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smoking bacon

peter pepper

peter pepper

i saw an older episode of good eats on foodnetwork yesterday. on it alton made his own bacon. basically marinated for 3 days, dried it completely, and then cold smoked for about 6 hours. looked good, but like a fair amount of work for something I can just go and buy.

has anyone ever made their own bacon before? any good / worth it? or too much work to bother with?
 
once you make your own bacon you wont like the commercial stuff anymore.

to me its worth everybit of effort put into it. making canadian bacon is also worth the effort

peter pepper said:
i saw an older episode of good eats on foodnetwork yesterday. on it alton made his own bacon. basically marinated for 3 days, dried it completely, and then cold smoked for about 6 hours. looked good, but like a fair amount of work for something I can just go and buy.

has anyone ever made their own bacon before? any good / worth it? or too much work to bother with?
Click to expand...
 
Homemade bacon(Vitamin B to me) is so much better than anything store-bought, and not so hard to make, but its nice to have a proper smoker and live in a maple syrup land:)
 
POTAWIE said:
Homemade bacon(Vitamin B to me) is so much better than anything store-bought, and not so hard to make, but its nice to have a proper smoker and live in a maple syrup land:)
Click to expand...

yes on everything you said..lol

this is why i made my filing cabinet smoker, i can cold smoke or hot smoke in it
 
I used a recipe from Joshua Weissman (homemade bacon). Not sure if direct links are allowed, but can easily google it. My family said it was the best bacon they ever had.

7 day cure.
20211217_094821.jpg


Post cure, 1 day uncovered in the frig.
20211218_113456.jpg


Post smoke to 150 deg F internal
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Sliced
20211219_091756.jpg


Cooked
20211219_093901.jpg
 
I started with Michael Ruhlman's charcuterie book years ago. It is a fair amount of work, but homemade bacon is much better than store bought. It's worth the effort to make it at least a few times per year.
 
I've my own several times now. It is well worth it

My local butcher sells pork bellies for $4.00-4.50 a pound.

Bacon in my area is up to $8-12.00 a pound.
Turkey bacon is around $3-15.00 per pound now.
 
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