Spring Has Sprung: Time to Smoke Bacon

And a Cigar

Friday, March 20th was the official first day of spring — one of those rare days when daylight and darkness are almost perfectly balanced. After a brutal Pacific Northwest winter filled with flooding, arctic storms, and even 6 inches of snow just a week earlier, we finally got a beautiful weekend: mid-50s, mostly sunny, and just warm enough to be comfortable.

You know what that means… it was time to smoke. Both meat and cigars.

Cooking a Tri-Tip on Mar 13th LOL

Knowing nice weather was coming, I pulled a pork belly out of the freezer on Tuesday — Still tons of snow on the ground — and broke it down into four 2-pound slabs (with another 1.5 lbs left in the freezer for future belly burnt ends). Those slabs went straight into a maple-whiskey cure so they’d be ready to smoke on Sunday.

Pork Belly cut into 2 lb slabs

Sitting in their cure and going into the outside fridge until Sunday

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day — mostly sunny and right around 55°F. I fired up the Slow ‘N Sear kettle with the Slow ‘N Sear insert, filled the water tray, and got the temperature stable at about 240°F. I hit the slabs with a good coat of coarse black pepper, then onto the smoker they went with several chunks of apple wood from Fruitawood.

Bacon is maybe an hour into the smoking. Yes, I have a double decker grill :-)

And what does a man do while his bacon is smoking on a sunny spring Sunday? If you guessed “enjoy a Montecristo Churchill with a couple drams of good whiskey,” you’re correct. I dug around in the back of the liquor cabinet and found an unopened bottle of Macallan 15 Year Double Oaked Single Malt that had been waiting for the perfect moment.

Two and a half hours later, the Montecristo was finished, the bacon had a beautiful color and bark, and my wife was inside making adobo-marinated pork chops, sticky rice, and green beans for dinner.

All in all, a damn near perfect way to kick off spring.

The finished product. 3 slabs to the freezer and 1 for eating this week

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Maple Whiskey Pepper Bacon

Ingredients (for one 3 lb pork belly)

• 3 lbs pork belly

• 3.5 grams Prague Powder #1 (weigh accurately)

• 4 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt

• 4½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• ¾ cup distilled water

• ½ cup good maple syrup

• 2 tablespoons whiskey (plus one extra ounce for the cook)

Curing
Mix all cure ingredients in a 1-gallon ziplock bag. Add the pork belly, squeeze out the air, seal, and massage the cure thoroughly into every surface. Place the bag on a cookie sheet in the fridge. Flip and massage twice a day. Cure for 5–7 days.

Optional: You can omit the black pepper here and add it right before you smoke the bacon. Works either way.

Smoking
Set up your grill/smoker for indirect cooking and stabilize between 225–250°F. Add fruitwood or oak and get the smoke rolling well, then put the pork belly on. Smoke the cured belly until it reaches an internal temperature of 155–160°F and has a nice bark (about 2½–3 hours).

Finishing
Cool completely (optional: freeze for 10–15 minutes to firm up). Slice thin and cook as you would any bacon.