How To Cure + Smoke Beef Bacon
Beef bacon has all the delicious sweet/salty/smoky parts of bacon with a distinct beef flavor. You'll love this awesome beef navel / beef belly recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 slab of beef belly
- coarse kosher salt as needed
- brown sugar as needed
- #1 curing salt as needed
Instructions
Prepare And Calculate Brine:
- Gather your equipment. You’ll need a good food scale, a pen and scrap paper, a calculator (maybe), a baking sheet, and plastic wrap.
- Weigh the beef belly slab, place it on the scale. Measure in grams. Write the weight on the top of your sticky note. At this point, I like to place my belly on a baking sheet so that when I add the dry brine it doesn’t make a huge mess. See photos below.
- PER pound (454g) of beef, you need 10g kosher salt, 5g brown sugar 1g nitrate salt.Formula: weight in grams divided by 454. Then multiply each of the above by that number. For example, if your slab weighed 2500 grams, your math would look like:2500g/454 = 5.5. 10g x 5.5 =55g salt, 5g x 5.5 = 27.5g brown sugar, and 1g x 5.5 = 5.5g curing salt.If you don’t want to do the math, visit this awesome web based calculator and select the following options; US curing standards, Skin Off. Then I use the measurements listed for salt, sugar, and the minimum amount of nitrates.
Brine The Bacon:
- Place your small bowl on the scale and tare it out. Measure the specified amount of salt, then tare, add the sugar, tare, and then the nitrate salt. Mix this together thoroughly.
- Sprinkle the brine mix on the beef belly, making sure to get both sides, and the edges. Pat it in.
- Lay down two large pieces of plastic wrap on the counter, and place the brined beef belly on the wrap. Wrap the belly ensuring it’s completely covered. Then wrap it a second time.
- Place the beef belly on a clean baking sheet and place it in the fridge. Cure the beef bacon in the fridge for 5 days, flipping the slab once per day.
Prep For Smoking:
- On the 5th day, unwrap the slab. Run it under cold water and rinse it well, rubbing the surface of the navel. This helps to remove some salt from the surface and makes the flavor less salty.
- Place the washed belly onto a wire cooling rack and set it on top of a cookie sheet. Place the belly back into the fridge uncovered overnight. Alternatively, you can blot it dry with a paper towel then smoke immediately.
Smoke The Bacon:
- Preheat the smoker to 185f. Place prepared belly on the middle rack of your smoker and smoke it until it reaches an internal temperature of 145-150f.
- Remove the bacon from the smoker and allow it to come to room temperature before placing it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Slice your beef bacon with a meat slicer, or a good brisket knife and a steady hand.
- Vacuum pack the bacon in portion sizes that work for your family, and store in the freezer until ready to use, up to 12 months, if it lasts that long!
Notes
SAFETY NOTE:
Curing meat requires specific expertise and failure to cure meat properly may result in sickness or death. Please consider consulting an expert before attempting to cure meat for your family.Batch:
From one slab of beef belly we are able to get between 75-90 slices, depending on the size of the belly and the thickness of the slice.Storage:
Uncooked beef bacon should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge and cooked within 2 days. Cooked beef bacon can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days