You killed this video! I love Nate and his channel (so Nate brotha, no disrespect or anything like that), but I think I may have to tip my hat to you on this one, Jared. This video is very informative on not only how to cure bacon but also gives people like me who don't have a pellet smoker a quick guide for that odd "smoke" setting on the smoker. Big thumbs up. Your explanation on ratios of curing ingredients is so easy and I will try your recipe next time I make bacon. Again, thank you for easy to follow recipe. Oh, which do you like better..... thyme or rosemary? Cheers
Rusty - thanks so much for the kind words my man! I try to go in detail on all my videos for the exact reasons you mention so I'm glad you found it helpful. I'll reveal which herb I like better in my video next weekend - but in my opinion it's thyme hands down! BTW, smoking your bacon on a charcoal grill is just as easy. I usually do it on a Weber Kettle. Load the charcoal up on one side of the grill (for indirect heat), drop some maple wood on top of the charcoal and place the bacon on the indirect side of the grill. The only difference I found when doing it on the Kettle is I'm usually running at a higher temperature so I rarely smoke the bacon for a full 4 hours. I usually hit an internal temp of 160F about 90-120 minutes in on the kettle. By the way, if you send me a picture of your bacon once you've tried this recipe, I'll give you a shout out on Instagram.
Sounds good Jared, roasted pork bellies are usually what Asians eat, which is similar to bacon as an American food recipe. My family and I try to avoid consuming pork belly because it has a really excessive amount of fat and tastes delicious. However, there’s nothing healthy about eating bacon/pork belly even though it’s cured.
Henry, no doubt it’s not something you want to be eating on a regular diet. I’m on keto right now (a low carb, high fat diet) so pork belly is perfect. In fact I just took a package of bacon out of the freezer for the morning.
@Nico Liam thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff atm. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I’ve been a chef for 42 years. Absolutely love your videos I have watched several videos on how to make bacon but yours is the most straightforward and Easiest laid out instructions you got a new subscriber thanks my name is Scott and I’m from Pleasant Grove Utah
The trick to preventing your zip-lock bags from leaking is to turn the top of the bag down around the outside of the bag. Now when you add your food items into the bag, you aren't passing them over the zipper part of the bag which helps keep it clean. Turn the top of the bag up after you fill it and seal it like normal. This should help prevent most leaks. When you fill it the way you showed, you easily get your brine mix and other debris into the zipper which prevents it from sealing properly no matter how hard you try to press it together.
BEST BACON we have made, Appreciate the video and recipe, did two hogs yesterday starting the bacon process today. Going whole hog with you, 40 pounds of belly's going to use the thyme. ..... Week later and finished and tested, absolutely our best bacon ever. We have done hogs for the last few years and finally nailed the bacon! After dry cure we continued to followed your recommendations and soaked for twenty minutes to cut the salt a little, tried it thought still a little salty, did another twenty and perfect. Hickory smoked it for 4 hours per your instruction and it is super! thank you.
That sounds amazing. I'd love to see how it turns out if you could send us a pic! After the dry brine, I'd suggest putting it in a cold water bath for 30 minutes to remove some saltiness. Then slice a piece off and fry it up just to make sure it's the level of saltiness you're looking for. If it's too salty, then put it back in a cold water bath and repeat until you've got the saltiness you're looking for.
The one thing you should have measured and your pour it in? Instacure is sodium Nitrite and a dangerous chemical. I also try some before I decide to rinse or not rinse.
Haha! Thanks for the warning. I'm gonna go check out White Thunder BBQ after this. Wow! Look at those after 4 days thats awesome! All around great cook and video. I cant wait to see the next video. Great job!
first time.....made it your way, and it turned out awesome ( tasting ) but I did not rinse mine after the brine , and I probably should have , it came out a bit on the sticky side. Next time I will rinse and let get up to room temp before smoking, and maybe bump my smoker temp up a bit, I started at 190. And surprise, I was ready for it, but never had a leak.
i have a pellet smoker i havent used yet . my first smoker..but i think this is going to be my first attempt. since i work at a abattoir i can do my belly there myself and run it through the skinner machine. love the video ..i saved it
Great video from a fellow canuck. I really like the thyme and rosemary Idea. I just finished a batch of maple bacon but the next one I will certainly try that.. One of the things I do with mine is I have a mix from my spice supplier called Maple Pepper Dry rub. after I rinse my pork belly off I throw a bit of this on and it makes for a wonderful flavour while its smoking. cant wait to see what you do next.
I liked your video on how to do bacon one the measurement of your curing salt how much did you actually put in there 2 why did you set your pan on a direct fire and not use a great you can't start and pain was too hot 3 why did you cook both different Bacon's together Jordan flavors run together as their cooking the bacon grease I believe that was an unfair test I think you should we do it then separate pans
Do you need to put in bags? Can you put them on wire racks with a sheet pan under them. I understand the point is to get the moisture out, so if it’s not sitting in moisture the whole time, wouldn’t that be better. Great video
Did you know that baggies can be reused? Long as the don't leak , and seal. There good. 👍👍 With a rag and hot water wash them around, rinse, and hang them to dry, and store them away. To use again, and again My mother in law got me doing this. SAVE ON MONEY.. Why throw away a good baggie? That can be reused ? You can reuse foil too. as long as it clean ! > Ways to help keep it clean is? Plastic wrap things, that goes into the foil Might get 3 or more uses out of it
I smoke the pork skin and use it as a dog treat or cut it into 1 inch chunks and use it as fish bait. The fish can't rip it off the hook as easy as they do other baits.
