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Jeff's Books Smoking Meat: The Essential Guide Smoke. Wood. Fire. Smoker Recipes: Vol. 1
There is not much difference between belly and side. They are both lean cuts and either can become bacon. (Also note that the jowl area is sometimes made into bacon.) Most probably the difference between side pork and pork belly has more to do with geographical idioms than anything peculiar about the pig.
Some time back I was asked the question.... Does it make a difference when slicing.... across or with the grain..... I looked for that thread and I couldn't find it .... so, herein lies the answer.... From what I can tell, across grain is from the bottom of the belly, the thin part...
I have a 9lb pork belly that has cured for three weeks and is now soaking in water for an hour. Is there a preference of hot vs. cold smoking for bacon? I did one other pork belly that I made into bacon. I cold smoked that one for 15 hours cold smoking it 3-4 times in increments of 3-4 hours.
When I start slicing on my Hobart, I put the whole belly on the slicer and start cutting. Usually it will take two passes to get the end right. The trimmings go into a bag for seasonings. I'll slice the whole belly then. Most times the rashers are 12" long which my customers like. Easier for me as well as I put the sliced bacon in 15" seal bags.
The only problem, if someone wants rind-on bacon, you can't glue it back on! We'd run the knife under the first 2" of skin, the grip it with a pair of vise grips, holding it up and keeping it taut while you skinned it off, leaving little to no fat on the skin.
A 2 inch pork belly would then take 14 days minimum to cure to the center, which is 1 inch. Morton[emoji]174[/emoji] then recommends a two day equalization period resulting in a minimum of 16 day's cure time for a two inch thick pork belly. Hope this helps those who questioned the recommended cure times using Morton[emoji]174[/emoji] products.
For example, Morton recommends dry curing the leaner Canadian bacon 3 - 5 days while recommending curing the fattier belly bacon for 7 days per inch of thickness (14 days for a two-inch slab). Always use the cure manufacturers recommended amount and time when curing meats.
Then the bacon slabs go in my little "curing" fridge to rest for another 5 days to let the smoke penetrate and mellow out while the bacon's mature (Age). At the end, the fully finished bacon gets sliced and packaged in 8 ounce packages and vacuum sealed for storage, use, or frozen. Generally, about 25 days, Start to Packaged.
I love Pork Belly Burnt Ends. However, as I was making some bacon, my defective gene kicked in and I wondered how burnt ends would taste made from cured pork belly (bacon). It must be done. The first thing you need is a piece of unsliced bacon. You can just go to supermarket and buy a piece of bacon, but I was making my own anyway.