Oh yum ! There's nothing to compare with the taste of homesmoked bacon-- you'll have to try a loin next Tricia & make some "Canadian" style-- it's wonderful.

Oh that does look so good. The smoked bacon peer pressure is on!

craftyrn how do you make the 'Canadian' style?

That looks wonderful !

Tricia, that looks perfect and it's nice to be able to control the salt that goes into stuff, isn't it.

I'm glad yours turned out well, there's kind of learning curve with the smokers, at least for me, and so it sometimes takes more than once to get it right.

So now, you know what you're going to do differently next time to make it better, don't you? LOL It's always some improvement...

Annie

Once I find and buy an electric smoker with a adjustable thermostat this is first on the list for me. YUM!

Great pic tricia! Thanks to Annie, Elery, and Kframe for the inspiration to take this on.

David

What kind of electric smokers are you all talking about using to smoke the bacon?

jhm, Elery's is a Masterbuilt "digital smokehouse". It looks like a little refrigerator. He chose it because it's nearly impossible to keep temperatures up for hot smoking in Michigan's winter, so this one goes in my garage all winter and he just opens the big garage doors!

It's been a good smoker and not hugely expensive, but the digital display doesn't like to work well when it gets down below zero. I don't think that's a problem because I'm not going to stand in the garage and smoke anything when it's zero anyway!

David, if you're looking for an electric, check out the Masterbuilt. Ours held 25 pounds of pork belly for bacon and I can't imagine wanting to smoke more than that at once, but they probably make bigger ones.

Annie

Thanks everybody! Ours is a Masterbuilt Smokehouse also...30" with 4 racks. We have to refill the chip holder about every 1 1/4 hours @ 200 degrees.

For just the 2 of us, we're planning on smoking 20 lbs. in September & that will hold us until well into spring '11. Next time, we're going to fiddle around with different cures.

Annie, YES, being able to control the salt made a huge difference between ours & commercial bacon. There's enough salt it tastes like bacon but doesn't make my mouth/tongue feel briney for 24 hours.

Chicken is next! :) Probably this weekend.

/tricia

Masterbuilt it is then ladies. I'll be getting one soon... after I recover from paying taxes next week. Ouch! LOL

David

Did you use a dry or wet cure?

The first time I made my own bacon I used a wet cure, the next time dry. Of the two, I prefer the wet cure. It's much faster, and I think it results in a much better flavor, although it's not as country traditional.

I made my smokehouse out of a large cardboard box, a length of aluminum flexible water heater vent, and a smaller cardboard box in which I had an electric hot plate and a cast iron skillet as the chip container.

Worked like a trooper.

I've not made for a couple of years, now, but I would like to make again this fall. Now that I've found a steady source of nice pork belly at the local Asian market, I should be set.

kframe, I used a dry cure, I guess, although it did have grade b maple syrup, so that makes it kind of a wet dry cure. (grin)

Annie

Dry cure here also but, as Annie, with Grade B pure maple syrup. We used only Kosher salt, the syrup, & smashed whole black peppercorns.

I'm impressed you made your own smoker! :)

/tricia

My biggest problem with the dry cure is how long it takes and how much it takes to maintain it.

I lost 2/3rds of my refrigerator at home for nearly two weeks during the curing process.

The Wilshire wet cure is a 3 to 4 day cure, and everything can be tumbled into a big stainless steel stock pot.

The textures are, however, completely different. The wet cure is more like commercial bacon (almost all of which is wet cured), while the dry cure has a texture that just cries out country down on the farm home made.

Michael, you're right, I had 25 pounds of pork belly taking up refrigerator space for 10 days, and that was awkward. Now, if I had an extra fridge it would be OK, but I'm not going to buy and extra refrigerator to make bacon, that would cost more than the smoker!

Annie

If I had a little more property I'd actually build a smoke house. Basically a 2x4 frame with plywood walls and a hinged door.

Michael, when I move out onto the farm I have plans for a smokehouse, a wood fired bread oven and a root cellar. The house? Darned if I know, LOL, but I'm having a big honkin' pole barn. (grin)

Annie

I remember you making that smoker now that you mentioned it. If my memory(not that good) serves it was inspired from a Alton Brown show back in the day when TFN was worth watching more so than it is today.

I checked out the masterbuilts(online) today and they are not bad on price so I'll be getting one soon. Next I'll be on the hunt for pork belly. That should be fun...lolol..as I'm clueless as to what to ask or what should be a fair price.

David

David, last year after we made pancetta, Elery's son wanted to try that too. He just went to his grocery store meat department and asked and they ordered two for him. I don't remember what they cost, but it was pretty reasonable, I think maybe somewhere around $2 a pound, maybe less.

Annie

David,

Yes, I used Alton Brown as my guide for making the smoker out of a couple of cardboard boxes.

In his bacon episode, called Junkyard Chef, it was sort of like Iron Chef and Junkyard Wars rolled into one. In that, he made the smoker out of a bank of three gym lockers.

I wasn't going to buy some gym lockers. ;-)

On another show, he cured and smoked salmon using the hot plate, an iron skillet, and a cardboard box.

That's where I got the idea.

One of the local cottagers has a gorgeous smokehouse. It actually has two rooms, one for regular smoking and another for hanging and smoking sausages etc.

It's a killer to walk by when he has it going...the smell is amazing!

David we also have an electric smoker, sounds very much like Annie's and Tricia's. We love it. Can't wait to do bacon.

Annie, I'm interested in the panchetta. How did you age it? Or, I guess more accurately...where did you age it? I Googled & found a site that recommends hanging in a 60 degree environment with about 50% humidity. I can manage the temperature here during winter but did you just put a humidifier in the room? Did yours get moldy? How long did it hang...10 days?

BTW, I had to pay $5.99/lb. for pork belly. Organic, from Whole Paycheck. Annie, is it OK to order a non-organic belly from our regular grocery store...or will it be filled with junk? I specifically asked WW & was told there's never anything injected & the hogs are feed whatever it is that hogs are supposed to eat with no growth hormones or antibiotics. We're trying really hard to reduce the junk in our diet...any suggestions on what we should ask for? I'd love to get the cost down although good organic apple-smoked bacon costs about $12/lb. here.

Thanks,
Tricia

You want your pork belly fresh and untreated. Frozen is OK, but the texture might suffer a bit in the final product.

The best place to get pork belly is a butcher shop or an Asian market.

Tricia, it depends on whether you trust your grocer to tell you the truth. My grocery store gets their pork locally and when Jeff Houseman tells me that he sells only pork without hormones and antibiotics, I trust him in that, but even he can't guarantee what the farmer put in the feed. Truthfully, I think you're still further ahead than buying the commercial stuff, even if you don't get organic pork.

We rolled the pancetta and hung it in Elery's basement for 10 days. It did not get moldy at all, it just got firm and the outside dried nicely. My basement was too dry, his was pretty close to just right at 56% humidity according to the hygrometer. Where did he get the hygrometer and what did it cost? Darned if I know, it had something to do with wine and cheese making supplies...

Annie