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    Home » How To Stuff » How to (DIY)

    How to Smoke Your Own Bacon

    January 24, 2011 by Karen 54 Comments

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    After much debate about the benefits and drawbacks, my boyfriend and I jointly decided to take up smoking about a month ago.  It's totally worth it and completely cool. Don't let anyone tell you different. Sure ... it stinks up the house a little bit, but that's a small price to pay for something that's so mindnumbingly enjoyable.

    And I can tell you right now, no way, no how am I going to quit. Ever. We all know it's addictive but I had no idea how quickly it would take hold. Like, instantly! It really isn't surprising that you rarely see people smoking in movies and on television. If people saw more of it, EVERYONE would take up the habit.

    The very best part and worst part about it is, smoking becomes your best friend. A part of the family. Something that makes the hard times easier and the fun times even MORE fun!

    Everyone has different tastes but this is my favourite thing to smoke.

    how-to-smoke-bacon

     

    Yup.  Today I'm going to show you how to make bacon.  From scratch.

    A Step by Step Guide on How to Smoke Bacon

    You'll need a pork belly.

    You'll need a curing mixture like ReadyCure or Morton's Tender Quick.

    You'll need brown sugar.

    You'll need a smoker.

    (It is possible to do this on a regular BBQ as well, but I'm just giving instructions for a smoker here)

    (January and February are popular months for making products out of pork, so bellies are readily available in supermarkets at this time)

    title-pin-how-to-smoke-bacon

    pork-belly

     

    Your package of Cure  will tell you how much you need to use per pound of meat. For me, it was ¼ lb of Ready Cure for the 12.5 lbs of meat I had.

    bacon-preservative

     

    Mix the Ready Cure (or whatever curing salt you have bought) with an equal amount of brown sugar and set aside.

    how-to-make-bacon-1

     

    As you can see ... the pork belly comes with its skin attached.  Sometimes as an added bonus, you also get nipples.

    pork-belly-2

     

    Before you cure your pork belly, you need to remove the skin.  As long as you have a really sharp knife you'll be fine.  It's easier to remove the skin if you cut your pork belly into 3 pieces.  Just cut it into 3rds, running widthwise.  (not the length of the belly)

    Slip your knife under the skin, trying not to remove too much of the fat.

    pork-belly-3

     

    That's a butcher's glove I'm wearing.  It's cut resistant.  As I am cut prone.

    how-to-make-bacon-2

     

    Once you have the skin removed you can sprinkle the salt/sugar mixture over the entire pork belly.  Do it the same way you'd put any dry rub on.

     

    Sprinkle it on, then rub it in.

    bacon-rub

     

    Once all your pieces are covered in rub, wrap then up tightly in a plastic bag, or put them in a large Tupperware container.  They now go in the fridge for 5-7 days.  I cured mine for 7 full days.  Every day flip the bags/Tupperware over. Juices will form and settle in the bottom of the container.  You want to make sure every side of the bacon is getting an even coating, so flip, flip, flip.

    Once the 7 days of curing are up, remove the bacon from the fridge and rinse the pork belly under water.  Once it's rinsed, let it soak in a sink full of water for 2-4 hours.  The longer you soak the bacon, the less salty it will be.  I accidentally soaked mine for 4 hours.  I would have preferred 2.  The bacon is still quite salty after 4 hours ... just not quite as salty as it would be if you only soaked it for 2 hours.

    drying-pork-belly

     

    Your pork belly now needs to air dry.  After removing it from the water in the sink, dry it with paper towels or a clean cloth.

    Elevate it on a cookie cooling rack or something.  It needs to get good air circulation all the way around it.  Put it back in the fridge on the racks for another ½ day.  (I did this step overnight so the bacon was ready to start smoking in the morning)  The reason you dry the pork belly like this is so the meat forms a layer of pectin.  Or something like that.  I'm not really sure.  It has to do with pig science.  Also, wet meat won't take smoke.  So in order to smoke your pork belly, you need meat that is dried.

