Smoking

Belly, in the smoker

 A few quick pictures of our bacon process.  We got 6 beautiful pork bellies from Ken at Polka Dot Pastures and usually we roast or confit them as an appetizer or component to a dish.  With so many bellies we decided to make our own bacon.

We start with a simple sugar and salt cure and let the bellies sit for at least a week.  After the cure it's off to the smoker.  The bellies are hot smoked at a low temperature for most of the day.  Apple wood chips soaked in our own Hinterland Maple Bock is the smoke flavor of choice.

After the smoke the belly rests (it's been on a real wild ride) and cools.  Once it is completely cool the bacon is ready to be eaten.

Belly, transformed into bacon

On the bottom of the post you will see a glimpse of a dish we are running this weekend.  As a tribute to all the wonderful hog we've been getting the Chef's decided to create a sampler pig plate.  Included are pork rillettes (made from the jowels), a brat (award winning I might add) and a pork croquette (our play on head cheese), all served with mustard, gherkins, and frisee salad.