I want to make my own bacon!

Can anyone recommend a good online resource for learning about the process and different ideas for brines/smokes?

I'll also need a place to get my pre-bacon (i.e. the pig part), preferably somewhere out in Fairfax or through the mail. Thoughts?

You can buy belly at the WF in Fairlakes.

You can also get the belly at any number of asian markets. I got mine at Great Wall in Merrifield, but you have to be very specific in what you want quantity wise. I ended up with way too much and still have at least 10 pounds in my freezer. The ones in the case were already butchered up into smaller braising portions and I wanted bigger slabs to square up.

I have a pretty good recipe from the Rytek Kutas sausage and meat curing book. It involves vast amounts of salt and honey with a small amount of cure #1 (formerly known as Prague Powder #1) to act as a preservative. It sits in the fridge for about a week and is then rinsed clean, dried, and smoked. I made some but didnt' let it smoke long enough to really take on the flavor and had to cut it with knife which made for thicker slices than I would have preferred. The trick is to cook it low and slow in a pan to get a crispier slice without burning it to charcoal.

Is cure#1 the same as pink salt? If so, I have a bunch that you can have some of if you want to arrange a pickup.

Grandmart in Sterling has uncured belly slabs cut in about 3 inch thicknesses in the regular meat section. Chances are good that other Grandmarts will also have them, but there's definitely some variation in stocking between locations.

Should be the same. If you bought it for smoked products like kielbasa that still need refrigeration/freezing after they are smoked, but not for hanging cured meats like salami, it's probably the same.

Do Grandmarts and various Asian markets sell pork that has not be loaded up with antibiotics and hormones? Fat is a great place for those to reside.

Who's got a good online resource for how to do it?

Here is a good source, click.

this was helpful when I was first starting out. The distinction between hot-smoking and cold-smoking is an important one. There's some discussion of that over here on the charcuterie-making thread. Hot-smoking will be much quicker and will actually cook the bacon, whereas traditional cold-smoking takes longer and results in the familiar, uncooked, smoked bacon we buy at the supermarket.

Anyone ever smoke with alder wood? I live on "Alder Woods Court," so I thought it would be clever. Would it be tasty?

Though I have not read it, I heard that Ruhlman's book has a great section on how to do bacon.

Alder would be just fine. I have both cold and hot smoked bacon with apple and hickory with good results - I'd probably not use mesquite, as the flavor can be quite strong - best save that for brisket.

ETA: Ruhlman's book on charcuterie does have an excellent section on bacon.

It's a good thing you don't live on Shithouse Lane.

There is a street near me named Magicleaf. Wonder what bacon smoked with that would be like.

I picked up 10 lbs of fresh pork belly from the Laurel Meat Market and much of it is currently curing in the fridge. Am also getting another whole belly from Forest Fed farms (aka Babes in The Wood) this Saturday.

I'm following Ruhlman's method for making bacon. I found several good online resources using this fascinating thing called The Google. Click here. for a nice one, complete with pictures.

I plan on "warm" smoking the bacon (I'll have the smoker temp around 140F) this Sunday using apple and pecan wood chunks. Now...if only I could find some decent tomatoes to go with it!!

Until Google develops "Taste-O-Vision" (and I'm sure they're working on it), I'd rather hear from an expert here.

I notice in that blog that he removes the skin after all the smoking is done. Wouldn't it make more sense to remove the skin BEFORE smoking? I mean, aren't you throwing away this big hunk that's absorbed a ton of smoky flavor?

Just out of curiosity, what made you choose to warm smoke it? I understand the different between hot and cold smoking, but why choose one over the other here?

What smoker do you have?

A Weber Smoker. It's a lot easier than usual to keep the smoker cool (under 150F) given the current cold weather.

In addition to making a smoked pork shoulder and a pâté de campagne, I smoked my cured pork bellies yesterday meaning I'm now in the proud owner of about 8 lbs of homemade bacon.

I could post pictures of it as it went through the various stages of prepping, curing, smoking, and frying but the blog link I posted above has photos that are virtually identical to what I ended up with.

The end product? I fried up a batch and it tasted like...well...bacon. Granted, it was better than just about any kind of store bought bacon I've ever had. And I like being able to slice it to the thickness of my choosing. But I wish it had a sweeter flavour (it was cured in maple syrup and brown sugar) and more smoke on it (apple and pecan smoked for about 3.5 hrs). Next time, I'll go with more (and better) maple syrup, as well as a longer smoke time. I've still got another 10 lbs of pork belly in the freezer so there's no doubt there will be a second round.

My recipe calls for curing it in salt and 2 pounds of honey per 5 pounds of belly for a week. The honey actually made mine a bit sweeter than I would have preferred, and the apple wood didn't really add a lot of flavor (but I didn't give it anywhere enough time to smoke so that was part of my problem).

In a fascinating revue in this week's New Yorker of the new book *Perfumes: The Guide* by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez:
"The question that women casually shopping for perfume ask more than any other is this: 'What scent drives men wild?' After years of intense research, we know the definitive answer. It is bacon."

Once I get back from Colorado and have some free time, I'll be buildin' me a cold smoker and gettin' to makin' bacon in earnest. I don't know why I'm replacin' all my ings with in's.

So let me ask... in all the bacon you've had through your lives... what were some of the standouts? Was there bacon with an interestin' spice? An unusual smoke? Was it brined in somethin' that made you go, "hmm"? Do you have a favorite classic bacon (applewood smoked, maple syrup, pepper)?

I give the crowd what it wants.