Smoking pork belly for bacon today

quote:

---

Once I started curing and smoking my owe, i try to never buy store bought again. It’s so much better. I’m ready for some cooler weather so I can cold smoke some

---

That's exactly how I feel about it. I also make my own hot, green onion, Italian, boudin and Andouille sausage with pork butts when they go on sale.

But you're right, it is hot out today to be doing this, but I was out of bacon and wanted some. My homemade smoker is good enough I can get it going and pretty much forget it for a couple hours at a time before checking it.

quote:

---

I also make my own hot, green onion, Italian, boudin

---

For comparison purposes, care to share your boudin recipe?
Or at least some idea how much liver you use in a 10 pound batch. I'm still trying to dial in my recipe.

quote:

---

For comparison purposes, care to share your boudin recipe?
Or at least some idea how much liver you use in a 10 pound batch. I'm still trying to dial in my recipe.

---

I try to use at least a 10 lb. pork butt, bone in weight. For seasoning I use the following:

3 large onions chopped
3 bell peppers chopped
6 ribs celery chopped
12 cloves garlic minced
Slap Ya Mama
Black Pepper
2 lbs. chicken liver or 1 lb. pork liver (pork liver is stronger)
3 packs of green onions chopped fairly fine
Enough water to cover the meat by a couple inches when in the pot.

I season the pork with Slap Ya Mama and pepper and put it back in the fridge while I get everything else ready to cook it.

When ready to cook, I use my biggest cast iron pot, add about 1/4 cup of oil or saved bacon grease to brown the butt well on all sides.

Once browned I remove the butt and then add the trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) to the pot and cook that for a few minutes before adding the garlic. After several minutes of the seasonings cooking I'll add the liver, but before adding the liver I put it in my food processor to puree it into a coarse liquid. Let this cook with the vegetable for a couple minutes and then put the butt back in the pot and cover with enough water to have it a couple inches over the meat and bring to a rolling boil. This is when I season my boiling water and I highly season it with more Slap Ya Mama and some cayenne or my habanero hot sauce.

Then reduce the heat and cook uncovered until the blade bone pulls out easily and then continue cooking until the butt falls apart in the liquid to where it looks shredded.

Remove the meat and strain it into a large enough bowl, add the cooked rice and chopped up green onions plus as much liquid from the boil to get the consistency you want and mix well. Then it's just a matter of casing it up into links. I find the boudin cases up nicely when the mix is still warm.

Once cased up, I coil them in a few baking pans and put them in my fridge uncovered overnight so the skins dry out nicely before using my vacuum sealer to store in the freezer for later use.

I will leave some uncased to fry boudin balls for the wife and I.


Edit: Forgot to add this. I strain the remaining liquid, let it cool overnight in the fridge and remove the fat cap that sets overnight.

Then I bag it up in quart bags to be used when making jambalaya or some gumbos. It is packed with flavor and I consider it criminal to toss it down the drain.

What do you use to slice something like that uniformly?

quote:

---

What do you use to slice something like that uniformly?

---

I have an old meat slicer I bought on ebay that works great

quote:

---

Then reduce the heat and cook uncovered until the blade bone pulls out easily and then continue cooking until the butt falls apart in the liquid to where it looks shredded.

Remove the meat and strain it into a large enough bowl, add the cooked rice and chopped up green onions plus as much liquid from the boil to get the consistency you want and mix well. Then it's just a matter of casing it up into links.

---

So you don't run the meat/rice mixture thru a grinder prior to casing it? I've been thinking about doing that. I've only tried a few batches but mine have alwasy turned out too mushy. Maybe this is my solution.

Do you guys use the curing bags ?