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Started curing a case of bacon two weeks ago. They are drying now to form a pellicle before smoking starts tomorrow.

Pancetta experiment #1. This is a fennel/cayenne test. After soaking for 20 minutes it will be skinned and then hung in my dry curing chamber until it loses 30% of its weight.



Pancetta experiment #2 is the same recipe but using chipotle powder instead of cayenne. I am anticipating a milder but smokier flavor.



Next up is a honey/chipotle bacon that smells promising. It will develop a pellicle overnight before getting a 12 hour dose of Todd's pitmaster smoke.



And then I have 3 of what I consider regular bacon soaking.

Soaking?

Todd's pitmaster smoke?

You scare me.

Yes, soaking. Both pancettas are based on recipes that each call for a brief soak before drying to remove surface salt. We will find out soon enough if it needed it or not.



I am testing the A-Maze-N 5x8" pellet smoker from Todd Johnson and using his Pitmaster Pellets which are a blend of hickory, cherry and maple. I think it will work well with the honey/chipotle and regular (North American) bacons. I will get roughly 12 hours of smoke from a pound of the pellets which is pretty impressive. My first test was 30 lbs of cheese and I only saw a 4* F difference between ambient temp and internal temp in my plywood smoker. http://www.amazenproducts.com/ProductDe ... e=AMNPS5X8

Looking good Joel, it seems the time to step outside of the box (myself; not you ) with time being short before I leave I really do not need to take on another project but having eight bellies crying out for something to be done with them I had to try something I had not made before, besides we have enough maple bacon to last until I get back

The following is what I put down on Friday night, two of each along with two plain ones

Bushmills pancetta



Cabernet Sauvignon pancetta



Orange-pancetta

That sounds interesting Robert. Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

Fired up the 5x8 AMNPS tonight and tossed my North American bacon into my plywood smoker.



Care to guess which of the belly halves is the honey/chipotle?

solaryellow wrote:Care to guess which of the belly halves is the honey/chipotle?

The one in the middle??

Smoke #2 tonight.

You know, if you need a second opinion on flavour, I'd take a few lbs. To help you out, as a favour.

I see someone didn't agree with the original title of this thread. lol

Cut up the bacon today.

Separating the skin from the meat.



The honey chipotle experiment.





Cutting the odd ball pieces down for baked beans.



Multitasking at its finest.



Epic pans of bacon and a bowl of odds and ends.

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