The bellies went in the smoker last night and are now bacon. Refrigerated overnight night. I will slice and package today. Smoked to IT of 140F. Sampled a piece off an end, salt and flavor was spot on. Should total to about 20lb of sliced bacon and a lb or two of lardons from the rough ends, considerably better tasting than store bought and less expensive than even the cheapest packages at the store.

Lay out what you are going to need, not pictured is my knife. Get a sharp knife. I like the Waltons boning knife. It’s great for trimming silver skin and can cut the slabs down, no problem.

Next up, you need to mix up your cure. I like the cure in this charcuterie book. It’s very informative. Note there are two cure recipes. One for granulated sugar, one for dextrose. It’s best to use the weight rather than the volumetric measurements, for accuracy. I mix up a pound and store it in a container for later use. Makes things quicker next time around.

Portion up your subprimals next, based on how many different version you want to make and what bags you have. 2 gallon freezer bags will fit 1/2 a belly. 1/4 bellies will fit in 1 gallon bags.

Put your portioned subprimals in each bag and weigh them individually. I use grams.

Add 2.5% cure mixture to the bag, based off of meatblock weight of each bag.

At this point you can add whatever. I added about 1/4 cup maple syrup to a few. For a more savory flavor I added fresh cracked black pepper, crushed garlic and bay leaf.

I’ll freshly grind black pepper to rub on some of these before they hit the smoker.

Place in fridge for 5-7 days. Could even be longer if you’ve got thick slabs. Flip and give each bag a good shake daily. Press a finger in the meat each day to see how the firmness changes. You’ll end up with a firm piece of meat by the end. If it’s still pretty squishy at the end of 7 days, keep going for upto two more days. I find most of my commercially raised bellies take 6 to 7 days.