Makin’ Bacon

Recipe from Big Green Craig

After curing and smoking a pastrami I decided to try my hand a bacon (mmmmm, bacon). So I fired up the Google machine, typed in “Bacon Big Green Egg”, and this recipe was first in line. I cut the recipe in half on my first try so I could get my feet wet with a smaller piece of meat.

EGGCESSORIES NEEDED

• Dual Probe Thermometer
• ConvEGGtor
• Smoking Chunks of your choice

INGREDIENTS

• 5 lbs raw pork belly
• ½ C kosher salt
• 2 tsp pink curing salt #1 (NOT Himalayan pink salt)
• 5 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 4 bay leaves, crumbled
• 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• &‌#8539; C brown sugar or honey or maple syrup
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ C pickling spice
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whisk thoroughly.

The hardest thing to find was the pickling spice (even the guy in the grocery store was looking in the wrong place at first), and man was it expensive! $6 for 4 ounces!

Rinse the pork belly under cold water. Pat completely dry with paper towels.

Finding pork belly wasn’t easy either. I ended up doing a Google search and found it at a Whole Foods near me. There’s a butcher opening up near me soon (woo-hoo!) so I’ll be going there for all my meat needs as soon as it opens.

Place the pork belly into a 2 or 3 gallon Ziploc bag. Using your hands, rub the dry mixture onto the pork belly. Rub the mixture in well, and make sure that all parts are covered evenly. Squeeze as much air out of the Ziploc bag as possible before sealing. Seal the bag and refrigerate for 8 days.

I was making this as part of my wife’s Mother’s Day breakfast and started early enough so that the 8th day was the day before Mother’s Day. After posting a picture on a Big Green Egg Facebook page someone commented that I should let it sit for 7 to 12 days and not take out until firm. It seemed firmer to me, and it definitely tasted great, but next time I’m going to give myself more time to cure (maybe leave it to up to 12 days) and start testing for firmness at 7 days. I’ll update this recipe if I find this worked better.

On the 8th day, remove the belly from the Ziploc bag. (There should be liquid left in the plastic bag) Rinse the belly under cold water. Scrub off all of the cure off of the belly. Using paper towels, pat dry. Allow the belly to air dry for approx 1 hour.

Set up the Big Green Egg for indirect cooking. Light and set the temperature between 215-225F. Use any choice of wood for smoking.

I used Big Green Egg Applewood Chunk. I like a fruitier smoke for pork. That’s just me. Choose whatever wood you like. 😉

After the belly has dried and the BGE is up to temp. Place the belly (the pig’s, not yours 😉 ) on the grill grate. Smoke the belly pieces until they reach an internal temp of 150F.

Use the Dual Probe Thermometer to monitor the temperature

Once the internal temp has been reached, remove the belly from the Egg. Wrap the belly in foil and refrigerate overnight. (Cold bacon is easier to slice)

Remove the pork belly from the foil and slice into strips. A slicing knife or a meat slicer can be used.

I initially set my meat slicer to its thickest setting (I was going for a Peter Luger’s type bacon. Click this link and scroll through the pictures to see what I mean.), but realized quickly that I wasn’t going to get many bacon slices out of it. I set it to half setting, and still pulled some nice thick slices.

A thought on meat slicers. I got my meat slicer for the first Christmas after I got my Egg after I tried slicing a pastrami by hand and couldn’t get the meat sliced thin enough to make sandwiches. Get a meat slicer, it’s much easier than trying to do it by hand (unless you’re a professional chef!).

It’s bacon fryin’ time!

Like I mentioned, I made this as part of my wife’s Mother’s Day breakfast (see picture above). I also made a Sleepy Soufflé, and picked up some bagels from our local bagel shop.