Love it.

Been doing this for years.

Typically buy an 11-12lb belly from costco, cut it in thirds. (1/3 bacon, another 1/3 bacon, 1/3 for porkbelly burnt ends)

I experiment with a lot of different flavor combos.

Our family's favorites have been Chorizo Bacon, Rosemary Garlic Bacon, and Maple Jalapeno Bacon.

Bought a decent slicer with my Cabela's club points a few year back - that was a game changer for consistent thickness.

Enjoy!

Looks great! If you want to make it even better, use a dry equalization cure. A very simple one to start with goes as such:

100% pork belly
2% kosher salt
1% white sugar
0.25% Insta-Cure #1 or Prague Powder #1.

You can play with this recipe on the sugar (use brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.) or other seasonings like black pepper, red pepper, etc. The salt and curing salt should stay about the same.

The benefits of an equalization cure is that it's impossible to leave it in the brine too long and over-season it. Plus you end up with dry cured bacon which is even better than wet cured bacon.

I too use a dry brine similar to what's posted above. Curing salt, salt, white sugar, brown sugar, and sage are the usual seasonings. Also will sometimes drizzle some honey in the package as well for some extra sweetness. Let the belly cure for a week or so, rinse off and coat with coarse black pepper, then smoke at 140-170F until hitting the right internal temp.

I actually have two pork bellies curing in the fridge right now that I plan to smoke on Black Friday. It's a fun hobby and agreed that it's way better than anything you'll buy in the store.

Here's a picture of a 9 pound beef belly sliced up after I smoked it and vacuum sealed from a few weeks ago.

Tried several spice combos, settled on McCormick "Smokehouse Maple" during the cure, then black pepper prior to going on the smoker, where hickory is my standard smoke source.
I have pulled at an IT of 135-155 deg, very little difference noted in the final cooked product. Delish!

You boys need to step up your quantities!

We process 6-8 whole bellies each year, and the quality is much better than the store bought stuff.

For me, the equilibrium cure is a game changer. It turns out a very consistent product without the worries of over salting or under curing.

The one issue I've run into is the bacon has a tendency to burn on the edges when cooked. We use a 2.5% salt, 1% dextrose concentration (if memory serves).

I've never raised the temp to 150 before slicing and packaging. What is the purpose of this?

Does anyone else experience the burning problem?

Go above 150, and fat starts rendering. To your burned edges problem, are you rinsing the bellies after they're cured and before you put on your other seasonings?

Yes sir. I may drop the dextrose content a little this year and see if that helps.