Fresh Sliced Bacon- Can it be brined, cured or smoked?

finelyfound · Joined: 14 Mar 2011 Posts: 3

I am going to pick up my half side of Berkshire pork this week and was just informed that they sliced and packaged the pork belly. So I have eight pounds of sliced pork belly in 1lb packages.
I am not a huge fan of fresh bacon, it's just too porky tasting for breakfast. I had originally planned to brine and cold smoke the pork belly, but was told it can no longer be cured.
I was hoping that someone on this board may have had some experience with this and can guide me. I am not and experienced smoker.
I do know their are some great recipes out there for fresh pork belly, but I was really hoping for some of it to become seasoned bacon.
I also have several fresh hams and have been looking for some foolproof type recipes to get me started.
I am a very competent cook and baker, but am just starting to experiment with curing and smoking meats so I would like to start will recipes that will be a success.
Thanks,
Jocelyn

Damar12 · BBQ Fan Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 176

Stack it like a regular slab, tie it off with string and cure it normal. I see no difference other than you will not have to slice later. Good luck.

SoEzzy · Posted: Mar 16 2011 Post subject:

I don't see why it can't be cured!

That said if it's cut into 1lb packages, was it sliced into belly pork 1" strips, or was it sliced like bacon but it's still raw?

I don't see why you couldn't cure it either as 1 lb blocks, as 1" strips or as sliced raw bacon... but that's just me!
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finelyfound · Joined: 14 Mar 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks for the replies.
I haven't picked it up yet, so don't know the thickness of the slices.
So I will experiment with a lb or so and see if it works.
This will be my very first time curing bacon.
Any suggestions?????
I was thinking possibly of trying Alton Brown's brine and then possibly smoking it.
I haven't done a ton of research on options and would like to start with something fairly basic in the hopes it might work well the first try.
Also, I will have a couple of fresh hams and I'd love some input on smoking and curing the hams.

SmokinOkie · BBQ Super Pro Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 2078

wnkt · Posted: Mar 18 2011 Post subject:

maybe its just me, I dont know much about meat packing and such ...but why would they slice the uncured belly into strips? almost sounds like they were hiding something
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SoEzzy · Posted: Mar 18 2011 Post subject:

If it's the 1" strips, they sell it to the Chinese restaurants as belly pork, great for lots of Chinese style dishes.
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wyrman · Posted: Mar 20 2011 Post subject:

Harry Nutczak · Posted: Mar 21 2011 Post subject:

I would forget about trying to smoke the stuff, but curing it to change the texture and flavor would be easy.

For each 1-pound package, just sprinkle in 1 TBS of mortons tender-quick and give it a week to do its magic.
Your not going to get the smokiness of bacon, but you'll get the proper texture and flavor besides the smoke.
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finelyfound · Joined: 14 Mar 2011 Posts: 3

Thanks Harry, that's the kind of advice I was hoping for.
I know that there is no funny business with the meat, it was processed before I was able to make any requests, I'm not sure why they sliced it and I still don't know how big the slices are.
I found a really basic recipe for curing city ham, I'd love to hear what others do.
Would you add any other seasoning to the Morton's cure???
Thanks

Harry Nutczak · Posted: Mar 23 2011 Post subject:

I just applied cure to a 12# belly slab today, I plan to start smoking it Monday 3-28 for at least 48 hours at around 90 degrees and heavy heavy smoke.

I have done some different flavor profiles with bacon that were very good, I like to use cracked, toasted fennel seed to emulate a taste similar to pancetta without the gamey flavor from the dry-aging process pancetta gets,
I have also done garlic bacon by adding granulated garlic to the salt/cure mixture.

Today, I was about to measure out my salt, when I saw my 15-pound bucket of brisket rub sitting there, so I used my brisket rub for seasoning the belly instead. I am really looking forward to see how that comes out.

Something else I have done is made Venison-bacon by using ground venison and pork at about a 50/50 ratio. Added cure, seasoning, and formed it into a slab and smoked that. (temps taken to 152 to fully cook it) and that slices and fries nicely.

you could coarse grind that belly that they sliced, or chop it very coarse with a knife, add you cure and about 1.5tsp salt per pound, mix it very well, form into a loaf, and do a type of cured bacon out of it that way too.

Whatever you choose to try, I hope it turns out good for you, because that sucks that they would slice uncured raw belly. I wonder how they even pulled that off without freezing it first?
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BBQonICE · Posted: Mar 27 2011 Post subject:

Harry Nutczak · Posted: Mar 28 2011 Post subject:

BBQonICE · Posted: Mar 29 2011 Post subject: