My wife got me a smoker last Christmas. It was, as she described it, a gift for the whole family. I like her justification. And she was right. You could say we’ve all enjoyed the fruits, or meats, of my smoking journey so far.
What did she get me?
Our first smoker is a fairly straight forward Cuisinart 18” charcoal powered water smoker. Just like this one here. Simply put, it is called a water smoker because it has a charcoal heat box in the bottom, and a large water pan above it. That pan of water not only helps to provide a “moist” cooking environment, but it also helps manage the cooking temperature. More water=lower temp. Less water=higher. That, with the top and bottom air valves, helps you dial in exactly the right temperature. I won’t lie, the first time out was trial and error. Wood or pellets can be added as fuel to extend cooking times and even out the experience, because charcoal smokers require more fidgeting to keep in the target heat range. Sometimes more fus is worth it, though. And as we’ve discovered, the results have been exemplary.
The first smoke.
My wife bought a plump, tasty looking pork butt for our maiden voyage. I don’t remember the poundage, but it wasn’t small. After a bit of research, we found a tasty rub recipe. It involved large amounts of Spanish paprika, cumin, black pepper, garlic, salt, ground mustard, and a few more spices. We gave the butt a good rinse, patted it dry, and then commenced in rubbing on what would become our bark. It’s called bark for a reason. The seasoning is caked on, and after a smoke, develops a nice, thick outside coating. It helps trap moisture and flavor inside the meat. And oh, the flavor!
The recipe called for smoking the “butt” for 4-4.5 hours uncovered at 235 degrees. For this particular mission, I used a combination of hickory and cherry (wood chips and split wood that is soaked in water ahead of time). I soaked the wood overnight, to maximize smoke. After the initial smoke, we wrapped our booty in foil and increased the cooking temp to 270 degrees for another 4.5 hours. I’m sad to say we were so busy appreciating the finished product that we forgot to document it with a photo. I will remedy this. I promise. Pork butt round 2 is going to happen.
That was all a warm up to…
Bacon
I’d identified bacon from our earliest meat smoking conversations. Because honestly, I really like bacon. Like, a lot. It, along with gravy, are two of the most underrated food groups.
Homemade bread. Yes. I’ve made my own cheese. And now, bacon.. Ironically enough, I purchased a whole pork belly on the same trip we’d purchased the butt. It worked out perfectly, too, as the bacon calls for time to cure, before the smoke. So…lot’s of time to plan. I did my research, watching videos and reading articles on how to cure meats. It’s not rocket surgery, but it pays to be edumacated and prepared.
This recipe from The Spruce Eats is what I ended up selecting for my first bacon making experience. Since, and with each bacon making iteration, I have played around with the recipe, substituting spices or sugars (Maple syrup for brown sugar, a courser grind of black pepper) and doing as I do with my bread…making it mine.
The process was straight forward and simple. Mix the dry curing ingredients into a bowl. These include Kosher salt, black pepper, brown sugar and canning salt (if you want to include it, just be aware that canning salts contain Nitrates, which are known risks for heart or vascular issues.) The recipe provides curing ingredients for 2-3 lbs of pork belly, which is only part of the whole (my belly shown below in the bag was eleven pounds) so be prepared to scale the ingredients accordingly. You rinse the belly, pat it dry, and then apply the dry cure (all of it) to all sides. Once coated, you slide the belly into a plastic bag, and place it in the fridge to cure.
How long do you let your bacon cure? That is a good question, and my one point of contention with the Spruce Eats article. By recipe, they have you cure your 2-3 lb pork belly 10-14 days, flipping it over every day. My experience? This led to an incredibly well cured bacon. What do I mean by “well cured”. Honestly, it was too tough. After this initial experience I spoke with a few seasoned bacon makers, and they admitted to never curing bacon for more than 5-7 days, and only stretching into long cures (like the one mentioned in this recipe) for abnormally large bellies or where the thickness dictates it (20+ lbs). That is definitely something to take into consideration, as I have now shortened my curing time to 6 days and have found the bacon to be much more tender. Let bacon be bacon, I say. Leave all the excessive chewing to beef jerky fans.
