Homemade Sausage Making

WOW! BobK, I was expecting you to ground me for a week for putting the box on my deck LOL!
Anyway the house is still here and the kielbasa is great.
Once it hit 152*f gave it a quick ice bath to lower temps to 51*f then hung for an hour, I think that is to let it "Bloom"????

So this bacon I made, I ended up vac packing in 1/2 lbs and giving out 6 packages to friends.
The taste testing results are coming in and it's a winner A+ across the board and my friends want to start giving money to continue making more.

I was quite worried that there was no salt taste, but it seems everyone likes it better this way and don't change a thing.

Now I smoked it with apple wood and they all say they can taste a nice apple flavor from the smoke.
But what I did, and didn't tell anyone is a used a new spice in the cure. It's an apple pie spice blend and I got it on Amazon, and just sprinkled some on the fat side of the belly slab.
I know that's what they are tasting and liking as I can taste a nice sweet hint of apples myself and like it too.

Here is what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001K ... UTF8&psc=1

Sounds like a good idea!Apple Pie Bacon. I think the actual apple taste had to come from the smoke

According to Frontier website this mix has the following ingredients
Ingredients: Organic Cinnamon, Organic Fenugreek, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Ginger, Organic Cloves, Organic Nutmeg.



Organic, Non-GMO, Cruelty Free

I'm really glad no herbs or spices were abused in the making of that product.

You may be right about the smoke, but I can definitely get a hint of that Apple pie.
I thought, you guys might like it, worth a try I think.

Bob K wrote:

Organic, Non-GMO, Cruelty Free

I'm really glad no herbs or spices were abused in the making of that product.

LOL...I thought the same thing when I read the ingredient list.

My second pork belly

EQ cured for 2 weeks, ready to cold smoke.

Last time I soaked the belly in water, to remove some salt, but I now know I do not need to do that step, but should I at least give it a quick rinse?

Then should I hang it to dry and develope that patina or whatever you call it?
And for how long if need be?

Depends. You can just brush it off, but if you have spices that might interfere with the way it looks, five it a rinse. Remove excess moisture with paper towels and then hang to dry. How long? Until it is dry to the touch. Like all meats that will be smoked, the bacon should be dry.

Thanks Redz, a nice refresher course.

Ok here another quick question.
Now I've heard about people smoking bacon, hams, etc, and when the day's smoke is over and fire has died down, they just let the product sit over night hanging in the smoker.
The next day they just start a new fire, and they do this for a few days.

Now my first bacon, I took it in at night and hung in my garage, but would it just fine to let it sit in my smoker?
Temps will go down to 30*f every night.

Leaving it in the smoker should be fine. Here, hams and bacons were often stored in the smokehouses till they were used because they continue to dry in the smoker and after some time they become shelf stable. You lose weight this way but when the bacon cooks there is little to no shrink.

Great, I kept in the smoker and just got the smoke going again.

Yeah I would think hanging in the smoker is a good thing, as it hangs, yes it's drying, but also picking up all those nice smoker aromas and other properties.

Well I'm 9 1/2 hrs into todays smoke and the box smoker is still going with the A-Maze-N smoker tray, in fact I just took my first peek after starting yesterday, bacon looks great and the pellet tray is only half used. This thing can go for another 8 hours for sure.
Anyway, just an update, if anyone really cares LOL
I know BobK, it's on my deck, but with our crazy weather lawn still mushy, but I've been baby sitting it all day.

Quick edit, I couldn't see through the smoke earlier, but a better look and the A-Maze-N tray is 2/3 used, could get about 4 more hours. I really like this tray for cold smoking, gonna do some cheese tomorrow, since the box is out.

Ok I did a another stupid thing, instead of sticking with the first successful attempt.

The first time in the box, I use one (1) A-Maze-N smoker tray, everything was great.
This time I wanted a bit more smoky flavor and used two (2) trays and lit both at each end, giving me 4 times the smoke.

Bad bad move, I should have just bumped up the smoke a tiny bit, so now I have a bacon that has great internal flavor, but is over whelmed by smoke.
Why do I keep doing stupid stuff?
Perhaps I'm trying to perfect my product to quickly, no?

I learned the hard way also on too much smoke. A white wisp is all you need. You can try vac sealing and letting set in the fridge for a few weeks, it may mello out.

Yeah my first smoke with bacon I was concerned about the very like smoke color the meat was taking on, and I remember you BobK telling with cold smoking, your smoking for flavor and not color.
Now that smoke turn out super great and I could have giving the bacon a third day to enhance the flavor with no issues.
So being that I wanted more smoky flavor, I did the stupid thing of overwhelming the bacon with smoke.
You all know what I mean, so next time gonna stick to the recipe (like everyone says).

Thanks for the tip on vac sealing, but to late this time, all sliced up and giving to family & friends just to get some more feed back.