Home made bacon!!!
 

Ok so I bought some pork belly about 10 days ago. We made some cracklins and they turned out great. I bought to much pork belly though and I had a nice pretty 10x10 slab of belly that looked like bacon and I had always wanted to make my own bacon so I decided to do it. Cured it for 10days and smoked it at about 160degrees for 2hrs and man let me tell you it is way better than anything you can buy from the store. I mean taste like real bacon with a hint of smoke. Makes me never want to buy the store stuff ever again. I mean a hole new perspective on bacon and to me it's the only way to do bacon. I plan on doing this many more times in the future. AMAZING!!!Attachment 102884Attachment 102885Attachment 102886Attachment 102887

The first 2 pics are in the bag curing and the last 2 pics are after the smoke and then drying up a taste.


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Attachment 102888these are 2 pieces I just cooked for my wife. She said we are never buying store bacon ever again. Lol


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I make ALLOT of tasso, actually made 100lbs last week. We have made bacon before but the problem with bacon is even when we vacuum sealed it it didn't stay fresh for long.

Tasso I can double wrap it in freezer paper and will last a year even though that never happens...

Let me know if have any tips for keeping it fresh for more than a short period of time.

Well what I read online is that it will stay good for about 2 months and frozen it will keep for even longer. I don't plan on freezing it but maybe one day I will when I make more.


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since it is cured try hanging and cold smoking the bellies, We have gone 48 hrs in the smoke house . looks the color a piece of mahogany when done.
everyone loves the bacon and wants to buy some till you give them a price.
between the cost of pork belly and the time and labor you would have to sell for $10 / lb or more.

Not trying to hijack this thread but I'd love to hear how you make your Tasso. I've been wanting to try and do some at home also. Would you mind starting a new thread or shooting me a PM and letting me know your method?

Or just post it on here so I can hear it too. Lol


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hard to beat homemade bacon. Ive been wanting to try it, I even have a belly in my freezer, just havent gotten around to it yet.

looks good bubba!!

Well, I didn't want to hijack your thread. The bacon looks awesome too by the way. Thanks for posting it up, I'm going to try that soon too.

I'll post pics later but here is how we do it.

Buy boston butts on sale. Try to get butts with less fat if possible.

Debone, and cut out any extra fat cap.
Cut into tasso sized pieces when deboning.
Add meat to deep plastic pan.
Add one tablespoon of Pink Curing Salt to each pan
Add regular table Salt and Red pepper (we make our own red pepper from heirloom cayenne peppers we grow and grind) as you like. Add water to cover the meat and mix by hand. Taste the water for seasoning and add more as needed.We don't measure seasoning, we taste the mixture as we go. Some people are afraid to do that but have been making tasso this way since my grandpa taught us. We like it pretty hot so usually the water mixture is a good pinkish red color.

Once you are happy with seasoning we let sit in refrigerator for 1-2 days. Can be longer if have the time. Be sure to mix the meat and seasoning at least once a day as seasoning will settle to bottom and you will have uneven consistency.

We smoke with what we have but usually, oak, pecan and china ball. We usually have a supply of all 3.

He have old metal coat hangers that we use to hang the meat from our smoke house. We try to keep the fire low enough to slowly smoke for 1.5 to 2 days, when you cut a piece it should be smoked through but not cooked.

That's about it. I guarantee that our tasso is better than anything you can buy commercially and i think it is better than most specialty meat stores as well but I am very biased..

Attachment 102935

Can't find any pics of the process on my phone but this is Tasso that is almost ready to pull.

Sooo good man


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