Chef Britt brings home the bacon by showing you exactly how to cure and smoke pork belly entirely from scratch! VIEW FULL RECIPE HERE: www.atbbq.com/thesauce/bacon/
I'm a simple man. I weigh my pork belly in grams. Make my cure by dividing that weigh by .0225 for my salt & brown sugar and .0025 for my curing salt. Wood choice, Hickory every time. Tried Apple once and went right back to the Hickory. Btw, once you make homemade bacon and actually make it thick sliced you'll never buy store bought again. Super easy (just make sure to calculate the salt correctly) and super delicious.
@@barrettincognito your so smart. That would be an excessive amount of salt wouldn't it? Good news though there wouldn't be any bacteria within 100 miles of my bacon if I divided ;)
Simply Amazing! I used my amazing smoking tube as well with hickory, great smoke flavor. This was my 3rd pork belly and the only one I have sliced and kept, it was great. Thanks Chef Britt
An Excellent Video. My YS640 is from 6.'13 and I did a full upgrade last summer. My pork belly has been in the brine for 8 days already and this weekend I will make Bacon. I am truly looking forward to that. I will follow your video for the next time. Great video - thank you.
Excellent instructions! It really does look like a simple process. I’m gonna start curing and smoking my own bacon because it’s gotten too expensive to buy it these days.
Thank you Chef brit I just made 30lbs of bacon, 4 slabs, 2 traditional as you did but I added black pepper One with honey powder One with thyme (holiday bacon, phenomenal)
Thanks for the great video, Chef! I actually use 5 TBS of Morton TenderQuick and 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar for my cure. Those amounts are for a 5# slab of belly. After coating the entire slab, I place it in a 2 gallon Ziplock, and add 1/4 Cup of pure maple syrup. Then I allow it to cure for a week or so.
Jim Grant - After the cure, soak the belly in water, changing the water about every hour or so. The water will pull some of the salt out of the meat. To test for saltiness, trim off a little sliver and fry it up. It won’t taste smoky, but you’ll get a sense of how salty it is. Still too salty? Soak it some more. I find about 2 - 3 hours is good for my taste. Once you’re satisfied with the salt, form the pellicle and smoke away.
Costco regularly sells pork belly if you don’t have a good pork vendor in your area. I often use a glaze of honey to bind the curing mixture and I’m 50/50 on hickory or apple (meaning we alternate not that we mix). I cure but don’t cook my bacon. I try to keep the smoker to under 100F degrees and let the smoke soak in. Cooking it as shown in the video starts to render the fat. When it’s time to eat, then we cook.
I love making homemade bacon, i use maple sugar instead of brown, and when i smoke i cold smoke multiple times, 4 hrs per smoke with a day of rest in between each smoke. I typically smoke 3 separate times Tastes closer to traditional bacon unlike the hot smoke which is closer to a ham flavor.
Me too! I cold smoke 3-4 times at 10-12 hours per smoke session, using the AmaZen pellet smoker for smoking. I wet-brine my bacon 10-12 days. Easy set-and-forget with no flipping required.
@@jasonbryenton525 I leave it uncovered so it can continue to dry. My last batch, I didn't even refrigerate it. Just let it sit out in the basement (about 70 degrees) during the day, then smoked at night. (I used Cure #1, so no worries about bacteria.)
Chef Brit you weighed the meat in pounds and then calculated your salt, sugar and cure in grams can you explain more thoroughly because I am very confused please as to quantities.
Put your meat skin side down on a wooden block. get a sharp knife under the edge of the skin, then put pressure on the top of the meat with your spare hand. then make "swooping" motions with the knife, (ie. don't saw at it) trying to keep it as close to the skin as you can. If your knife isn't sharp, skinning something will be a chore. If you don't know how to sharpen a knife, I really suggest you learn. Sharp knives save time and are safer to use.
@@johnswiers7534 i bought it quite recently and its still super sharp, the sharpest a knife i own has ever been, will start sharpening in a few weeks or so
You can never go wrong with some DIY bacon aka swine gold. Too bad I have neither the ingredients, nor a pellet smoker (or any smoker for that matter, not even a stick burner) to make some myself.
I do wet brine instead. Far easier. So damn good. 6tsp coarse kosher salt 5tsp fresh cracked black pepper 5TBsp brown sugar 1/4tsp dried thyme, crushed 1/2tsp Prague powder #1 3/4 cup distilled water Mix all in a ziploc, mix well. Add 3lb slab of pork belly no skin. Double bag. Refrigerate for 96 hours. Flip every 12 hours. Remove from brine, no rinse, smoke low and slow to 150 degrees F internal temp. Slice. Fry. Enjoy. I’ve done it 6 or 8 times so far and it comes out way better than in the vid. Easy too.