     

    By now you have approximately 8 days into this fiasco and you're thinking, I believe I will just buy a pound of bacon next time. That's only because you haven't had the fun part yet. The smoking. Well today, day 8 is fun day. Get your smoker fired up!

    smoker

    You want to slowly bring the smoker up to 180 degrees. Give it about an hour, with your drafts only open a minuscule amount.

    temperature-to-smoke-bacon

    Once your smoker is at temperature and a stream of nice blue smoke it coming out add 1 or 2 pieces of your favourite fruitwood. Bacon loves fruitwood. Apple and Cherry are the most popular. I chose Cherry. Because that's what I had in the shed.
    And a quick note here about smoking with wood. Unless you're some kind of freakish smoke connoisseur you are not going to be able to tell what kind of wood your meat was smoked with. Your bacon will not taste like Apple or Cherry. It'll taste like bacon. So don't fret too much about the wood you use. Any piece of hardwood will work quite frankly.

    Go ahead ... add your wood.

    how-to-make-bacon-4

     

    Would you like to save this stuff?

    We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.

    Now it's fun time. Time to put your pork belly on the smoker.  I had both one full pork belly and 2 smaller centre cut pieces.  The centre cut is the prized cut because it has the best distribution of fat to meat.  It is literally the hunk of meat in the centre of the pork belly.

    smoking-yoru-own-bacon

     

    Since I had several pieces of pork belly, and not a lot of surface area on my smoker, I improvised a rack with my cookie cooling racks.

    how-to-smoke-your-own-bacon

     

     

    Now the difficult part. You have to close the lid and leave it alone. Do not open the lid. Do not be tempted to look at it. Just leave it. Keep an eye on your temperature. You need to smoke the bacon at 180 for 3 hours. At the end of 3 hours, slowly bring the temperature up to 220 by opening your bottom vent a little bit. Smoke for another 2 hours.

    At this time (if you aren't using a remote meat thermometer) you can go out and check your bacon. You are looking for an internal temperature of 145°.

    You DO NOT want your bacon to reach a higher temperature than this because the fat will start to render.  And that is bad for your bacon.

    I checked my bacon after 3 hours at 180° and 2 hours at 220°.  It was over 150°!!!  HOLY CRAP!  Off it came.

    smoking-bacon

     

    Bring your bacon inside and admire it.  If you're anything like me (and I think you are) you'll be shocked  ... because it looks just like bacon.

    homemade-bacon

     

     

     

    This is where you can see the fat that has rendered.  It's drippy.  Luckily I caught the meat in time ... I SAVED THE BACON.

    rendered-fat

     

     

    Now it'll probably be late at night so you can  just stick the bacon in the fridge until you're ready to slice it tomorrow.

    To slice the bacon, either partially freeze it and slice it with a very sharp knife by hand or use a meat slicer.  We used a meat slicer.

    slicing-homemade-bacon

     

    When you cut the bacon, you're cutting it across the width.  Not the length.

    homemade-bacon-4

     

     

     

    Once you have your bacon all cut into pieces, wrap it in plastic wrap in the amounts you eat at once.  Nothing says you HAVE to wrap it in pound packages, like you buy it in the grocery store.  I find for us, 7 pieces is about the right number.

    home-made-bacon-6

     

     

    Put it all in the freezer, unless you CANNOT wait to try it.  Obviously ... because I'm of sound mind and body ... I could not wait to try it.

    how-to-smoke-bacon-yourself

     

    DIY-bacon

     

    bacon-sandwich

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    And there you have it.  From the pig to the pan.  How to make a bacon sandwich.

    Please note.  Smoking is addictive and habit forming.

    Special thanks to Mike Callaghan from The Black Pig BBQ team.  Whenever I had a bacon makin' question ... he was right there to answer it.


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    1. Joan A Moore

      December 04, 2021 at 1:38 pm

      My problem, no one has pork fat. They all tell me to check back at the "holidays". What the heck. Unless you're next to a farm you're pretty much screwed.

      Reply
    2. John Tanner

      April 02, 2014 at 11:18 pm

      Wet meat takes MORE smoke....after you rinse it at the end of curing, sure dry it quickly with paper towels but just start smoking.....want to see the science? Go to the best bbq site on the web, http://www.amazingribs.com and check out "smoking" and "bacon".....amazing stuff. From my personal experience, they're right, "wet" and cold meat takes more smoke...the moisture transfers it far better.

      jt

      Reply
    3. Andrea Meyers

      January 03, 2014 at 1:27 pm

      Do you have a cold smoker too? I had a friend smoke chocolate and butter. DIVINE. The chocolate was oddly better as a milk chocolate, even though I prefer dark. And the butter! Well, let's just say that smoked butter when cooking down some baby greens, you'll never go back! And smoked salt.....oooohhh. Just sayin'.

