anyone smoke thier own bacon?

Bacon isn't a common thing here and I hate to buy frozen bacon at the commissary because it's mostlty fat under that first pretty slice......

Can buy all the sowbelly you want tho either whole or in 1/4" slices.....

Anyone got an easy way of turning that into bacon? Could it be done with a weber grill?

Thanks, Dave

I tried smoking bacon, but was disappointed. Way too hard to light! Seriously, Dad had a small smokehouse, used a special brown salt, rubbed it into the meat before smoking. Used apple wood for smoking ham, bacon, etc. I buy bacon at a local butcher shop, thick cut. The store bought is mostly fat, and cut so thin I didn"t know it could be cut so thin and still have two sides to it.

We kill 6-8 hogs every year and do all our own curing and smoking. Get yourself a bag of Morton's Sugar Cure. Here in PA you can get it at any grocery store. It dosen't take much, but it only comes in 5 lb bags. We always add a little brown and black pepper. I think it takes about 1/2 per lb. So if you have an 8 lb bacon, measure out 4 oz of cure and rub it into the bacon good on all sides. Throw it in the fridge for 7 days, take it out, rinse it off, let it dry then smoke. We cold smoke it in the old smokehouse for 12 hrs. If your using one of those, little hot smokers I'm not sure how that would work.

Another old smoking joke.
"I stopped smoking cold turkey...........................................
I now smoke ham!"

You need a cold smoker. The fire is on one side and then the smoke moves over the other side.
Weber cold smoker conversions

Yeahbut, don't it leave a sow er tates in your mouth?

Last time I smoked bacon, was when I backed into the woodstove, LOL!

(quoted from post at 03:45:21 03/01/12) Last time I smoked bacon, was when I backed into the woodstove, LOL!

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id ya have to take an azzburn fur the pain??

I just did my first batch of bacon last week, and I think it turned out pretty great! Here's what I did:

I tried it out on a couple pieces of pork belly. So I had some slabs about an inch and a half or so thick. I put the pork on racks with a pan underneath, to let the liquids drip off. Then I coated one side (fairly consistent coverage, and a medium heavy coat) of kosher salt. This is more coarse than table salt. Some people like to put some sugar or maple syrup on at this point, but I just wanted mine to be salted and smoked. I let it sit for 24 hours in the fridge, and drained all the liquid off the top. Then I re-coated it (only lightly this time, as most of the salt is still on there), flipped it, and coated the other side. Let it sit for another 24 hours, and did both sides again (even lighter with the salt this time).

After I let it cure for three days (I heard some guys say I should do way more, but I was and still am happy with it at 3 days), I pulled it out of the fridge. Wash all the salt off, then rub it down really good under running water. If you think you'd probably done washing it, that means it's time to wash it again. This stuff gets SALTY. Next, I'd reccommend letting it sit for a couple hours in a sink full of fresh water.

Pull it out, let it sit on the racks in the fridge for a day (to somewhat dry out again), and then pull out the smoker.

I put the meat in the smoker, and brought it up to 150 degrees (I have a Bradley smoker, but if you can monitor your heat decently, do it as you require). Do not introduce the smoke right now unless you want a really powerful smoke flavor. Let it sit that way for about 45 minutes.

Next, get the smoke going. I used hickory, apple, mesquite, and a small handful of oats. The mesquite makes a powerful flavor, so I think I'll skip that next time, and see how that goes. alternatively, you could introduce the mesquite near the end. Now raise the smoker to the 200 degree mark, and let it smoke until the meat hits an INTERNAL temperature of 155 degrees.

Shut the heat down, and let it sit in the smoker for an hour or two to cool down. Slice it up however you prefer, then either eat it as it is or fry it up for your breakfast! If the smoke or salt flavor is too strong for you, throw it back in a sink full of water (in it's sliced form) for 10 or 15 minutes. That should take enough of the bite out to make not only reasonably good, but downright and utterly delicious!

Hope that helps!

No, Lyle, I kinda cured myself, there! Yer puns is improvin, I liked that'un!

You can make a cold smoker out of a cardboard box, a grill grate for the meat, some dowels poked through the box to hold up the grate, a small cast iron fry pan for smoke chips, and an electric hot plate in the bottom.

Look up "Alton Brown fish smoker" on youtube and/or google.

Yes. I have been smoking fresh cured bacon for a couple of years. I use pecan and cherry. The taste is far better than store bought.

(quoted from post at 09:15:46 03/01/12) Yes. I have been smoking fresh cured bacon for a couple of years. I use pecan and cherry. The taste is far better than store bought.

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Thanks folks. Think I'll try it... Worse case, I'll be out a couple bucks and the dogs'll like me :roll: