First Buckboard Bacon

Sausage making and curing meats.

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First Buckboard Bacon

Postby mgwerks » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:37 pm

Tried my first buckboard bacon. It was tough waiting out the time from cure to smoker, I tell you! I trimmed out half a pork butt (other half went to carnitas). I trimmed it about 1" to 1.5" thick, and decided to smoke it flat rather than roll it, figuring it would smoke faster and be easier to slice like bacon. Here's part of the boneless butt, trimmed to just over an inch thick:

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Then I mixed up the cure and spices - 1 tsp of Morton Tender Quick per lb. of meat, a couple of rounded tablespoons of fresh black pepper, and some granulated garlic for flavor. This mix was rubbed thoroughly over all exposed surfaces of the meat, into the recesses and any cracks, making sure there were no spots left uncoated:

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Next comes the hardest part - waiting. the rubbed meat was put into a gallon Ziploc and placed in the coldest part of the fridge for 12 days. Each day I turned it over to make sure it cured evenly.

Into the smoker it went at 225 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees. It was pulled and left to cool on the counter. Once it was cooled, it was time to slice. I used a 12" roast beef slicing knife, since a good slicer is behind a good sausage stuffer on my list of things to buy. Here is the finished product:

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Starting to slice through it, you can see just how lean it is compared to regular belly bacon. I could have left a large fat cap on the meat, which would have given a nice fat strip on the upper surface. Personal preference, really, but here's how my slices came out :

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Three and a half pounds of buckboard bacon, fresh from the smoker and sliced. I can't wait to be eating on this:

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Here's a closer view of the slices, with a good look at the typical fat/meat percentage in this slab. Lots more meat to eat, lots left fat left in the pan, on the plate, or in your arteries!

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Postby DATsBBQ » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:43 pm

Looks great. :D I'm going to have try making one.
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Postby super8mm » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:48 pm

mmmmm throw some eggs and taters on and its a meal :D
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Postby JamesB » Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:01 pm

Looks great! I've still got around to tying BBB...
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Postby bowhnter » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:35 am

Good job! Looks real tasty.
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Postby JaCK2U2 » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:51 am

Gotta say that yours turned out looking really good. There's just something about eating that for breakfast instread of store bought.
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Postby mgwerks » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:50 am

I have to tell you, I was skeptical. I tasted it when cooled off the smoker, tasted pretty hammy. But once fried in a pan, it was full-on bacon.

Changes for next batch will include using hickory instead of mesquite and not slicing it directly with the grain.
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Postby tex_toby » Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:10 pm

I've never tried anything like that, but I tell you what...it looks like you've nailed it! Very impressed.

Although I wouldn't consider myself an amateur around the grill/smoker, I'm definitely no pro. How would you rate the ease of making this? Was the most difficult thing the waiting part? :lol: I think it's one of those things that I would like to watch somebody do first before I tried on my own. Your's really does look outstanding.

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Postby mgwerks » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:02 pm

tex_toby wrote:I've never tried anything like that, but I tell you what...it looks like you've nailed it! Very impressed.

Although I wouldn't consider myself an amateur around the grill/smoker, I'm definitely no pro. How would you rate the ease of making this? Was the most difficult thing the waiting part? :lol: I think it's one of those things that I would like to watch somebody do first before I tried on my own. Your's really does look outstanding.

Toby 8)

Toby,

Either I was incredibly lucky or it really is that easy. I read a lot of posts on this and other smoke sites about BB, then decided to just try it simple.

I whipped out and defrosted a butt, de-boned it, and trimmed stuff off until I was left with what looked kind of like a belly, but with less fat. The rest was trimmed out for carnitas.

I rubbed and coated it thoroughly, sealed it in a gallon Ziploc and flipped it over every day for 12 days. Then stuck it in the smoker with a thermometer probe in it, ran it up to temp, pulled it and sliced it when cool.

That was all. Trimming spares into a St. Louis cut is harder than this.
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The Armada:
22.5" WSM
MES 30" shorty
42"x24" & 36"x16" stick burners
1966 CharBroil charcoal grill
Weber 18 1/2" Silver
Sam's 32-inch Stainless gas grill (it was free!)
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Postby honu41 » Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:03 pm

Wow... that looks good! I been thinking of making Canadian style bacon (from pork loin) but this looks mo bettah with some fat in it. Thanks for sharin... :)

a hui hou,
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