Bacon

[LovethatSmoke556]

You say not to use sliced belly for bacon, but I tried it and it was perfect. Is there something I am missing here?

[ecowper]

Generally, it is difficult to get the brine/cure correct since the belly is already sliced into very thin strips. I'd be interested in how you cured and smoked, personally.

[LovethatSmoke556]

I used the recipe for basic bacon from Meathead. The slices were 2" wide and 1.5" thick. Total of 6 slices. I put them together the way they came sliced and sucked most of the air out of the Ziplock. Then just followed the instructions for the curing process from Meathead. Being in Missouri, I can get whole belly's, but had already bought the first round sliced, so I figured I would try it. Smoked them in my Kamado Joe. Really turned out great.

[Spinaker]

We say not to use sliced belly because it is easier to cure evenly with the whole belly. It is also easier to do the calculations for one piece of meat as opposed to strips of meat. The concern with curing is making sure that you are getting the correct amount of PP#1 into the cure mixture. With strips of meat, this can be difficult to do accurately. It also may come out very salty, but it sounds like you did not have this issue.

[LovethatSmoke556]

The strips were tight together in the curing mixture so the edges of the strips would not allow the mixture to go between them. Not too salty.
We love bacon and I was very pleased with the outcome.