Thread: Sausage and Smoke Cooking

I left the skin on while curing, but once smoked, I'll remove it and then package it up separate to use in various dishes.

I'm afraid I'm of no help on how to control the saltiness. The guy who I got the recipe I'm using weighs the meat, then has a formula that you use for the cure.

As per his recommendation I weighed in grams.

Weigh your piece of pork belly.

Weigh the rest of the cure components:

Salt is 2.5% of the weight of the pork belly.

Sugar is 1% of the weight of the pork belly.

Pink Cure #1 is 0.25% of the weight of the pork belly.

Mix together the salt, sugar, and pink cure #1.

Here's the link to his video.



If this new bigger batch comes out anywhere near as good as the first batch, I'll be very pleased.

Belly Cured--Check

Rinsed and Dried--Check

Hung and Ready to Smoke--Check

Cooled and Ready to Slice--Check

Ready for Freezing--Check

I was thinking about your project last night, glad you got it done in time.

I was with you until I saw the pic of the meat slicer. Grew up in a store that had one and those things scare the hell out of me. I get tingles of fear in the ends of my fingers when I walk close to one.

I slice with a knife. It takes more time, but I still have all my fingers.

My jaw just dropped, this bacon looks delicious, hope it tastes even better!

60 eggs just went into the smoker. Convenient that I bought a case of 60 and that is exactly wht fits in my smoker. My wife is good at hard boiled eggs and didn't crack or have one hard to peel.

I went to take some pictures and they have already been bagged and pickled along with some Tuna egg salad made.

Now I am trying another batch of salt. I made some disposable trays out of aluminium foil but then thought why couldn't I use a paper plate at these temps?

The most I will loose if it doesn't work out is a few cents of salt.

Originally Posted by DZEC

I was with you until I saw the pic of the meat slicer. Grew up in a store that had one and those things scare the hell out of me. I get tingles of fear in the ends of my fingers when I walk close to one.

I slice with a knife. It takes more time, but I still have all my fingers.

Yea, power slicers can do some damage, but it's nothing like a power meat saw--that takes bones and all.

Normally I hand slice everything, but since the bacon was primarily for my kids and grand kids, I popped for the slicer.

There's times when having paper thin and even slices are nice, I just hope the slicer is up to the task.

I saw my dad take the end of a finger off with a slicer.

I think one would be nice but wouldn't use it enough to make it worth it. At least for now.

I tried using finer salt this time because that is what I have on hand and I sure see the difference in how the smoke penetrates. Even the course stuff had to be stirred once in a while.

About 6 lbs of sharp cheddar.