From the website Good Food Stories
About 6 months ago I smoked my first bacon. It was a pretty straight forward bacon (no flavors beyond the bacony goodness). After we devoured it in about two servings I decided that I needed to do that again, but this time I wanted it to be more Maple Sugar flavored. I made this to be part of our Thanksgiving breakfast a few days before Thanksgiving, but the house smelled so good that we sliced off a few pieces to put on our hamburgers.
EGGcessories Needed:
Ingredients
- One 8 pound slab of pork belly
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 teaspoon pink salt (curing salt)
- 2/3 cup maple sugar or packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
Directions
Whisk the two salts and the sugar together in a small bowl.
Then stir in the maple syrup until a wet paste forms.
Place the pork belly on a large baking sheet.
Rub the paste evenly over the pork belly, then place the meat into the Ziploc bag and seal.
Refrigerate the bagged pork belly for a week. The meat will start to self-brine as it releases liquid throughout the process.
The paste will be soaked straight into the meat. If it was producing brine it must have been soaking it right back into the meat. There was almost no liquid in the bag after a week, but the meat was moist.
Turn the bag over every other day to keep the brine evenly distributed. You may need to squeeze additional air out of the bag to make sure the meat is in contact with the brine at all times.
Remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse, and dry.
Set a metal cooling rack on a sheet pan and place the meat on the rack. Leave uncovered in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
It really helps if you have a second refrigerator or be prepared for this to take up a large portion of your kitchen refrigerator.
Prepare your Big Green Egg to cook in-directly. Add a small chunk of Applewood, and set the temperature to 200 degrees F.
Cook the pork belly until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F. This can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours depending on the size of your slab, so monitor carefully.
Mine reached 150 F at around 2 hours. This is where the Thermal Dual Probe thermometer comes in handy. It beeps when you’re 10 degrees away from your desired temperature, and again when it hits that temperature.
Should you not devour your bacon immediately, it will keep in the fridge for about a week and in the freezer for about three months.
Or you can slice off a few pieces the day you make it, fry that up, and make bacon cheeseburgers. 🙂
Maple Sugar Bacon
Ingredients
- One 8 pound slab of pork belly
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 teaspoon pink salt (curing salt)
- 2/3 cup maple sugar or packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
Instructions
Whisk the two salts and the sugar together in a small bowl.
Then stir in the maple syrup until a wet paste forms.
Place the pork belly on a large baking sheet.
Rub the paste evenly over the pork belly, then place the meat into the Ziploc bag and seal.
Refrigerate the bagged pork belly for a week. The meat will start to self-brine as it releases liquid throughout the process. Turn the bag over every other day to keep the brine evenly distributed. You may need to squeeze additional air out of the bag to make sure the meat is in contact with the brine at all times.
Remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse, and dry.
Set a metal cooling rack on a sheet pan and place the meat on the rack. Leave uncovered in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
Prepare your Big Green Egg to cook in-directly. Add a small chunk of Applewood, and set the temperature to 200 degrees F.
Cook the pork belly until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F. This can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours depending on the size of your slab, so monitor carefully.
Should you not devour your bacon immediately, it will keep in the fridge for about a week and in the freezer for about three months.
Notes
Recipe from EggingMyHouse.com
