Dat Smoke

Holy smokes! I've been working on smoking the bacons that we kept from our hog harvest. The first batch turned out fabulously. I brought these a little while ago:

 Bacon.

I started smoking these yesterday afternoon but it was last nite before they were done. One of the reasons I like to smoke bacons on a really cold day/nite is because I can load up the smoker one last time with wood chunks and just go to bed. Our -3* this morning ensured they were entirely cooled over nite.

They are glorious.

You never really know how these things are gonna go so I didn't know if they were going to be good.... until I walked into the kitchen. The bacons had started to warm up a little and now the whole house smells like smoked love.

This is what awaited me in the morning. Bacon love. 

Primarily I'm going to use these for cooking and not as bacon-for-breakfast. We have the butcher-smoked bacon for regular bacon (and it is delicious). I'll use this as a base for sauces, pastas, and heck anything else I can think of.... we just love it.

Technically this is a smoked pancetta. Normally you would hang pancetta to dry for a couple weeks, however, the last batch of smoked pancetta was so good I wanted to do more. And yes, if you want to be a stickler..... smoked pancetta IS bacon but I'm not sure how to describe the pork belly that was cured with savory spices then smoked.

I have two more batches to smoke - one that is kind of weird odds and ends pieces.... and then two really nice bellies that were cured as maple bacon. I can't wait for those!

You can read more about making bacon and pancetta here. Can you make your own bacon? Yes you can! It's easy peasy and if you don't have pigz then you can order a fresh pork belly from your butcher. How great is that?

Happy Saturday, everyone! Are you smoking your bacons?