Picked up 2 sides, skinned just shy of 20# at 2.79 per pound. Not a bad deal I thought.
What I started with. The other side is in the freeze until I made this batch and decided on what flavor we liked the best.
Divided this side up into 3 pieces for 3 different flavor tests. The above piece that is trimmed off went into the freezer and may try to make some salted pork.
Or maybe I'll just fry it up and make a sammie 
The night before, I made up a basic dry cure from the book Charcuterie which I got from my secret Santa, Scott, aka "FISHAWN"
Dry cure consisted of 225 Grams Kosher salt, 6.5 oz Dextrose and 37.5 Grams pink salt. This will be the base cure for these bellies plus I can use it for other meat items in the future.
Here are the spice stations. The first one on the left is just the basic cure itself. The middle one, cure plus 1/8 C Maple Syrup. On the right is recipe for Pancetta from the Charcuterie book which is made up of black pepper, bay leaves, fresh ground nutmeg, (Used molasses in place of brown sugar), garlic, juniper berries and thyme.
All 3 bellies were weighed and then did the calculations for how much dry cure was needed for each one.
Grabbed the wife's casserole dish and sprinkled some of the cure/mix for the first belly. This one is just a plain no frills cure. Only flavor will come from the cure itself and the Hickory smoke. Flipped it and hit the sides as well until all the cure was used. Any that fell off during the handling was scrapped up and put in the bags with the bellies. For brevity, I will only include the first belly getting the dry cure put on
All three bellies done, into the fridge where they will sit for a approx one week.
Smoke time. 8 days have passed since I prepped everything, time to get these bellies in some smoke. Here they are sitting on my new racks my momma got me for Christmas. They work like a champ.
A quick test fry of all 3 prior to smoke. I was going to just use Tender Quick on these, but I really like the idea of having some control over the salt. I'm glad I did. These were NOT in any way too salty. In fact, these bellies might have benefited from the addition of a tsp or 2 of salt in the dry cure mix.
I did not do a rinse on these as they didn't need it.
Side view.
Let these sit out for approx. 30 minutes for the surface to dry.
Cold smoked these the best I could for approx 7 hours with a heavy dose of Hickory and a little Cherry.
Out of the smoker and into the freezer to firm up. All 3 flavors in this pic.
From top to bottom we have, basic bacon, Maple bacon and Savory Bacon.
I took the savory style and set the slicer to make some thick cuts and made some Lardons. Will try these in a salad or something.
Ran out of freezer paper so I used red saran warp. All sealed up and into the freezer.
I test fried a few pieces of each. The basic was very good. Not overly salty and a good strong notes of Hickory. The Maple bacon, same thing. I am surprised that the little amount of syrup I used gave it such a big Maple flavor. Next time I will reduce it to 1 Tbl. The savory one? Hard to describe it. Allot going on when you bit into it. I think this one would be well suited for a gourmet style BLT?
One thing about making your own and I have read this numerous times, is the utter lack of shrinkage. Some of these pieces were every bit of 12"+ and then they were done, they were like 11". I don't know what they put in commercial bacon to make it shrink but this stuff does not. That is why on a few sliced batches, I cut them in half so they would fit in the pan better.
The basic cure one will be a mainstay for sure. Just your basic Hickory bacon that will go great with anything. Same with the Honey bacon. The savory one I will still make, but the others will see allot more use.
I have that other belly in the freezer and will have to come up some ideas for that one.
Well that is it. Thanks for looking.
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