bacon on the PBC

[Mark V]

I have a pork belly that I want to make into bacon on my PBC. I have not tried yet to get the PBC down to 200. Does anyone have a guideline for that? One suggestion I had was an amazing tube smoker. That might get the temp right, and produce smoke, I don't know. If I use charcoal I need to have that hot enough to smoke the wood, I have no idea how much charcoal that would take and if that would go over the temp I want in order to produce smoke from wood set on it. Someone has to have done this before and could save me a lot of experimenting.

[Spinaker]

We don't recommend that you cold smoke at home. While 200 F isn't usually considered cold smoking, it is really close. More on why we don't recommend cold smoking here.

I always do hot smoking when I am making bacon. It always comes out excellent. One big plus with hot smoking is you can eat it hot or cold. You should run your PBC just as you normally would when cooking anything else.

[Backroadmeats]

You can drive up to my house and try my bacon.. I also know you have rules.. no worries..

[Spinaker]

This I know, and I would love too!

As you well know, in a commercial setting, when done by pros like yourself, cold smoking is fine.

[Backroadmeats]

Spinaker .. I understand.. I deleted my post. No need in getting anyone sick..

[FishTalesNC]

I’ve made bacon on the PBC tho I didn't worry at all about keeping the temp so low. We liked it much better than what I had previously made several times on my kettle w/ SNS. It was much smokier, classic PBC dripping goodness. Some people stuff foil in the rebar holes to bring the temp down further. Good luck.

[coventryhale]

10/4 on making bacon in the PBC and not minding the temp. My first try at this produced great tasting bacon.

[Mark V]

I smoked the bacon at regular PBC temps. Cured for 6 days. I was very happy with the results, especially since it was my first time with bacon. I smoked 3 pounds at a time, with hickory, then apple, then pecan. All the same cure. I washed the slicer between each so I didn't get any carryover flavors. I wanted to see how much different the flavors were. I personally liked the hickory best, then apple, then pecan. Pecan was an interesting flavor. I gave most of it away to interested friends. One liked pecan the best, the rest were for hickory. I was surprised how much difference the different woods made in flavor. I have used different woods smoking other things but never really did a valid comparison. I also have post oak and mesquite that I want to try, and also want to try blending woods. I wouldn't blend anything with the apple, too light tasting I think it would get over powered, but I think pecan blended with another stronger flavor could be good.

I also need to try pork belly burnt ends, heard those are really good. And a Chinese friend was just raving about Chinese braised pork belly, will have to give that a shot. So tomorrow I am out to buy two more pork bellies! All my bacon is gone already. Sad, but happy at the same time!

[mnavarre]

Oak + Apple is one of my favorite combos on pork butts. I go heavy on the apple, around 70/30. Basically enough oak for some aggressive smoke, while still letting the sweetness of the apple through. Oak can get a little heavy on ribs, but I bet you'd be fine with that combo on bacon.