Bacon #1:
1578g of Pork Belly (Skin on)
18g Coarse Salt
18g Brown Sugar
4g Prague Powder
Rubbed the cure into the meat. Let it rest in the fridge for 10 days before smoking. Sadly, I didn’t write down my smoke recipe. This bacon was good.
Deer Jerky/Sausage #1 (three ways)
Used Hi Mountain Jerky Cure – Hunter’s Blend
635g Round Steak, cut into strips
2.8tsp Cure
2.1tsp Seasoning
Coated meat and let cure in fridge overnight
907g Ground Trim (no added pork or fat)
1tbsp+2tsp Seasoning
1tbsp+1tsp Cure
Let cure overnight.
Rolled out and cut into strips.
907g Ground Trim
Same recipe as above
Stuffed into 22mm collagen casings
Hickory Smoked at 93C for 2h. Then rain started, so moved it into the oven @170F.
Wanted an internal temp of 65C.
Round 2:
Bacon #2:
1207g Pork Belly, Skin on. Scored skin.
13g Coarse Salt
13g Br Sugar
2.4g Prague Powder
2/3c Brandy
1/4c Blackstrap Molasses
Bacon #3:
1335g Pork Belly, Skin on. Scored skin.
13.34g Coarse Salt (switched scales!)
2.74g Prague Powder
1/3c Goodish Maple Syrup
Smoked with 2h of applewood @65C, then raise temp to 77C looking for a target internal temp of 66C. I’m not sure why it always takes so much longer for me to get to the target IT than the recipes say. I finally bumped the temp to 88 in order to reach IT of 66. Total time was about 8H.
After chilling the slabs, I sliced on the slicer at about setting 3. I then spread the slices out on parchment and froze them individually. (since the last time I froze them in a lump, which means you have to thaw the whole lump to make a couple slices… this was a bit more work, but WAY more useful this way.) Once they were frozen, I packed them into ziplock freezer bags.
Both of these were really good, but the brandy/molasses one wasn’t gooder enough, in my opinion, to justify it. The Maple one was simple, and very, very good.
Deer Sausage #2
Same as last time, but did ~5lbs in casings. (remembered the water after ~1lb.)
Smoked with 2h of hickory at 60C, then attempted to get IT to 66C, but had some issues with the smoker. In retrospect, I think the thermocouple was reading wrong because the cold junction was too far from the IC doing the compensation. (It was raining, then snowing, and probably got some on the connector.)
In the end, after about 5 hours, I called it good and put the sausage in the fridge. It’s very good. Maybe a touch too much cure, but that seemed to mellow after a few days.
Bacon #4 and #5:
1050g Pork Belly, skin removed. (first time I went this way.)
10.5g Salt
2.1g Prague Powder
1/3c of maple syrup
1024g Pork Belly, skin removed.
10.2g Salt
2.04g Prague Powder
1/3c of maple syrup
Started the cure on Dec 20th.
Smoked on Jan 4th. 6 pucks (2h) of applewood @ 65C then 77C until internal temp of 66C. This took over 11 hours. I don’t understand all these recipes that say to smoke or bake at 170F for four hours to an IT of 150F. It doesn’t get to that temp in that time. Is my IT too high? (Maybe aim for 60C? ) Or should I use a hotter set point and risk rendering out the fat? (80-83C seems okay) Removed from the smoker, covered, and placed in the fridge. Will slice and freeze tomorrow.
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