Maple Cured Cherry Smoked Pepper Bacon

Posted by Big Dog at 9/16/2008 7:16 PM
Categories: Projects
Bacon, bacon, bacon.... Hmmmmm more bacon, I love bacon, We're makin bacon, sorry as usual I digressed a little 

Now if there is not a hidden love affair with every man with this goddess of swine I do not know what else we would desire. Mike K. quoted to me "oh my greasy lover" google that on you tube. We have done side bacon before burred it deep in the Berkshire projects, but  I think but it really deserves a special note on it's own.

I am sick of packaged supermarket bacon, once you go to the home cured stuff you will never ever go back. Think of a nice fresh stick of French bread with a nice crusty chewy crust in comparison to a piece of stale bread floating in a bowl of stinky dish water... packaged bacon. 

This stuff is so fracking easy if you have basic knife skills. The hardest thing to do is skin the pork belly. Even if you don't have those skills it will not change the taste. For a few more dollars, you butcher can skin the belly but it really is not a big deal

I got some video of this but I'm not really a TV personality, unless your are attracted to big fat bald guys. Thats why I love the BBQ scene, I am a size medium there. I was in Cabela's once and my smart ass kid was looking for me. As it was a vast store she thought to look for the fat bald guy in cameo.... that was the description of everybody there. She decided she would be better off looking for a full set of teeth... There I was....

Back to basics... We will be looking for some way to get these videos up on the site, that's a winter project

The bacon recipe is simple,  for 5 lbs of pork belly, ( 1/2 a side)


1/2 cup of Morten's Tender Quick 
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper (optional)
Maple syrup (reserved)

We do 4 at a time..... cause we are makin bacon.....  Mix the top three ingredients on 1/2 of the belly (easier to handle) put into bags to cure for 5-7 days

Remove from the bags, soak in fresh water for two hours changing the water at least once, pat dry and pour the syrup on it. Smoke it for 4 hours at 220 bringing the temp up slowly for the first two hours. I like Cherry in the Bradley smoker... yum

   

another two hours at 200...

 

The slabs right out of the smoker                 Mountain of bacon



Cut and enjoy, we cut each slab into 1/2 again about a 2.5 lb piece, just enough for a breakfast or two of the thick stuff.

I have to tell you a story about a friend of mine who was doing some kitchen remodeling for me. Barb and I were out for the morning and he came by to finish with his assistant about noon. After the job he was a bit hungry and thought he would check out what was in the fridge. Low and behold was a slab of bacon in some shrink wrap, he could not help himself and into the pan it went. Not only did he and buddy have a bacon-ator sandwich he went back for seconds, and made a couple of triple deckers. His assistant was in shock and horror, how could he do such a thing, only leaving a 1/3 inch of the slab, from it's former 8 inches. (really 8 whole inches, not a guy's 8 inches but right off the measuring tape 8 inches). 

I spoke to him on the cell phone later that day and he told me of his delight, I had to laugh cause that was his bacon we had put aside for him, there was deathly quiet on the phone, he just gave 1/2 of his bacon to his assistant.  To make things fair, we got another slab for his wife to enjoy, I'm not sure what deal she put him through.

So that's what I can say about this simple recipe, your friends will steal it right out of your fridge if they can.



CHEERS FROM THE BIG DOG...
 

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