BACON!!!

Bacon is a wonderful meat. It can stand alone as a dinner, or simply wrap a bountiful harvest of meat and inject its luscious nectar.

Bacon certainly warrants a thread of its own, so I present BACON a forum of its own.

How do you like it cooked? Me, slightly crispy. I don't mind the maple syrup bacon, but prefer a nice thick slab of bacon meat.

Bacon grease is almost a marinade. What can't you cook in bacon grease, and improve the flavor? Bacon bit ice cream is in my future.

Favorite bacon: I'd have to say buying a slab at 45 Meats in Poysippi, and then slicing 1/4-1/2" or so slices and frying that up...BACON STEAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best bacon dinner: Last spring after shroom hunting down by boscobel, we were camping at my buds by Rockbridge and had about a 2ft frying pan on the fire coals with piles of walleye fillets, morel mushrooms, onions and BACON!!! It was the most heavenly feast ever.

Bacon wrapped back straps...

Bacon wrapped chicken breast, with a cream cheese n garlic inside

Something I must try is a bacon-weaved cheese log: http://www.holytaco.com/if-i-die-bacon-related-death-id-it-be-because

MuskyHunter has a killer bacon burger I'm sure he'll share...

LL-Painterman cooked up some heavenly bacon at the Quasi last weekend. It was wrapped/piled on a vennie hind quarter, and injected with and poured upon with some of the finest marinades known to mankind. Ask Paint! He didn't get to eat any, cuz JJ ate it all!

Anyways, let's hear your favorite bacon recipes and stories!

I want to hear about the Lake-Link Bacon Fest '09! When/where?

kona…I trust the Quality Control staff is well paid!

Nice looking stuff guys. Eyesman that buck-horn style looks interesting, I never tried that but think I'll give it a shot. I've made Old Timers Bacon, where you just grind a shoulder or butt, add your cure and spices and make whats basically a flat meat loaf out of it, then smoke and slice. I had a bit of it at the outing last week and didn't get any complaints.
No Costco's by me but I basically do the same when we make our monthly run to Woodman's in Green Bay. Last time found some for $3.99 although sometimes they don't have any.

Eyesman-  I use a dry rub process. Use Tender Quick as my curing salt with the brown sugar/rosemary/thyme. Have tried other spices/flavor profiles in my rubs but have settled on this process. As far as the actual bellies at Costco I do have to look at a bunch of them to find good ones. The ones I just smoked were picked up last September. Just always make it a habit to look at bellies when I stop in anticipation for my "next" bacon smoke. As you know good butcher shops will usually have better quality but you will pay more.  Two weeks ago the bellies were $3.99 at Costco (no good ones).. My local butcher shop is in the $7-$8 range.  

kona77, those slices look to have a very good lean to fat ratio. Was that luck of the draw finding such good bellies? Did you use a brine cure or dry rub?

Just finished smoking some bellies over the weekend. Cured with brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme..
Finished one belly with a maple syrup/black pepper glaze and sliced them extra thick. I always get bellies
from Costco but have to make several trips to find good meaty ones. I paid $3.49lb for these last year.  

Edit- Forgot to mention my "Quality Control Dept" (picture 2) is always close at hand during the bacon process looking to test some samples  

I recently made a batch of buckboard bacon. I used two 8 pound bone in pork butts. Removed the bone and made 2” slices out of what I could. The trimmings made breakfast sausage. Brine cured 6 days and then smoked them slabs. Turned out pretty good for the first attempt. Got the pork butts on sale for less than $2.00 a pound. Been looking at pork bellies for traditional bacon and they are $6-7 a pound. 

You got that right BMR!
That was some of the best bacon I’ve ever had. I could feel my arteries hardening as I enjoyed every piece 

I know that ain’t what we had Saturday!

.

So a week ago I thawed out a pork belly I got awhile ago from Woodmans in Green Bay for $3.49/lb.
It looked pretty fatty but for the price I thought I would give it a shot. Cured it for a week and smoked it yesterday. Sliced it today and to my pleasant surprise was way more meaty than I expected, came out really good. Looks like a lot more BLT's in the next few weeks.

Bacon, bacon, bacon!

This belly was $6/lb. It’s bacon, so I really don’t care how much bellies cost. The price should be going down however. 

Migi......nice looking stuff. If you don't mind can I ask what you paid for the bellies? I still got some bacon in the freezer I made awhile ago but should be making some more. Last meaty bellies I bought were $5.99.

On a different note bacon fans, check out You Tube and others on what are called "Pig Shots"...Oh yeah these will be in my list of things to do soon.

Meat candy…

Truth...