured them into my stove
I set some chips and chunks of hardwood on the coals
got it smoking good
and spent the next 3.5 hours feeding the fire
and it was time to remove the bacon
I have it resting in the fridge, hope to get it cut up and packaged today
