Glenn Vaughn
02-21-2012, 2:44 AM
Because of eye problems I have had to curtail my woodworking severely (very difficult to read measurements). I decided I needed something else to do as a stress reliever and, because I have a smoker, settled on smoking meat and sausage making. As long as I stuck to Salmon and roasts it was simple.
Then I get this bright idea - I love bacon and it is just smoked pork so it should be easy.Bacon is smoked pork belly so I decided to get some from the store ... easier said than done. Nobody in town carries pork belly and only one store would order ot for me. The price was not bad BUT I had to buy a case of 3 bellies. So I ordered a case - 33 pounds; almost $100.00. While waiting for te bellies I read up on making bacon and discovered that it needs to be cured before it can be smoked. One ingredient needed for the cure was "Pink Salt". This took some seatching to find locally but I managed.
I used a dry cure which takes a week to cure the meat. It has to be kept at 40 degrees ot lower for the week - luckily I have an empty refrigerator in the basement I can use for this part of the process. After getting the bellies prepared I was ready to smoke them.
Now the fun really started.
First problem was capacity of the smoker - only room for 1 at a time. I could live with this even though it meant it would take 3 times as long to get it all done.
The next problen is the actual smoking process and the temps needed. I have converted my smoler to propane so I can controll temps easier than I can when buring wood or charcoal. I needed to smoke at 130 degrees until the meat reaches an internal temp of 127 deg then reduce the smoker temp to 120 deg. I can do the temps easily BUT can't get the wood chips to smoke. I ended up having to crank the temp is to 150 - 160 to get smoke. This worked but the process ran quicker that it should have.I finally got it all cone (took most of 2 days) and it turned out very good.
In a way it turned ot too good since my wife, who says she does not like smoked meats, is giving me recipies for other things to make. Naturally most involve "cold" smoking instead of "hot" smoling. Now to keep her happy I have to build a smolehouse with a separate smoke generator (separated from the smokehouse so the smoke can cool before it gets there). J will also need to devise a method to control temp in the smokehouse.It turns out that this is probably as expensive as woodworking. However I get to explore a whole new world of tools; mainly for sausage making.
I am anticipating lots of requests from family and friends for smoked items. The bacon was a big hit with everyone - even the 5 year old granddaughter who says that it is much better than "boxed" bacon.
Then I get this bright idea - I love bacon and it is just smoked pork so it should be easy.Bacon is smoked pork belly so I decided to get some from the store ... easier said than done. Nobody in town carries pork belly and only one store would order ot for me. The price was not bad BUT I had to buy a case of 3 bellies. So I ordered a case - 33 pounds; almost $100.00. While waiting for te bellies I read up on making bacon and discovered that it needs to be cured before it can be smoked. One ingredient needed for the cure was "Pink Salt". This took some seatching to find locally but I managed.
I used a dry cure which takes a week to cure the meat. It has to be kept at 40 degrees ot lower for the week - luckily I have an empty refrigerator in the basement I can use for this part of the process. After getting the bellies prepared I was ready to smoke them.
Now the fun really started.
First problem was capacity of the smoker - only room for 1 at a time. I could live with this even though it meant it would take 3 times as long to get it all done.
The next problen is the actual smoking process and the temps needed. I have converted my smoler to propane so I can controll temps easier than I can when buring wood or charcoal. I needed to smoke at 130 degrees until the meat reaches an internal temp of 127 deg then reduce the smoker temp to 120 deg. I can do the temps easily BUT can't get the wood chips to smoke. I ended up having to crank the temp is to 150 - 160 to get smoke. This worked but the process ran quicker that it should have.I finally got it all cone (took most of 2 days) and it turned out very good.
In a way it turned ot too good since my wife, who says she does not like smoked meats, is giving me recipies for other things to make. Naturally most involve "cold" smoking instead of "hot" smoling. Now to keep her happy I have to build a smolehouse with a separate smoke generator (separated from the smokehouse so the smoke can cool before it gets there). J will also need to devise a method to control temp in the smokehouse.It turns out that this is probably as expensive as woodworking. However I get to explore a whole new world of tools; mainly for sausage making.
I am anticipating lots of requests from family and friends for smoked items. The bacon was a big hit with everyone - even the 5 year old granddaughter who says that it is much better than "boxed" bacon.