For ease of reading and commenting, and to avoid being obnoxious for mobile users, I'm putting all the photos in this thread in spoilers cause they're BIG BIG BIG.
I picked up two of the best pork bellys I've ever seen from the Butcher at the end of July. These two were already skinned. All together they were about 40-45 bucks a piece, 25 pounds combined weight.
Raw belly below
Here they are all sliced up into manageable sized portions. I made some smaller than others in order to give a few away to friends and family. They will all be stuffed into gallon sized ziplock bags to brine so I sized them appropriately, they're long and they zig-zag fold into the bags when you stuff em. I could easily cut a whole belly in half and smoke both halfs no problem if only I had a reliable container that large to brine in.
Sliced belly below
I made a double-batch of brine (one batch per belly) the night before I cut the belly:
-1 Gallon Water
-1 Cup Packed light brown sugar
-1 POUND kosher salt (3 cups, if Daimond crystal. 1 3/4 cups, if using Morton's, volume isn't accurate just weigh it)
-3 Tbs. coarse ground pepper
-1 tsp fennel seed
-1 tsp caraway seed
-1 tsp rosemary
-1 tsp thyme
-1 clove minced garlic
Heat it all up to dissolve the salt and sugar, you don't need to boil it, then pull it off the stove and let it cool. I like to put 3 cups short of a gallon in each batch, then dump a shitload of ice cubes into the pot after I take it off the stove to cool it quick. I put it in the frig over night so its close to 40 degrees when I start bagging the bacon the next day.
Each bag got a bay leaf and two crushed cloves of garlic that I smashed and threw in unpeeled.
Bagged brine and bacon below
After 12-14 days in the brine I took them out of the frig in 3 different batches to smoke. They get patted dry, laid out in a pan to catch liquid drips, and placed on top of a cooling rack elevated in front of a fan. I let them reach room temp, then they get tossed into the smoker straight on the rack on medium to low heat locations in the smoker. I let them go for a few hours till they start looking dry, and rotate/flip them to let everything smoke evenly. They get 8-10 hours of smoke at 170-200 degrees.
Delicious bacon below
Here is some bacon in the smoker.
Here is how they came out after 8-10 hours of smoke at 170-200 degrees.
Batch 1- This might be the best batch
Batch 2- These got a lick of heat when I switched from Oak to Hickory, still a good batch just not as pretty cause of the char mark at the tips.
Batch 3- Tied for best with batch 1
Uncooked sliced smoked bacon from Batch 1
Cooked sliced bacon from Batch 1
Its delicious.
I picked up two of the best pork bellys I've ever seen from the Butcher at the end of July. These two were already skinned. All together they were about 40-45 bucks a piece, 25 pounds combined weight.
Raw belly below
Spoiler
Belly 1
Belly 2
Belly 2
Here they are all sliced up into manageable sized portions. I made some smaller than others in order to give a few away to friends and family. They will all be stuffed into gallon sized ziplock bags to brine so I sized them appropriately, they're long and they zig-zag fold into the bags when you stuff em. I could easily cut a whole belly in half and smoke both halfs no problem if only I had a reliable container that large to brine in.
Sliced belly below
Spoiler
I made a double-batch of brine (one batch per belly) the night before I cut the belly:
-1 Gallon Water
-1 Cup Packed light brown sugar
-1 POUND kosher salt (3 cups, if Daimond crystal. 1 3/4 cups, if using Morton's, volume isn't accurate just weigh it)
-3 Tbs. coarse ground pepper
-1 tsp fennel seed
-1 tsp caraway seed
-1 tsp rosemary
-1 tsp thyme
-1 clove minced garlic
Heat it all up to dissolve the salt and sugar, you don't need to boil it, then pull it off the stove and let it cool. I like to put 3 cups short of a gallon in each batch, then dump a shitload of ice cubes into the pot after I take it off the stove to cool it quick. I put it in the frig over night so its close to 40 degrees when I start bagging the bacon the next day.
Each bag got a bay leaf and two crushed cloves of garlic that I smashed and threw in unpeeled.
Bagged brine and bacon below
Spoiler
After 12-14 days in the brine I took them out of the frig in 3 different batches to smoke. They get patted dry, laid out in a pan to catch liquid drips, and placed on top of a cooling rack elevated in front of a fan. I let them reach room temp, then they get tossed into the smoker straight on the rack on medium to low heat locations in the smoker. I let them go for a few hours till they start looking dry, and rotate/flip them to let everything smoke evenly. They get 8-10 hours of smoke at 170-200 degrees.
Delicious bacon below
Spoiler
Here is some bacon in the smoker.
Here is how they came out after 8-10 hours of smoke at 170-200 degrees.
Batch 1- This might be the best batch
Batch 2- These got a lick of heat when I switched from Oak to Hickory, still a good batch just not as pretty cause of the char mark at the tips.
Batch 3- Tied for best with batch 1
Uncooked sliced smoked bacon from Batch 1
Cooked sliced bacon from Batch 1
Its delicious.
Last edited: