How to Make Homemade Dry Rub Bacon - Recipe
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jramey I haven’t every noticed a difference other than a cold-smoked one might have a strong smoke flavor as it has generally spent a few days being smoked. There are some purists though who would insist that they can absolutely tell the difference and they might be right. My pallet just isn’t that sophisticated I guess!
Jonathon have you ever made the beef bacon we talked about?
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craigrice Not yet no. Things are stacking up but that is going to be a Meatgistics University Cured Whole Muscle Meats video.
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Okay yesterday I tried smoking the bacon from the hog that I butchered the other day, and I followed the recipe but it took forever for the temps to get to 138 degrees and now they are so dark and they look cooked. Why do they need to be smoked to 138 degrees when they are just going to be cooked in the end? Didn’t help that I am using a Oklahoma Joes smoker, it was by far the most difficult smoker I have ever used to keep temps where I wanted them. Should have spent the money on a Traeger or something similar.
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cu_hunting One of the reason is to add a smoke flavor to it, you stop at 140 ish because you don’t want the fat to render out which will happen if you go above 140°. It also is used to make the bacon easier to slice thin and so it can stored easier.
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Jonathon I just tried the bacon and OMG wayyyy too salty. I even had the water running over it for a good 45 minutes in the meat lug, and it’s tough as shoe leather. Can barely cut through it… now I have 22lbs of tough salty bacon that I can’t eat. Now I am scared about my hams being too salty. I have yet to smoke them. Right as I type this I am soaking them in tap water. What did I do wrong?
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cu_hunting One of the reason is to add a smoke flavor to it, you stop at 140 ish because you don’t want the fat to render out which will happen if you go above 140°. It also is used to make the bacon easier to slice thin and so it can stored easier.
Jonathon but why 138 degrees? Why couldn’t I just stop smoking at 100 degrees or even 80 degrees?
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Jonathon I just tried the bacon and OMG wayyyy too salty. I even had the water running over it for a good 45 minutes in the meat lug, and it’s tough as shoe leather. Can barely cut through it… now I have 22lbs of tough salty bacon that I can’t eat. Now I am scared about my hams being too salty. I have yet to smoke them. Right as I type this I am soaking them in tap water. What did I do wrong?
cu_hunting just curious. Did you soak the belly before smoking? If you did a dry rub, you need to wash off the rub and soak/rinse the belly.
What was your smoke schedule? Did you have an alternative way to monitor the smoker temp? If using the smoker thermometer did you calibrate it if possible. You may have over cooked the belly if the temp’s got to high.
I am a bit anal about temp’s and temp measuring equipment. Trust but verify.
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cu_hunting just curious. Did you soak the belly before smoking? If you did a dry rub, you need to wash off the rub and soak/rinse the belly.
What was your smoke schedule? Did you have an alternative way to monitor the smoker temp? If using the smoker thermometer did you calibrate it if possible. You may have over cooked the belly if the temp’s got to high.
I am a bit anal about temp’s and temp measuring equipment. Trust but verify.
YooperDog I took both bellies put them in a meat lug from Waltons, rinsed them good for about 10 min then emptied that water, then let the water run into the meat lug with water pouring out of it for a period of 45 minutes. Each belly was 11.xx pounds and I used the cure for a 10 pound belly so I thought that would be weak enough. I have a 4 probe thermometer and I also use a hand held digital thermometer to verify the temps. All I know is this was a complete bust.
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cu_hunting 140 gets you out of the danger zone, if you pull at 138° it is going to dwell (cook past when you pull it) for at least 5 degrees. Nothing wrong with pulling it at 100° but it might not have as good of a smoke and might be harder to slice and keep safe.
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Cabelas90 What do you guys do?
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cu_hunting If you can cold smoke them and keep your temp out of the Danger zone you do you. But your temp has nothing to do with the saltiness or it being tough. If you in fact stopped at 138-142.
Jonathon We smoke to 145deg.
We use our bacon to wrap filets and at 145 we have supporting documents to make it “safe” if a customer was to only cook there filet to 130.
At 145 USDA considers Bacon a Heat treated not fully cooked product and ITS SAFE. Even at this Point USDA requires safe handling on the product for the consumer.
cu_hunting the issues with salt you have are 100% going to come down to you experimenting with the amount of cure and time of cure and even if you get it 100% once its hard to duplicate for a consistent product. I would Highly recommend going to an EQ cure as it is way more consistent and repeatable not to mention can be just as good if not better IMO. I would also guess that a overly salty bellie would be tough just like an over dried jerky get tough and salty. -
cu_hunting If you can cold smoke them and keep your temp out of the Danger zone you do you. But your temp has nothing to do with the saltiness or it being tough. If you in fact stopped at 138-142.
Jonathon We smoke to 145deg.
We use our bacon to wrap filets and at 145 we have supporting documents to make it “safe” if a customer was to only cook there filet to 130.
