Made my first batch of bacon, wow, oh so good! Maybe sliced a bit too thick on the first round, but still OH SOOOO GOOD!! Simple salt and pepper seasoning, then smoked on the grill.
My wife laughs at me as I buy bacon every time the grocery store has it on sale, 3 lbs for $11. I Air Fry a full package at a time and have BLTs and snack on it for the week. I just checked and I have 21 lbs so plenty...but now that it's on sale again and you got my mouth watering...LOL!
I love smoking pork bellies for bacon. When I was younger, we would make 700 pounds at a time in the smokehouse. They would send me in to fan the meat (move all of it a little bit because there would be a white spot where one belly touched another). I would come out smelling like the very soul of the bacon with drippings all over me. I also would be tasked with cutting loose any "hangers". These were congealing bacon icicles that would develop. Great with beer. Back then we used a wet brining method for 2 weeks in a walk in cooler. I dry brine in two gallon ziploc bags now in the fridge with about the same ingredients for about a week.
and save those bacon 'drippings' like they are gold for every other kind of cooking over the campfire.
Yes, we have so much bacon grease right now. I will cook up the 4lb packs from Sams and save the grease, I don't think we'll ever run out. I did notice the drippings from the home made stuff is a bit darker, probably due to the smoke.
My Great Grand Daddy taught me when I was really young, save out your smoke house drippings of Bacon and soak your beans in it instead of water, just set them in a big pot on the stove with the fire down low and let them soak over night, Y'all ain't lived until you had smoked bean soup, this is also the right way to start Beans an Rice! We also smoked Cheese at the same time we smoked the pork/bacon, that little something extra from the bacon really added to the flavor, we couldn't keep any cheese long enough for it too go moldy or bad! Ok, now i'm jonsin for some fat back!
Blast ye all! Blast ye, I say!! Now ya'll got me wantin bacon for dinner. And midnight snack. And breakfast. And . . . And . . .
Alanana. Have you made any bacon from the pigs you snared? Looks like some were bacon and ham sized, really interested? With the interesting life you lead, it wouldn't suprise me.
My daughter and I started dry brining another 2 bellies yesterday. One was done exactly like the first and the other we added some additional spices. For those that have made your own bacon, what spices/seasoning do you use during the brining process? Everyone really loved the Salt and Pepper that I did on the first one. For the other one we started, we added some onion and garlic powder.
I ate bacon n eggs this morning.in which I used bacon grease from other times that I fried up bacon. Bacon grease is ALL I'LL use to try my eggs.
I use a mixture of bacon grease and tallow from smoking brisket for all frying. Yes, the eggs are magical.
That damned Jack London convinced me I needed apple fritters fried in bear fat to be happy in life and I have had my eye out for a bear for 45 years. I'm all about apple fritters, (or as some call them "bear claws") ever since.
