Making Bacon

I've been watching a few videos on this topic. Most use a piece of pork belly for curing. This is handy as I've come across the Countdown frozen pork belly.
There are 2 methods for final taste, one with salting only and one with cold smoking. I want to try them both side by side to compare.
Karl says that you can get smoking chips (Manuka) from the Warehouse, and you can use your BBQ to do some smoking, but that is hot smoking, mabe I'll give that a try with some other things.
The salt cure can be done without nitrates so that its less processed. I'm keen to try the taste difference,
Also I'm thinking of getting a meat slicer so that I can cut thin slices for cured meat and bacon.

Salting

There seems to be 2 ways to salt meat, one is to just bury the meat in salt and let it draw out the moisture from the meat, but it could end up very salty. The other method is the equilibrium method where you put a percentage of salt, based on the weight of the meat, that way you can ensure the saltiness of the cure.
The 2nd method seems to be the more controlled methodvand I'll be trying that first.

Skin on/skin off?

In most videos they remove the skin, either before or after salting and smoking. I quite like the bacon rind so I'll also try keeping the skin on on one of the tests.

Smoking for flavour

I'm interested in trying this. The homemade smoker in metal bin looks interesting.
I'm on the hunt for some manuka for sawdust. 15$ /kg at the Warehouse, I'll head down town belt and see if I can find an old branch somewhere. 

Although this is another method that is even more bare bones.

This seems to be a good solution to use with an existing BBQ. This also is a good idea on how to start the smoking, with a gas burner, I've got the small one in the kitchen to use.

Here is a kitchen smoking, hot technique

This is a comparison between cold smoking and hot smoking.

Process-28th Feb 2020

I got a fresh 1kg of Pork Belly from Pak'n'Save and I'm curing that. I'm using the equilibrium method.

I used 2 1/2 % salt and 1% brown sugar and some thyme, as per this video, but no pink curing salt, the measures are in 2nd video at the top as well as tasting, first is prep:

So far, I've got the mesures and put into the bag in the fridge. I'll turn every day .

 

I also bought a frozen 1.25kg from Countdown and put that in the freezer. I'll think about doing that one later, after I've the results from the first attempt. 

Cost

I've seen the 1kg of bacon (sliced) in the shops for about 15-19$. The cut of pork belly I'm using was 1kg for 15$. So about par with what you are buying, but it doesn't have the othewr preservatives in it. 

With the Countdown 1.25kg for 13$ it should be better value for the slightly larger size. I just noticed today (7/3/20) that Countdown now charges 18$ for the pork belly.

There is all the effort you have to put into it, but I'm looking to see what the taste is like. 

7th March-  

Ive taken the bacon out and washed it, so it now has to dry. I've put it in my Biltong Box with the fan on, it still looks very soft. So hopefully it will dry and harden a bit. I still have the skin on, I tried peeling it off but it was taking off a lot of the fat. I may try it again when its dried a bit more.

I was planning to smoke it but the BBQ wont run. I think regulator bust and I've tried to get it off with no success. 

So, I'd have to get a chamber to smoke it in. For another time. 

For present I'm hanging it to dry cure it and I'll leave it there. 

I need to setup the Biltong box for the 2 pork copa's I'm doing, they are currently salted in the fridge and I'll need to hang them tomorrow. I'm wondering if I can use the air flow process to dry the copa more quickly and get weight down. It will be an interesting test as I have 2 of them, I can try one each way. 

9th March. 

Took bacon down, it deformed slightly from hanging. I then took the skin off it, as I couldn't cut through it. 

I saved the skin in a bag for soups (its ben salted and will add some flavour) in the freezer.

I then started to cut the bacon, but it was too warm so only thick slices, so I've put it in the fridge to firm up, then I'll slice it up again, bag it and put in the freezer. 

11th March

I  took the bacon out of the fridge & sliced it up, it was easier to cut when cold, but my knife isn't that sharp (even after sharpening it) and the slices are quite thick. They are now in the air fryer getting ready for the newly baked baguettes I've just made. 

Overall OK. Not outstanding, just thick bacon, it looks a bit gray as it doesn't have the curing mixture to retain its colour. The taste is not too salty, which is good, some bacon, thats all you taste. But I wouldn't rush out to do it again.

It ended up looking like quite a small piece of meat, and there seems to be lots of fat in it. 

End comment

A bit dissapointing not being able to smoke the bacon with the BBQ busting. 

Quite a bit of faffing around, 7 days salting, skin off and then drying for a few days and then cutting. 

I saw that for the 1.25kg of frozen pork belly Countdown are now charging $18. With all the messing around its easier to buy 1kg of bacon for around $18. 

My feeling is that although it is a cleaner cure and bacon, it's a lot of effort to go for a bit of bacon. I'd rather use the pork belly to create panacetta instead, a bit longer but a much more interesting cured meat. 

I may give this another go, but I think i'd like a meat slicer so that I can get thin cuts of bacon slices.