After the cure. the bacon is removed and rinsed, patted dry, and allowed to sit in the fridge to develop a nice layer of pellicle proteins on the surface. These sticky proteins will give the smoke something to adhere to. An hour or two is plenty.
Fire it up!
I even managed to put the bacon on the smoker upside down. You want the fat side up, so the meat insulates it from the heat and doesn’t just liquefy and run off. Luckily, this was remedied with a quick flip.
I smoked this batch with a fantastic combination of hickory, maple, and pecan wood. Hickory is a no-brainer for almost any meat smoking experience, but the fruit and nut woods add some wonderful and complex flavors. For pork, pecan is my friend. The belly smokes for roughly 4-5 hours, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. A good meat probe is key here. You’ll definitely tell when it is done. The flesh tightens up and it takes on a beautiful patina. Be careful where you let it cool. A quick park in the fridge will make it and almost everything inside it, smell like smoked bacon.
I let the bacon cool to room temperature and then sliced it. I’ll pause here and say this is one of the best parts of making your own bacon. You now have complete control over how thick your bacon is sliced. Ever grab bacon from the store, bring it home and cut open the bag and put it in the skillet only to have it look more like shaved ham? Yep, me, too. Those days are behind me now. Can you say bacon steaks? Okay that might be going too far, but a nice thickly sliced bacon is so much easier to work with, and rewarding to bite into.
To make life easier, I purchased a Beswood 10 inch deli slicer and a Mueller vacuum sealer. Honestly, the clean up takes ten times longer than the actual slicing, but it so nice to have uniformly sliced bacon. And properly sealed bacon will last a good long time in the freezer. This is just another example of how having the right tools and research ahead of time can make the process and end result that much more enjoyable.
What has it been like having so much of my own bacon waiting in the wings? Honestly, I use it more in my cooking than anything. I add bacon to InstantPot dishes like Ham and Beans, or to simmering pots of chili, the smoky, salty goodness adding so much to depth and layer of flavor. I also use it to wrap steaks, fry up to use on BLT’s, and it’s always a great companion to a plate of eggs and hash browns.
Since starting this adventure in smoking, we’ve had an uninvited guest, a Derecho. If you’re not familiar with what that is, it is basically a land hurricane. Our old grill ended up biting the dust in that storm, paving the way for an entirely different method of outdoor cooking and smoking.
What did we get?
A pellet grill. Unlike our old propane grill, this bad boy burns compressed wood pellets for heat. The result? You can bake, grill, or smoke with it, and don’t need to store tanks of compressed, flammable gas with which to cook.
I have grilled and smoked on this new unit and can say that it is a very different experience (smoking with pellets). You have much greater control over the heat, as the grill utilizes an auger to feed pellets into the burn box to maintain a stable temp. I have smoked several things on it, so far, including a pork butt, beef chuck roast, and whole chicken (pictured above) and will say that the chicken has been my favorite. Unfortunately, you don’t get nearly the smoke flavor or aroma, so take that into account when selecting your smoker. That is why I kept the old faithful water smoker around. She was picked up in the storm, scattered in pieces in our back yard, but fear not. After putting our Cuisinart smoke queen back together, she’s proven to be made of tough stuff and already smoked another batch of tasty bacon. It’ll take more than an Iowa hurricane to keep her from future smoking adventures. As far as the new pellet grill, that is all I will say for now, as I plan on doing a full product review soon.
So to answer my question posed at the very beginning. Does smoking make it better? Oh, yeah. Smoking adds flavor, texture, and character, much like combining the benefits of slow cooking in a crockpot with the taste and smell of cooking over an open fire. But it is also a time-honored curing and preservation technique. The smoking process helps by killing bacteria living on the surface of the food, while the heat kills the stuff on the inside. With that said, you can’t smoke meat and leave it out on the counter and expect it to last indefinitely. It still needs to be prepped and cold stored properly.
Just like with baking bread, as soon as you start making and eating your own bacon, the stuff from the store probably won’t cut it anymore. And it will probably make you even more popular with friends and family.
What’s coming next? Since I brought up bacon and smokers, I’ll be sharing a super easy and tasty recipe utilizing both! Oh, it is so good! Tease…