The Bandit

Thank you all.

Looks like we'll be giving it a go. Need to get a nice piece of pork belly. Can't wait for some good home cured and smoked bacon!

Hi hoogl, thank you.

Never mind about not having an answer to my question, maybe someone might be able to help.

Good luck with having a go at bacon curing. We enjoyed both the curing and smoking process and the eating!

Hey there, hope everyone is doing ok.

I've not been here in quite a while, life got in the way.

I joined in 2020 as we (hubby and I) wanted to cure and smoke our own bacon. Over the winter of 20-21 we produced 3 pieces of bacon and were very pleased with the results, but the warmer weather arrived and we gave it up for the summer. Our bbq went haywire and we didn't get a new one for a while so no bbq'ing either.

Our intention was to make some more bacon over the colder period of 21-22 but unfortunately I was diagnosed with a serious health issue in October 21. The upshot of this was I've had a lot of treatments of various kinds which made just getting through the days, weeks and months enough of a challenge for us. I'm now out the other side and it's time to make the most of the colder conditions to give it another go.

I do have one question before we get going. Wade kindly sent me a Woodchurch bacon curing kit which we used for our bacon. It was opened in 2020, we still have enough left to use for a few more cures. I can't find any use by date on it so want to make sure it will still be ok to use? 

Thanks.

I brewed a kit or two way back (about 20-25yrs ago) but gave it up when life got in the way. Now, retired and locked-down, hubby and I (mostly I) have got the bug again. We have just brewed a 5L batch of Citra Pale Ale using malt extract + speciality grains, hops etc. It was bottled today so still a few weeks to wait!

We had a little taster and for warm, flat beer it seemed ok😁, didn't detect any "homebrew twang" of kits from a bygone age.

🤞it carbonates ok, the cheap and cheerful crown capper had it's issues.

Hi Dave.

Not been at this lark very long myself, so far myself and hubby have cured and smoked 2 pieces of bacon, both very nice even if I do say so myself. My hubby is a big pork pie fan, maybe you could pass on a recipe or two😉.

Hubby has been retired a while and I'm a fairly new retiree. I'm trying to get hubby interested in giving e-biking a try but seem to have my work cut out there!

Enjoy your hobby👍.

Quick update.

Today we have vacuum sealed, in one meal sized portions, slabs of our second cured and smoked bacon. Two into the freezer and one in the fridge. This time it was a loin. 

Not yet sampled the finished article but this will soon be rectified😁.

Thanks Icefever.

Always good to get a recommendation, too easy to get sucked in to buying cheaper and regretting it! 

Can anyone suggest a source of reasonably priced ridged vacuum sealer rolls please? 

Thanks.

Thank you Wade. We were very happy with the way it turned out.

As advised we tried the outer edges green, although salty (thanks for the warning) we would have been happy to leave it at that point but our preference is for smoked so we forged ahead.

The first few rashers (some of which are pictured above, alongside the egg) were used after 5 days resting. At this point we thought we would try a little shorter smoke next time, however, we had some more a few days later and the smoke had mellowed further and was just right, it seemed to have evened out through the meat.

We are hoping to get out and buy some loin next week and get started with making smoked back bacon. We both really like the extra fat of the streaky but I fear our arteries would disagree😁.

I'd like to think all our bacon will be home made, all I can say is we'll do our best!

Thank you to Wade and others for your wealth of knowledge and help on this site👍.

Thank you for your help Wade.

Now ordered. We went for a mid-priced one.

The bacon is now finished!!

I can't say we won't ever buy bacon again, we are online shopping at the moment therefore there are issues getting the right piece of pork, but home cured and smoked will be our first choice. 

On with the photos 

The pork - a piece of Waitrose essential belly

Sprinkle on the cure

Give it a good rub in

Ready for bagging up

Off to the fridge.

After turning daily for 10 days, rinsed, dried and ready to rest for a day or two in the fridge

After a rest, strung and into the smoker. Cherry wood dust in a ProQ maze, around 10.5 hrs (a full maze worth)

Smoked, wrapped and into the fridge for 5 days

Rested and ready to go

A few test slices

The proof of the bacon is in the eating........Definately worth the effort, even enough bacon fat to cook the egg!!

Hi all. Looking for a little help please.

I'm looking to buy a vacuum sealer but not at all sure what I should be looking for - type, features etc.

I shall be using it for curing and packaging bacon and storing my coffee beans mainly.

If there is a model that's just the thing, I'd be very interested. 

I'm not looking to get the cheapest but on the other hand I don't think all the bells and whistles are needed either. Something middle of the road that will do the job well. I may well be looking for 'the moon on a stick', if I am please tell me and put me straight.

Thanks.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Hubby and I finally managed to get a piece of pork belly and started making our first slab (all be it a small slab😁) of bacon. We're using a Woodchurch bacon curing kit, kindly given to us by Wade.

Photos are being taken and I'll update this post once it's done.

Cheers.

Thanks Wade, I have sent a PM.

10 hours ago, Icefever said:

As long as you enjoy it....that's all that maters.

 

Ice.

We did indeed get a great days fun from our first cold smoking adventure.

6 hours ago, Justin said:

maybe a cap of some sort on top with smaller opening to allow the smoke to draw but not let drizzle and rain in  Also to keep the temp around 20c when doing salmon?  How do you do that. For example, I use black ceramic bulb attached to a pid controller(inkbird) dialled into 20c.  I put this inside my wsm alongside the pro q maze

We do have a cap for it just forgot to put it on for the photos. It's a thick foil pie dish which we scrunched tight around the sides and about two thirds of the slits are covered.

Really sorry but I'm totally flummoxed about the rest of your post. 

Thank you for your responses guys.

It will be our first time curing bacon.

We thought a ready mixed bacon cure would be easiest but not opposed to making our own, especially in light of the nitrate issue.

Any chance someone can direct me to a reliable source of cure recipes please.

Cheers.

Evening all.

Can anyone recommend a basic bacon cure please? Want to make sure we use a reputable source for ingredients.

Thanks.

I'm curious to know if it is safe (food poisoning wise) to cold smoke meat that has not been cured. 

I'd love to get some smoke taste into things e.g. sausages and pork/ribs/belly etc. that will be cooked after smoking (either straight away or after refrigeration/ freezing).

Is this possible please?

Thanks.

It ws hubbys idea to give the bbq a go and I love it! 

It certainly seems to do the job. Only reason we might change it in the future is if we expand our operation😁.

as in Smoky and......

Hi all.

Arrived here via serching for info about cold smoking. I have a general interest in cooking and watched a Nadiya Hussain tv programme a while back where she used a ProQ smoke generator in a cardboard box to do some cold smoking, thus the seed was sown.

Moving on a couple of years (maybe more, maybe less) I'm working in a school during a pandemic and decide to retire early. I now have time on my hands to do some things I've wanted to but never got around to. Mention to hubby the idea of trying cold smoking, get a favourable response and here we are.

The ProQ was ordered, found something to convert to a smoker and have done our first cold smoke. Had to have a bit of a role call of the cupboards to find bits and pieces to smoke - almonds, a few dried apricots, piece of cheese and some chocolate - and we were off and running. It went really well. Now looking to buy some cure to make a slab of smoked streaky bacon.

This is our smoker, it's an ex-barbecue originally bought to cook tandoori style about 20 years ago and not used much.

1. The whole thing (we put a foil dish upside down on the top as a lid, there are vents for smoke to escape)

2. It comes apart, smoke generator in the bottom, food on a perforated shelf at around the level of the handles in the top.

3. The bottom, holes for air in under the generator.