B8con

Finally getting around to posting my bacon journey. This was a plan to make bacon based on a method from on all of the information I could gather about Benton's bacon process. There are five specific steps to it, curing, aging, drying, smoking and resting.

First I purchased three Duroc pork belly sides. They were all about #8 each.

Cure
I'm not exactly sure of the exact amounts, but what I do know is that Benton cures his bacon with salt & brown sugar only. I went with a ratio of 2:1.5 of salt & dark brown sugar. I started with #3 of Diamond Crystal kosher salt & added #2.25 of Dixie Crystal dark brown sugar. I did not use all of the cure. Only applied what would stick and rubbed the rest off.

The bellies were thoroughly rinsed and patted dry before being rubbed with the dry cure. I stacked them in the refrigerator, and left for 10 or so days under normal refrigeration temperatures (35°F-41°F). They were rotated every 48 hours.

Age
According to the Benton method, the cure is rinsed off of the bellies by being dipping in large drums of water and then they are hung in a room to age between 43°-55°F for 10 or so days. I aged for 12 days at 50°F

Dry
The bellies are moved to a room that is maintained at a temperature of "75 degrees or so" for 10 or so days. I set my Inkbird to 70°F and monitored the bellies closely due to the moderate temperature. After 3 days I noticed a white bloom of penicillin mold on one of the bellies. I took them all out and wiped them all down with apple cider vinegar to keep the penicillin from returning. The mold isn’t harmful but it can alter the flavor of the product so it was necessary to remove it. I'm sure Benton has dehumidifiers or large fans to move air around to prevent this. After 7 days I took all of the bellies out and move on to the next phase.

Smoke
Finally they are smoked with "mainly hickory and some apple wood" for 3 days. Not sure what temperature they smoke at but for 3 days it must be pretty low. I'm thinking above 85°F and below 120°F. I built a cold smoker and the hottest it reached was 93°F when the sun was setting on the day.


Rest
Benton rests his product after smoking for 3 days @70°F. I skipped this step and went straight to slicing and tasting. The smoke on this bacon is intense. You can smell it through the vacuum seal bags.
These are two bellies cut in half so they would fit in my pan.

Nice little cross section

Lardons to taste test. Really intense smoke flavor harkens back to a time when people did this to survive.

Sliced, ready for the oven…


Overall this was a good learning process. This bacon isn't everyday breakfast bacon. It's special occasion happy birthday breakfast bacon. I did share some with friends and family who all had mostly positive reviews. Next time I would do things a little differently, like smoke with a single wood instead of a mix.