BACON.....................................

[Micanopy]

Friend of mine butcherd show pigs a week ago and had 4 bellys/sides that he didnt have room to do anything with so he asked me if we wanted them? HECK YA! I trimmed them up and got them packed for the freezer. The ends I took and rubbed them with:
1/2 pound kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coarse ground black pepper

then filled my meat tub with 1 and 1/2 gallon of cold water, dropped three bay leaves in it and then dropped the meat in the tub. Put the tub in the fridge for 5 days, turning the meat everyday. Since I wasnt usuing the smoker at home, and havent been out to the boneyard  to use that smoker, I decided to use the oven at home.
T dropped in about 1/4 cup of liquid hickry smoke juice on the last two days of the brine.
On the last day I took the meat out of the brine and rinsed it in cold water then patted it all dry with paper towles, then rubbed in a liberal amount of black pepper and more liquid smoke. Set the oven at 200 and waited for it to preheat while the bacons dried a bit more.
Once the meat was not dripping wet anymore I placed a long wide pan on the bottom rack and then layed the bacons on the top rack and closed the door. After an hour I propped the door open about a half inch and then left it for another hour.

After the second hour I turned the oven off and let the bacons sit to cool with the door open. Came out really good, great flavor so next time its out to the boneyard and use the smoker out there with oak wood, ona add a little pink salt for color as well.

[Honovi Mahala]

Apple and maple wood are great for smoking bacon also...........................as are hickory and masquite these are what we used.

[Micanopy]

Dont have anything but oak here. Could by some but kinda defeats the purpose.

[William]

If you need some pecan wood let me know, got a lot down here.  Since pecan is in the hickory family it imparts a similar flavor.

[Red Badger]

I'll take two pounds 

[DandJofAZ]

No fruit trees in the neiborhood?? Just prunings off garden trees work great..

Doug

[Micanopy]

Thanks William.
Nope, no fruit trees, the ones that were planted either died off from the droughts or were eatin off by the deer, gfoats, sheep. cattle, horses, and whatever else eats fruit trees. Unless you count citrus as smokeable woods, I have key lime trees that are drwafed and live in the house. But no, not anymore fruit trees around here anymore.

[Micanopy]

I'll take two pounds 

Hmmmm.......

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

mmmmmmmmmmm bbaaccoonn. Everything is better when you add BACON.

[Bulldog lady]

Use "tender quick" curing salt in my jerkey, never tried any bacon or ham,  sounds good,  have a web site for curing ham, bacon  may have to check it out, now where gonna get fresh pork is another question?  www.mortonsalt.com  So not sure what the end product was,, does it still need to be cooked/fried etc or is it ready to eat.? 

[Micanopy]

You might can get pork bellies from an asian market, I know the korean markets in El Paso would order them for you if you asked. Yes you will need to cook it just like the store bought stuff, unless you smoke it long enough to get the internal temps up to 165 or so so over 15 minutes if I remember right.

[Micanopy]

Batch #2 is in the works right now! Gona brine it for 5 days in the preposted rub and then smoke it in oak for a coiple of hours and see what that does for us.....