HKShooter65
TGT Addict
This is a guilty pleasure if ever there was one.
Raw pork belly looks like a long flat brisket in the meat counter.
Costco has them. $2.89 a pound. They are about 10 lbs.
I cut it in half, then the half into 4 equal pieces about 1 1/4 lb each.
Each chunk about 10x3 inches goes into its own gallon zip lock bag.
Mix for 5 lbs meat for maple smoked:
3/4 cup sea salt.
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup real maple syrup
1.5 teaspoons pink curing salt. I use Prauge #1 which is about 6% sodium nitrite.
It's highly toxic and vegans, liberals and Greenpeace types think it's the devil's work. The pound I have will cure about 400 lbs of bacon.
It's critical to preserving and making cured meats safe.
Causes cancer in Californians.
Be warned: It looks just like the trendy pink Himalayan table salt so lock it in your safe so it does not get mistaken for non-toxic salt!!
Mix all this into a slurry and coat the pieces of pork belly. Seal in the zip lock bags.
Put in fridge and turn it over and agitate daily for a week.
It'll pull tons of water from the meat.
Finally, after a week smoke it at about 225 degrees to an internal temp of about 150 degrees.
Just prior to smoking coat it with a slurry of equal parts maple syrup and maple sugar(hard to find).
For my taste it's way to salty so I soak it in tap water for about 4 hours prior to smoking to de-salt it a bit.
I seal it in vacuum bags and freeze it, though it makes a fantastic gift when you go house visiting friends.
To cook do the obvious. Cut it into strips and fry to your hearts content.
I like mine cut thick. About 1/4 to 1/6th inch.
Fry it slow and turn up the heat late to crisp the outside.
Lots of variation on line for variations in recipes.
The other 5lbs I did with tons of black pepper instead of maple.
BTW
Your cardiologist loves for you to eat lots of bacon because it pays for his Tesla and Horseshoe Bay condo!!
HKS
Raw pork belly looks like a long flat brisket in the meat counter.
Costco has them. $2.89 a pound. They are about 10 lbs.
I cut it in half, then the half into 4 equal pieces about 1 1/4 lb each.
Each chunk about 10x3 inches goes into its own gallon zip lock bag.
Mix for 5 lbs meat for maple smoked:
3/4 cup sea salt.
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup real maple syrup
1.5 teaspoons pink curing salt. I use Prauge #1 which is about 6% sodium nitrite.
It's highly toxic and vegans, liberals and Greenpeace types think it's the devil's work. The pound I have will cure about 400 lbs of bacon.
It's critical to preserving and making cured meats safe.
Causes cancer in Californians.
Be warned: It looks just like the trendy pink Himalayan table salt so lock it in your safe so it does not get mistaken for non-toxic salt!!
Mix all this into a slurry and coat the pieces of pork belly. Seal in the zip lock bags.
Put in fridge and turn it over and agitate daily for a week.
It'll pull tons of water from the meat.
Finally, after a week smoke it at about 225 degrees to an internal temp of about 150 degrees.
Just prior to smoking coat it with a slurry of equal parts maple syrup and maple sugar(hard to find).
For my taste it's way to salty so I soak it in tap water for about 4 hours prior to smoking to de-salt it a bit.
I seal it in vacuum bags and freeze it, though it makes a fantastic gift when you go house visiting friends.
To cook do the obvious. Cut it into strips and fry to your hearts content.
I like mine cut thick. About 1/4 to 1/6th inch.
Fry it slow and turn up the heat late to crisp the outside.
Lots of variation on line for variations in recipes.
The other 5lbs I did with tons of black pepper instead of maple.
BTW
Your cardiologist loves for you to eat lots of bacon because it pays for his Tesla and Horseshoe Bay condo!!
HKS
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