Bacon: Part 2

The amount of liquid I poured off the pork belly after the first 24 hours of curing.
An impressive amount at nearly 1 cup, but then it only came in trickles afterward.


I appear to have tagged this photo as "moisture 3" which must mean this is what was left when I cured it the third time on Saturday night. The second time was on Thursday. Tom Mylan never mentions that you should recure the belly throughout the process though searching blogs for help listed different techniques. One of them didn't even bother with a DIY-smoker (only the real thing works?) and all of them only directed 3 hours of smoking rather than the nearly 7 hours Mylan prefers though his range is 4-7 hours.
I got nowhere near my target amount of moisture loss (none of the blogs talked about this) Tom Mylan suggests but I think I would have to recure every single night to reach that. People do say the resulting bacon is salty but also "intense" and "it feels like I just ate a steak dinner." Ha, after only 3 slices.

Anyway, here are the initial weights of the pork belly, their calculated target weight of a loss of 18-25%, and what I eventually got to achieve:

Pork Belly #1
Initial: 456 g
Target: 373.92-342
Final: 412

Pork Belly #2
Initial: 580
Target: 475.6-435
Final: 529

Pork Belly #3
Initial: 512
Target: 419.84-384
Final: 476

Pork Belly #4
Initial: 434
Target: 355.88-325.5
Final: 422

The numbers would probably lead one to believe that I sucked at this, but I can always do it again until it becomes really chilly out. It'd be nice to see how being so precise improves the quality of the finished product.


Putting all the pieces together. Stupid me didn't remember soak the first batch of chips.


Close-up of the wood chips and my electric range. I think I was trying to capture the first whiffs of smoke.
In terms of what wood I smoked, I had a small bag of mesquite I bought from the Brooklyn Kitchen way back in the days I lived in NYC and I bought a big bag of hickory at the TAG's in Porter Square.


Ooh, smokey...


Cured and rinsed pork belly. Looks dramatically different than Bacon: Part 1 I'm sure.


Throwing it in the smoker. Maybe I can go with ten pounds of pork belly next time. Heh, if I can afford it.


For the first two-third's of the process, you smoke the meat side because it'll take the color better than the fat. I'm sure a silly amount of fat would render out as well.
Then you flip them over for the rest of the smoking.


Resulting in this awesomeness! Cool completely before you slice.


The ash and chips.


Mmm, my electric burner smells like bacon.


Fried up the bacon that I goddamn made.



Though I feel it has mellowed out since then, the smoke hit me and my roommate Adam like a hurricane. I have never had bacon quite like this before.
That probably is the case for anything I cook.