Different recipes recommended different cure times for the bacon but all recommended a minimum of 7 days and I didn't see too many places recommend more than 21. Being that it was my first time making bacon, I couldn't resist doing one batch early (after 8 days), then another batch after 20 days. The main difference that I noticed from the 2 batches was the density of the bacon- which seemed more firm after the 20 days. And the saltiness- The 20 day batch was much saltier which likely could have been reduced by soaking the bacon in fresh water to draw some of the salt out- which I didn't do for as long in the 20 day batch that I probably should of. One way to determine saltiness before committing to smoking is to cut off a piece of bacon from the raw belly and cook it prior to smoking to see if it requires additional soaking to draw out more salt. You do this for a couple of hours (the more you soak, the less saltier) prior to smoking.
Now it was time for the smoke...and a decision- to cold smoke or hot smoke? Not really understanding what I'd get from either method and limited to the fact that my smoker could only hot smoke anyways, I chose that method by default.
I pre-heated the smoker to 150, stuck in a meat thermometer into one of the slabs and used applewood and hickory to smoke for about 2 hours. I then upped the temperature to about 190F-200F to push the bacon to an internal temperature of 160F which took an additional 2-3 hours for a total of about 4-6 hours.
And voila...I had brown sugar cured bacon...and lots of it!
This was by far, the best bacon that I have ever had and I don't think that I'll ever be able to go back to that store bought crap ever again. The patience that goes into the whole process really pays off in the final product and being able to make the bacon for about $3/lb is an added bonus.
