Pork Chops and Bacon Part 1

We finally stopped procrastinating and got one of the pigs butchered.  I had underestimated his size a bit and he yielded about 150# of meat on the bone.  Not bad for a pig that had such a rough start.

Since we have a fridge for chilling meat, I like to take a bit of time to make nice cuts.  After all, the pork from these 2 pigs will need to last us a year.

Here are just a few of the cuts from the front quarter....

But probably the most anticipated part of the pig is bacon.  We love bacon and since we've been making our own, I can't stand anything that comes from the store.  Besides the belly, I also use the flap off the ribs.  You have to be careful so that you can remove the bacon but still leave some meat on the ribs for a good BBQ...

The result is a pretty nice slab...

We harvested 20# of bacon from this pig....now the curing begins.  First I weigh the bacon in 10# batches.  It's just easier for me to do it 10# at a time....plus you want to be sure to get your curing salt mixed in well.  I use equal parts dark brown sugar and kosher salt along with 2 teaspoons of pink salt.

Mix this very very thoroughly then apply it liberally to 10# of meat.

You need to get it into every crevasse, over every inch.

Then continue working 10# at a time until it's all coated with the cure.

Place it in a non-metallic pan, cover and put into the fridge.  Every day I will rotate, putting the top meat down to the bottom and the bottom slab up on top.  The meat will cure like this for about 5 days before smoking.

To be continued...