      Reply
    4. Gknee

      February 11, 2012 at 12:09 am

      Damn I love bacon and now I gotta try this.

      Reply
      • Karen

        February 11, 2012 at 12:22 am

        Who doesn't love bacon?? You'd have to be a weirdo not to love bacon. ~ karen

        Reply
      • Nancy Timm

        August 28, 2022 at 8:34 pm

        So... even though I had my smoker set to 200 degrees, and it was probably less than 2 hours... my 2 slabs if cured bacon did start to render. Your article says that is "bad" for my bacon. In what way?

        Reply
    5. pve

      March 03, 2011 at 6:06 am

      next thing you'll be doing is roasting.....
      your coffee beans...or maybe you are ahead of the game on that one... we have a manifesto, everything is better with bacon.
      pve

      Reply
      • angie

        September 29, 2012 at 12:18 am

        Maybe you could put together a DIY for Kopi Luwak, or Civet Coffee? You know the most expensive coffee in the world...the one that's "made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet, then passed through its digestive tract."
        Yeah, cat poop coffee. You could teach us all how to make that stuff, then we could open up our own ETSY stores and sell it for $160.00 per pound! (That's the real price. I swear.)
        Oh, and you'd better buy extra pork this year, I heard on the news that there was going to be a bacon shortage next year, not enough corn crops this year so not so much bacon next year.

        Reply
        • Karen

          September 29, 2012 at 12:22 am

          Angie - I heard that too! ~ karen

    6. Maggie

      February 01, 2011 at 11:34 am

      You are a total diva. Now, did the bacon get better with age as I suspect it did or was the whole thing kind of meh?

      Reply
      • Karen

        February 01, 2011 at 11:38 am

        Maggie - I was kind of suspicious about making my own bacon. Was it going to be worth the work? After having my first slice I didn't think so. Meh. HOWEVER ... on the weekend when I pull out bacon that I made from SCRATCH all myself ... it pretty much rocks. Honestly. Shockingly fun! ~ karen

        Reply
    7. Deborah/ wholehearted home

      January 27, 2011 at 12:19 am

      I've never smoked before but you've certainly made it look attractive.

      I've seen chicken smoked in a wok over a mixture of tea leaves - that looked pretty interesting.

      Who knew smoking could be so enticing!

      Reply
      • Karen

        January 27, 2011 at 12:24 am

        Deborah! After I smoked the bacon I kindda thought ... huh ... kind of anti-climactic in a way. But tonight I went into my freezer and took out some bacon to use in dinner tonight and it was one of the most exciting things I've ever done! LOL. Using bacon I knew I cured and smoked myself. Super-fun. ~ karen

        Reply
    8. Todd@PhitZone

      January 26, 2011 at 9:03 am

      Love the smoker. Very cool looking. I still use my old ECB (El Cheapo Brinkman), but am about to step up to a manly side box unit.

      I've never smoked bacon. Pork is one of my faves because of the amount of fat that is on it. Tends to smoke up really nice. Of course, ribs and brisket are always a favorite around here also. I've only used fruit woods sparingly, and almost always go with mesquite.

      Reply
    9. Bev

      January 25, 2011 at 4:35 pm

      Just so you know... Last line second paragraph "IT people saw more of it, EVERYONE would take up the habit". Should be 'If'. Sorry to be the spelling nazi, cause heck I know mine is atrocious. But many, many people read yours. Not mine. If you don't care, don't change it, I'm good with that. I'd want someone to tell me, that's all.

      Ps. OMG I WANT BACON!!! Proper non-water-injected, dry cured divine bacon like you made! Drool drool drool...

      (Triple checks own spelling in the vain hope of catching them all!)

      Reply
      • Karen

        January 25, 2011 at 5:26 pm

        Bev - Thanks! LOL. Technically it wasn't a spellcheck you did on me so much as a word check. I can spell words like the dickens. I just can't put them on the page properly apparently! ~ karen

        Reply
    10. stephchows

      January 25, 2011 at 4:27 pm

      OMG that looks amazing!! now I want BLT's for dinner...

      Reply
    11. Robbin

      January 25, 2011 at 1:26 pm

      Karen:

      I am forwarding this post to my husband. He has the exact same smoker and LOVES it! He is also going to try your Award Losing BBQ Sauce too!

      Reply
      • Karen

        January 25, 2011 at 1:41 pm

        Thanks Robbin! The sauce reallyyyy is delicious. ~ karen

        Reply
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