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Another cold smoked belly

J

Jgetch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2017
Messages
463
Location
Wisconsin
Well, with temps falling in Wisconsin I figure the time should be right in about 14 days for this belly to go for a 3 day smoke bath in about 14 days. This time I’m leaving the belly whole so just one type of seasoning. Honestly there wasn’t much difference in the taste on the last ones so this simplifies the process with containers and stuff. The predominant taste regardless of seasoning is smoky porky awesomeness so why mess with it I guess.
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Seasonings are simple for this one. Prescribed amount of salt for the weight then I just used some pepper, garlic, sage and fennel. No measurements on those. It’s whole muscle meat so I did not use any pink/curing salts.
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Day 3. As you can see it’s got quite a bit of brine that’s been driven out of the meat. I’ll let it essentially wet brine like this until day 7 then drain the liquid, rinse the belly, pat dry and then lightly salt again. The salt will have completely penetrated by day 7 so the next 7 days are just to make sure the moisture content is set up so if an excessive brine forms in those 7 days it should be dumped. This is kinda a feel thing as you need enough moisture left in the belly to take on the smoke from the cold smoker but you want enough of the moisture driven out that you don’t get undesirable rotting issues when hanging for a few months. We just want desirable rot on our me :)


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As most well laid plans usually fail when part of that relays on Mother Nature this one too is right on the brink. Supposed to be cold smoking all weekend, and I will be, but the temps went from high 40-60 to highs in the 70’s. Shop is well insulated and right now with a high of 72° it is still just 50° in the shop. I’d rather use have to use the heater to warm things up then to be keeping everything closed and hoping it doesn’t warm up but so long as we stay under 80° everything will be fine. As always I’d rather be around 40° in the smoker for this type of thing but it is what it is.


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Now it sits for the next 30-90 days. Smell is ridiculous as always. Might get the slicer out at the 30 day mark and cut some of it into a nice bacon. Most of this one will be for the holiday charcuterie boards though.


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