On another channel, one guy cured it with just salt (he doesn't care for sugar). He sprinkled his salt on both sides and kept putting the slabs into fresh glass trays every day until no more juice came out of the slabs. He explained that the bacteria won't grow without moisture. My question to you is... if this is true, would it be better to pour off the juices every day until the bags were dry?
While I'm here. Have you cooked any of your bacon slices directly on the pellet grill? I have a pit boss pellet grill and i can't find a better or easier way to cook my homemade bacon than on my pit boss. 350 and a couple turns it comes out perfect every time. And no pan to clean afterwards.
It also drastically changes the flavor, color, and texture of the bacon, try uncured pork belly one day and you'll be able to tell the difference right away. The curing salt is what's responsible for the taste we know and love as bacon.
Great video. Some put their bacon in the refrigerator to dry and form a pellicle. Have you tried that? If so, is there a big difference between doing it and not doing it?
Keep a piece of skin for greasing your griddle or pan when making pancakes....just wipe the pan with the fat side of the skin between batches and your pancakes will taste better than ever and slide right off the griddle. Using Maple pellets will produce Maple smoked bacon which is a sweeter smoke than Hickory. Maple is also less acrid than Hickory which allows you to get more smoke into the meat without getting a bitter aftertaste. Cherry and apple wood also provide better smoke than Hickory. The majority of bacon is made and smoked in the US where hickory is much easier to come by in stick form.....in Canada maple is much more prevalent which is why Candian bacon, as in bacon produced in Canada not the lean stuff made from pork loins that Americans call Canadian bacon, is mainly Maple smoked and not hickory smoked.....but you probably know this based on your accent....lol.
I just get it from our local butcher. There are online meat distributors if you live in the US and don’t have a butcher that supplies pork belly locally.
You honestly don't need curing salt.. kosher salt does the job. My grandfather has done bacon since he was a kid with his dad... He has pink curing salt there but it is not needed...
@@garyelderman1229 I get that and I appreciate the response. I'm just saying that my grandfather has been curing his own bacon since he was a child and they didn't use any of that stuff and he is still alive So I'm trying to figure out why it is so important. Bacon doesn't last long in our house .... No one has explained anything other than that is what they were told to keep it fresh longer... I'm not arguing I'm just trying to figure it all out
No, I wouldn’t change the cure. When you finish the cure and rinse off the cure from the bacon, try putting the bacon in a cold water bath for 30 minutes. Slice off a little piece of bacon after that. Fry it up and see if the saltiness is what you’re looking for. If it’s still too salty then do another 30 minute cold water bath. Repeat this until you get the saltiness you want.
I did that. I took a slice after curing and cooked it and was salty. Soaked it for 2 hrs and put in the fridge. Still too salty so I soaked (changed the water) for another 2 hrs. It was fine so I smoked it. When I cooked the smoked bacon, I was surprised it was salty again. BTW, it was snowing hard so I had to postpone smoking for a couple of days until the weatherr was better. Could this be a factor? Maybe it's the pork? I bought mine at Costco.
@@solanojb Once it's over salted, no way to draw it out. Reduce the salt content in your next batch. It took me a couple try to get it where i wanted. Also, some salts are "saltier" than others.
Just wanna say that bacon is a great breakfast food. But just like oxygen, you can have it when you get out of bed, or any time for that matter. Hell I have it in my damn sleep. Like if you agree baconnoisseurs.
You should be able to find it - just look a little harder 👍. The only unique thing in this recipe is the curing salt and that’s a pretty common ingredient. If you can’t find that then eat then you can still try the recipe, I’d just eat it within a few days of it being made.
How do you get a less salty tasting bacon? I used the 1/2 cup brown sugar to 1/2 cup kosher salt ratio. Rinsed bacon off, but after the smoke it had a strong salt taste to it. Other than that the bacon came out phenomenal!
Before you smoke it put it in a cold water bath in your sink for 30 minutes. Then slice a little piece off and fry it in a pan to see if it’s your desired saltiness. If it still too salty then go for another 30 minutes and repeat until you’ve got something you like.
I assume this cook is considered hot smoking? You said to smoke at the lowest temperature possible, however you smoked at 150 degrees. Smokers, as mine can smoke at 70 degrees.
I don't know why this video was recommended viewing and seems ill timed seeing I live in Australia and there's a billion smoked animals laying around but looking at the comments, I'm going to give this a try.
I Like You RU-vid there's a few things that I question 1 measurement of your pink curing salt to why are you having your cast iron on Direct fire and over a great too hot a fire on a cast-iron three why did you cook your both Rosemary and other bacon together with the flavors would blend in the oils I don't think it was a fair test I think you should redo it
Sorry, but I'm voting w Nate. My biggest beef w RU-vid videos is when simple informational vids are cluttered by yackayackayacka. I stop watching vids that start w "Hey guys! Glad you could join us today. I'm doing well and I hope you're having a Happy New Year. As you can tell, I like to hear my own voice, so I'm assuming you must, too!... I'm sure your vid was informative. tl;dw
A pork belly slab from Costco is like 30 bucks and you get 10 pounds of boneless meat with nothing to trim or waste. A family of four will get several meals from it. Very affordable.
You are using a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients you have to be accurate with your dry ingredients with a dry measuring cup that is totally wrong
You need to measure far more carefully. You used far more than a tablespoon of black pepper and far less than a teaspoon of your pink cure... and your thirds are not thirds... accuracy is not your forte. And here is the point if it has alluded you so far: If you can't get small things right -- such as actually using and measuring out a tablespoon -- how can you expect the viewer to trust you over more important issues like handling and curing the meat so it is safe to eat? The viewer can't.