Hickory Applewood Smoked Bacon
BACON!!! One of the 3 super meats from my favorite animal, the pig. What are super meats? Bacon, sausage, and ham as far as I’m concerned. Bacon is made out of curing and smoking pork belly. If you are looking for the best price on bellies and want to make a lot of bacon, Costco is the place to go. Whole bellies are $2.99lb. They average between 8-10lbs. A basic cure for bacon will consist of salt, sugar, and pink curing salts, plus whatever other seasonings that you may want to flavor with. The pink curing salts are necessary. Skipping this ingredient will give you smoked pork belly and not bacon. If you are concerned about consuming nitrites, fuck right off then. Go shop at Whole Foods you bloody cunts. The belly will need to be dry rubbed and let to cure in gallon sized storage bags for 1 week. You will need to flip the bag each day while the belly cures to redistribute the marinating juices in the bag. After curing for a week, the bellies will need to dry out for 1 day in the refrigerator.When ready to smoke, let the bellies rest at room temp for an hour. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. You can use really any type of wood for smoking bacon. I chose to use a combination of hickory and applewood. Once preheated, throw in your bellies and reduce the smoking heat to 225 degrees. Using a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature, smoke the bellies until they reach 150 degrees internal temp. This will take around 3 hours, give or take. Take the bellies out of the smoker and let cool completely. Refrigerate the bacon for a day before slicing. The bacon will keep in the refrigerator for a week and up to 6 months in the freezer.
Equipment
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
Ingredients
- 8-10 lbs skinless pork belly
Curing Spices
- 9 tbsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 6 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 3 tsp pink curing salts
Wood Chips
- hickory wood chips
- applewood chips
Instructions
- Mix together the curing spices.
- Pat dry the whole pork belly.
- Cut the belly in half. Rub the entire belly with the curing spices.
- Place in gallon sized storage bags. Cure in the refrigerator for 7 days. Flip the bags everyday.
- After the bellies have cured for a week, take out of the storage bags. Place on a rack on a baking pan in the refrigerator. Let the bellies dry out for a day before smoking.
- When ready to smoke, let the bellies sit out at room temperature for an hour. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees according to the manufacturer’s directions. Once it reaches that temp and the wood chips are smoking, throw the bellies in the smoker and turn the temp down to 225 degrees.
- Using a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature, smoke the bellies until they reach 150 degrees. This will take around 3 hours, give or take.
- Let cool completely before refrigerating.
- Refrigerate for 1 day before slicing.
- Slice your bacon to the desired thickness of your liking. I slice mine at 1/8”.