At 145 USDA considers Bacon a Heat treated not fully cooked product and ITS SAFE. Even at this Point USDA requires safe handling on the product for the consumer.
cu_hunting the issues with salt you have are 100% going to come down to you experimenting with the amount of cure and time of cure and even if you get it 100% once its hard to duplicate for a consistent product. I would Highly recommend going to an EQ cure as it is way more consistent and repeatable not to mention can be just as good if not better IMO. I would also guess that a overly salty bellie would be tough just like an over dried jerky get tough and salty.Cabelas90 Jonathan Thank you both for the reply and all the information, I appreciate it. Not sure what EQ is, but I know after this learning experience I will never be doing bacon or ham again. Like you said Jon in the video it is overwhelming and it truly has been a learning experience. Jon, the ham that I smoked yesterday turned out perfect. A little too smoky but still good, today I will be smoking the other ham, which goes to my friend who paid me for half the hog. Jon I did like you said I bought another item from Waltons a slicing knife from Victorinox instead of a tip jar… Thanks for the help, take care.
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Cabelas90 Jonathan Thank you both for the reply and all the information, I appreciate it. Not sure what EQ is, but I know after this learning experience I will never be doing bacon or ham again. Like you said Jon in the video it is overwhelming and it truly has been a learning experience. Jon, the ham that I smoked yesterday turned out perfect. A little too smoky but still good, today I will be smoking the other ham, which goes to my friend who paid me for half the hog. Jon I did like you said I bought another item from Waltons a slicing knife from Victorinox instead of a tip jar… Thanks for the help, take care.
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So I’ve done at least 300lbs of bacon with the dry rub. 2 things I got from your post. 1 if the meat is thin 1 1/2 inches or less you only need to cure about 3-4 days. When you rinse let them sit in the water for 20 minutes rinse and repeat. I do mine 4 times that way. Then in the fridge uncovered for a day to dry out. When smoking, you don’t have to give smoke the whole time. I only run smoke for about 2-3 hours the rest of the time is just heating to temp. Also if you have a water pan that helps get it up to temp better. I’m just using a masterbuilt 30 inch.
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AaronSilves That is a lot of bacon for sure, you’ve done more than I have! With rinsing it 4 times, you still feel like a decent amount of salt comes through? Also, do you coat the fat side? I’ve done it both ways and I don’t think the seasoning penetrates the fat at all.
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AaronSilves That is a lot of bacon for sure, you’ve done more than I have! With rinsing it 4 times, you still feel like a decent amount of salt comes through? Also, do you coat the fat side? I’ve done it both ways and I don’t think the seasoning penetrates the fat at all.
Jonathon yah I think it all is your personal preference on the saltiness. I would start at 3 or 4 rinses and see. As far as the fat side, yeah I rub it also. I’ve never tried it any other way so I can’t really tell you one way or another. I’ve also done a bunch of buck board bacon, pork shoulder turned into bacon. That I let sit with the rub 5 days. Rinse 4 also. Hope that helps. Once you get it dialed to your liking, it’s easy peasy.
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Wanted to add I just did a side by side with pork bellies from the same pig one with dry rub and one with dry rub + bacon booster and there is a difference the booster is a bit more salty and “bacony”. Extra rinses are needed if you add booster.
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When storing in a meat lug in the fridge, do you put a lid on the lug or keep it open to the air?
“You never really die until you end up on the wall at a Cracker Barrel”
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When storing in a meat lug in the fridge, do you put a lid on the lug or keep it open to the air?
GWG8541 said in How to Make Homemade Dry Rub Bacon - Recipe:
When storing in a meat lug in the fridge, do you put a lid on the lug or keep it open to the air?
Dry rub bacon process is similar to the EQ method since both are a dry method, but differs in that it would appear you are adding more salt to the meat at the front end of the dry rub process, but then doing an extended soak and rinse to pull the excess salt out.
With the EQ method you are adding the exact amount of salt, sugar and cure to the belly, per lb of weight and make no effort to remove any of it after curing.
To the question of whether to cover or uncover the meat, with the EQ method, I wrap the belly in film after applying the rub, because I want as much of the rub to absorb into the meat as possible and not lose any as the natural juices sweat out of the meat.
To your question about covering or leaving the lug uncovered for the dry rub method, my concern about leaving it uncovered would be that the belly would lose more moisture due to being uncovered and also absorb undesirable odors from my refrigerator.
Moisture loss might not be that much, and the belly is going to dry even more in the smoker so maybe it doesn’t make any difference. In my refrigerator, I tend to keep things covered though, just so they don’t absorb odors from all the non-meat items I also store in there.Paul
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GWG8541 said in How to Make Homemade Dry Rub Bacon - Recipe:
When storing in a meat lug in the fridge, do you put a lid on the lug or keep it open to the air?
Dry rub bacon process is similar to the EQ method since both are a dry method, but differs in that it would appear you are adding more salt to the meat at the front end of the dry rub process, but then doing an extended soak and rinse to pull the excess salt out.
With the EQ method you are adding the exact amount of salt, sugar and cure to the belly, per lb of weight and make no effort to remove any of it after curing.
To the question of whether to cover or uncover the meat, with the EQ method, I wrap the belly in film after applying the rub, because I want as much of the rub to absorb into the meat as possible and not lose any as the natural juices sweat out of the meat.
To your question about covering or leaving the lug uncovered for the dry rub method, my concern about leaving it uncovered would be that the belly would lose more moisture due to being uncovered and also absorb undesirable odors from my refrigerator.
Moisture loss might not be that much, and the belly is going to dry even more in the smoker so maybe it doesn’t make any difference. In my refrigerator, I tend to keep things covered though, just so they don’t absorb odors from all the non-meat items I also store in there.processhead Thanks Paul, I covered mine in the lug for the same reasons you mentioned.
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