Are you going to wet brine at all or just go with the dry brine?

I did wet brine and it turned out amazing but had a TON of moisture loss during the cook process that was a bitch to clean up after.

 

Doing a dry cure for my first go round, I debated doing wet but most recipes I saw said to do dry

 

I think you're making the right play, go with the dry. The wet brine was definitely a mess during the cook. Next time I'm going dry brine.

 

I'm super excited to see how it comes out, hoping I didn't use too much curing salt.

 

It's bacon, there's never too much salt.

 

 

After curing the pork belly for a week, I pulled it out, rinsed the salt off and let it air dry over night. Here it is all cured and ready to be smoked.



Here it is on the smoker, about an hour in. Slow smoked with apple wood.



Took right at 3 hours after the stall. Here's the finished bacon slab



Since I had the smoker going I also did some savory smoked cashews with the rest of my salty nut rub



All my hard work



And here's the bacon sliced up, these slices are on the thicker side but they're amazing



Bacon



And here's the 6 pound slab all sliced up



It's a bit salty (yes bacon is supposed to be salty) but I overdid the curing salt just a bit. This was my first time and I learned through trial and error. I also learned that the fat cap was not a rind, so I ended up with slices in the bottom, but not a huge deal. Next time I won't score the fat as deep



Since I made 6 pounds I also bought a food saver and this was my perfect reason to use it. Now we have homemade bacon in the freezer for various brunches, and the big pack is for Mother's day when we have both of our parents over for brunch.

 

So for new years I decided to do a stuffed pork tenderloin. I had this in my parents' deep freezer because it wouldn't fit in my freezer. So I thawed this thing out and tried to butterfly it. It ended up looking rather inappropriate for the internet, but I got it split open.



I went ahead and half cooked the rest of my homemade bacon that didn't get frozen.



I laid out 2 layers of bacon, then added sliced onions, diced garlic cloves, some frozen spinach, and 6 cheese Italian cheese blend.



Then I rolled it up and tied the loin, and covered it in rub.



Then I smoked it with some cherry wood for flavor. The pork loin was so big it wouldn't fit across my 22" smoker, so I had to bend it



It smoked for exactly 3 hours and hit temp. Here's when I removed it before tenting with foil.



And here it is all sliced. flavor was fantastic, I definitely want to butterfly it more thin next time so I can stuff more goodies inside.

 

Both the bacon and stuffed loin look great. Nice work.

 

Thanks buddy. Planning to smoke wings for SB Sunday, what's everyone else making?

 

Successful smoke yesterday, brined 3 dozen wings over night, then air dried for 5 hours before rubbing



Threw them on the smoker with apple wood



And here's the finished product.



I also threw on some truffle mac and cheese to get a nice light smoke flavor, really complimented the truffle flavors



I also smoked some hard boiled eggs for deviled eggs, and a Jimmy Dean's sausage log for breakfast sandwiches. I rubbed it and let it sit while the wings were on



And here's the final product for sausage egg and cheddar sandwiches

 

Damn man you were busy yesterday with all that. Everything looks great.

 

That looks very good! How long did it take for the wings to be ready?

 

I almost had to flog the dolphin to that slit pork loin pic. At work, too.

 

Thanks d00d. Your wings looked amazing too. I went a little heavy on the Dirty Bird because I was trying to empty out the container, other than that they were perfect.

Thanks man, they were done in just over an hour

Nice man, I gave some to my parents and they raved about it as well. Putting my homemade bacon in there really stepped up the flavor

 

What's your process for mac and cheese? Do you just make some mac and cheese and use the smoker to add flavor before serving or something else?

 

This was my first attempt, we just made mac and cheese and threw it on the smoker for some flavor as a trial run. Next time I plan to make it and actually bake it on the smoker

 

Didn't actually smoke this since it was 8 degrees outside, but I made a 7 lb beef tenderloin for Valentine's Day. Came out fantastic. I bought the untrimmed since the trimmed was half the weight for the same price. It took about an hour to trim all the fat and silver skin off, but totally worth it to have 3 dinners instead of 1 or 2.


Cooked it at 450 in the oven until it hit medium rare. It came out SUPER juicy



Not the best lighting, but you can see it's medium-rare


Here's a better pic, you can see all the juices as well. I made a brown garlic sauce to go on the top, wife was super impressed

 

Awesome. What's the seasoning you used?

 

Salt, Pepper, Rose Mary, and a Garlic Herb mix

 

Your bamboo cutting board could use a little oiling Ack

 

It got oiled after it got washed

 

We oil it once a month

 

Bamboo is grass, not wood and is really fibrous as a result. You need to oil it a lot more than a wood board. One way to help it last longer is use a beeswax coating after applying oil.

 

Goddamn this thread makes me beyond hungry.

 

 

Not sure if you boys can easily get it -- but Montreal steak spice is great too as an alternative rub for your beef. FYI.

 

I love that Montreal rub.

 

I used to use it all the time, now I mainly just use if for steaks

 

I use it all the time. It's actually a pretty good rub for prime rib too.

Weather this weekend is supposed to be up in the 40's! Going to do some ribs or chicken wings on the smoker. Might try that mac and cheese thing too since it immediately made me hungry lol.

 

No smoker here, just admiring the foods.
Crawfish at our house this weekend, weather permitting.

 

@ crawfish...

PM me your address.

 

Bit of a haul to N Houston from the great white north.

 

I love the lemon pepper one for chicken

 

Lemongrass or blackening spice for moi when it comes to poultry but lemon pepper is very tasty too.

 

i just love anything salty...
what about tony cacere's cajun season

 

I prefer savory over sweet...and that extends to ribs too. BUT, a messy sweet mesquite BBQ on a rack of ribs is just killer too but if I HAD to pick, I'd take a savory flavor.

 

I need to get another pork belly and make more bacon

 

And when you do and start making it, pics please.

#foodporn

 

There's pics above, bruh