Yeah but we can do so without making a comment about it. Or do you also point out Chef Tom's beautifully clipped nails and impressive ear lobes? Let's keep it all about bbq please. ✌️
@@dheijnemans I have commented on Chef Tom's awesome beard before, and am a fan of his style. We're all here for different things, for example I appreciate the people involved in this channel as much as the content. My appreciation in no way detracts from the content and what you enjoy from this channel. ✌️
@@skoomskaa the same way people have been curing meat for hundreds of years, with sea salt(Do not use iodized salt). Curing salt is completely unnecessary because the process of curing is just preservation by the removal of moisture which can be done with only sea salt but it may take a little longer.
@@SG-ig2th I haven't had any issues yet and I have been curing meat for years. Nitrites damage cells in the human body which eventually leads to cancer.
I've never seem anyone weight out the cure mixture before. To be honest it doesn't seem necessary since you have to rinse the belly off after curing it. Also the amount of cure used definitely didn't look like enough.
Seriously? You understand that the cure penetrates the surface, right? In fact, it's not fully cured unless the cure reaches all the way to the center. I don't know what kind of fly-by-night curing operations you've seen, but you always measure out the cure either by weight or volume. And any chef will tell you weight is ALWAYS more accurate than volume.
@@tewlbocks3362 I was referring to weighting the amount of cure she was putting on the meat after making the large cure batch. Im not a idiot bud obviously you need to weigh our ingredients when making a cure batch. The amount of cure she used wasn't even enough to cover the entire surface of the meat.
@@jonathanhadden8199 It was enough to cure that piece of meat. Using more cure only increase the salt levels, and it would take multiple soakings to get the salt level down and your bacon would still be very salty
@@jonathanhadden8199 I always seems that way especially when you only use salt, sugar, and cure#1 with an EQ cure. If you use more than the correct percentages you stand the chance of having too much Cure#1, which is VERY dangerous, and it'll be way too salty. As long as you go by percentages and use all of the cure mixture you'll be fine. I've done many batches using the EQ method. A good start is salt = 2.25%, sugar = 1.75% and cure#1 is always 0.25%. Mix cure using meat weight Xs each percentage. You should use a gram scale that has 2 decimal points to get the cure#1 correct. For example, meat weighs 900g, so 900 Xs .0025 = cure#1 weight for that belly. Salt .0225 Xs 900g, sugar 0.0175 Xs 900g.
Could you also leave out the pink salt and just use celery in some way? I know, there is no research which states that curing salt is harmful, but personally I would just feel safer not using it.
I've done it without the pink salt, just using kosher salt, sugar and maple syrup. If you are gonna cold smoke the bacon that's were you can get botulism without the curing salt
Just for info, celery is a great source of sodium nitrite, and the source of some of the so called natural cured meats. Cure with salt and sugar for natural. The nitrites prevent botulism.
Respectfully disagree with washing. You are spreading bacteria from the pork around your kitchen / sink. The cure will take care of the bacteria. Also suggest the ‘EQ method’ for curing. Keeps from over salting the bacon and you don’t have to soak it.
Where is your show? By the way, if you sanitize properly after the wash, which is a must, there are no problems with bacteria contamination. But, my man, you do it however you like as your criticism is totally unnecessary!
I was thinking the same thing. The CDC highly recommends against washing raw meat of any kind because the tiniest droplets can travel very very far to places where you would not think to sanitize. The salt will kill all of the bacteria on contact anyway so it is pointless.
@@chrismartin5166 "To each his or "her" own." My point exactly! I simply appreciated Chef Britt's presentation on how to cure a pork belly at home to make your own bacon. I was intrigued by her method of curing pork belly and thought she had done a 5 star performance. If there are other methods of curing meats, she chose to use her method, probably because of process time or it's just the method that she preferred. Either way, it was well done!!! Interestingly, I will research the method you mentioned to formulate my own comparisons. Since you stated in your comment you were just trying to be helpful, I will retract my comment as a misunderstanding. I acknowledge your statement to be of constructive criticism in line with what the CDC makes recommendations for "not to wash any raw meats." In light of the fact that the CDC makes many recommendations directed at the general public only to cover their behinds. A one size fits all approach to a potential problem whereas there are some real controversies about washing raw meats. There are some culinary experts that would challenge the CDC recommendations which applies to all raw meats eggs and vegetables. There are many high end chef's in the culinary profession that absolutely wash certain meats and veggies for several reasons. Whether it has to do with where their products come from or providing a certain taste profile and or texture for presentation. For example, brining is one method used in the culinary field to tenderize and add some flavor to raw meats for the cooking process. It can also be considered a cleansing method by many since most brines contain salt. If not done properly it can be a real contamination problem. The washing or rinsing of raw meats can be done safely, if you are aware of the proper methods that prevent contamination. So, the CDC targets their recommendations in this case, to the general public who are mostly unaware of the professional and safe methods. A one size fits all approach for safety without getting too complicated. No harm done! Go Chef Britt!
Wayne Bennett ha! To each Her own indeed! I enjoyed the video too. Made my mouth water. The method she used for curing is simpler than EQ. Neither are complicated but with EQ (equilibrium method) you use scales to deliver the same weigh of salt and cure per weight of pork. This the consistency. No soaking afterwards.
