Agave Peppered Bacon



Bourbon Brown Sugar and Agave Peppered Bacon

I've made bacon once so far and just did the normal cure then added pepper when put it in the smoker. When you guys make these other recipes do you out those ingredients on at the same time as the cure so it sits there for 7 days as well?

Have cured and smoked two rounds of bacon... awesome stuff and will be doing it again soon. The only version I've been disappointed with is the maple brown sugar... I'm doing something wrong and not getting the flavor. Don't get me wrong, the bacon is still awesome but it's just what I would call normal flavored bacon. Any tips?

bbry81 said:

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I've made bacon once so far and just did the normal cure then added pepper when put it in the smoker. When you guys make these other recipes do you out those ingredients on at the same time as the cure so it sits there for 7 days as well?

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I do it for the 7 days with the cure. Rinse off, re-season and smoke.

Anyone using a wet cure instead of dry cure?

Dry cure is much easier to do. I just vacuum pack them and flip the bag everyday. It more or less makes a brine and takes much much less space in the fridge.

I've got 10 more lbs curing in the fridge. Ran out of vacuum seal bags though, luckily Amazon is coming through on delivery today. Need to pick up some extra stuff to add to the cure this evening.

Are you using vacuum seal bags for the curing process, or are you talking about for the finished product?

Just picked up a 10.5 lb pork belly at Costco earlier today, so hoping to get the cure going on it tomorrow. This will be my first go at this.

Are all you guys doing a hot smoke?

When reading online, most of the people on the various smoking forums seem to be cold smoking their bacon, claiming that it gives a better flavor profile and better texture when later fried since it won't have been cooked twice.

Does hot smoking give a chewy type of texture when you fry it that's different from raw bacon?

Both.

I've always hot smoked bacon. If you cold smoke, you won't "set" the cure. Plus, hot smoking starts breaking down the collagen in the meat. Chewy bacon is either because it has been cut too thick or sliced the wrong direction.

Hot smoke and the bacon has been awesome. The only problem I have is everyone continuing to try and take home packs from my stockpile.

I assume you should slice against the grain?

What IT? 140? 150?

I might try half mine hot smoked and half cold smoked just to compare.

Across the grain, and I go to 150-160.

So, I pulled my two bellys today after 7 days of being vacuum sealed and in the fridge, flipping every day. I used AAC's cure recipe. They look the exact same as when they went in. Is that to be expected? I guess I was expecting more of a change in appearence or texture. They have been reseasoned and are going to be smoked tomorrow.

They're fine.

Good to know.

You'll note my post earlier essentially asking the same question... I was also nervous about it. No problem. When it sliced up and ready to eat, don't let anyone know... not family and not friends. They will take it all!

Both

Can this process be used for Canadian bacon?

Probably the maple syrup version.


Btw, mine turned out fantastic. Thanks for all those who posted help. I had some bourbon smoked brown sugar that I used.

Here are pictures of my first foray into Home Cured Bacon:










Agave Black Pepper


Bourbon Brown Sugar


Regular Bacon

Overall a success! Will be hard to purchase store bought bacon in the future. Have had three friends make their own because of my success and I did it because of this thread!

I know everyone on here is hot smoking, but I did a ton of reading at smokingmeatforums and decided I wanted to go with cold smoked instead. I've got a 10lb belly smoking currently on my Rec Tec using an a-maze-n tube for the smoke generation. Doing 10 hours at around 70 degrees in my smoker, then will rest in fridge overnight and do 10 more hours tomorrow.

I also smoked some cheese a few days ago that I have in the fridge to be tried in a couple of weeks, and I smoked a stick of butter today as well as I saw several recommendations for it. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but it's kind of addicting.

The a-maze-n tube is awesome by the way. I have the 18" one and it puts out tons of smoke for 6 hours. I'm probably going to use it in future cooks just for providing supplemental smoke for my rec tec, especially when doing hotter cooks where it doesn't do as well creating smoke at hotter temps.

Got pictures of this?

So, the first smoking turned out not so good.

The bacon when I cooked it had a really bitter creosote type flavor. Like I was eating a campfire.

So I posted some questions on the smoking forums and got a lot of great advice. Turns out those tube smokers produce way too much smoke to be used in my RecTec when it's not running (because there is no air flow unless it's actually powered on and the fans are in use pulling in air). So I had bad air flow which meant bad combustion, so I overpowered with bad smoke and probably also had a condensation issue.

I just finished my 2nd attempt yesterday, and it turned out awesome.

I only filled the tube smoker up halfway and then evened it out into a half-moon cyldiner of pellets, to more closely resemble the tray/snake smokers that don't put off as much smoke. I also cracked open the lid of the RecTec about 1/2 inch and set up a Lasko tower fan blowing directly at that opening to encourage better air flow.

This time it worked great and I didn't get any of the bad smoke flavor.

Forgot to take photos along the way, but here is the cold-smoked pepperd bacon sliced and a couple bacon sandwiches from it. I also did a maple brown suger rubbed one that turned out great also.

What's a general price for pork belly? Going to try some bacon after reading this thread.

I've usually seen $2.50-3.00/lb at Costco since I started looking a few months back (after first seeing this thread). They come around 10lb +/- a few lbs. so usually around $30.

I'll wait for your write-up on Makin' Turkey Bacon for us with high cholesterol.

Got 3 bellies from work.

Not a chance.

Austin Ag Chef:

I haven't been out to see you yet but I've been enjoying your product at home, especially the sausage and chicken (and I'm not a big poultry eater) and the scrumtious sides. Sooner or later I will get out to Hippoland to see you. Good luck to you and your dad.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it and you definitely need to get out and see me! Thanks for the support y'all have shown me so far!

Ok. Sliced it tonight and the flavor was good, but it was to salty.

What did I mess up on?

Did you rinse all of the cure off?