bacon 2: electric boogaloo

my friends (as i think i probably personally know all 8 of you who are reading this), when we last went our separate ways, i was slapping 5lbs of pork belly in the fridge and letting some salt and sugar have their wicked way with it.  well, here we are a week later, and stuff’s starting to get real, people.  this pork belly has defied town law, has looked the pastor in the eye and said “NO, i do not follow your rules,” and has put on his dancing kicks to cut loose, footloose.  kick off your sunday shoes.  

wait, no.  that’s kevin bacon.  but i’m not going to lie to you, this bacon is just as mind-blowingly awesome as that bacon was back in 1984.

okay, so let’s talk smoking.  i have a smoker - one of those weber deals that looks kind of like R2D2 and darth vader had a baby.  “bleep bloop, i will destroy you.”  cheeky yet menacing at the same time.  so once the delicious heritageheirloomartisanal pork belly had cured for a week, at a time that i had all small people either at school or napping, i go to set R2 vader up…  i’m measuring out charcoal, setting the starter fire, blah de blah…  annnnd all of a sudden i completely and utterly wussed out.  i frankly had visions of calamity jo here burning the deck down (you REALLY don’t want to mess with open fires in the very wooded pacific northwest when you have a track record of being awfully accident-prone), so instead i decided to jury rig myself a smoker box in my far-safer gas grill.  i know, so lame.  i truly beg your (not to mention snoop dogg's) collective forgiveness.  but i assure you that plan B actually & completely (and maybe somewhat surprisingly) turned out rather brilliantly!  hallelujah, all praise kevin bacon!

homemade bacon pt. 2 (terribly loosely adapted from michael ruhlman's "charcuterie")

remove pork belly from cure (see previous post).  rinse and pat dry.  it should feel dense and firm, like grabbing the guy who played thor's upper arm (oh, my...)

now either prep your smoker like someone with bluster and bravado, or your gas grill with accompanying makeshift smoker box like i did.  i took a disposable aluminium (that's right, i stand by my superfluous "i") pie dish, filled it with soaked mesquite wood chips, sealed it tightly with foil, and poked a few holes in the top.  i then placed it under the grate of one side of the grill, and lit only the burner underneath it. 

once the grill has warmed up to about 200 degrees and the makeshift smoker box starts to smoke, place your slab of pork belly on the unlit side of the grill.  close lid and let the magic happen.

start checking the temperature after about 90 minutes. once the thickest part of the belly reaches 150 degrees, you're done.  for mine, this took about 2 hours on the dot.  boom:

let cool, then refrigerate.  slice to desired thickness, to lardons, or eat like an apple, as you wish.  keeps in the fridge for 1-2 weeks, or frozen for 3 months.  but before you sequester it away to the depths of the fridge or freezer for future deliciousness, fry yourself up just one slice to eat hot from the pan, the grease dripping off your fingertips.  because you, my 8 friends, are worth every bit of it.

now if you'll excuse me, my 9 year-old business partner and myself have some fierce meetings with the people of whole foods, with food network, and with the offices of kevin bacon.  mr. six-degrees is ready for a makeover...