But not hot smoking!
I have had these two pieces of pork belly curing in the refrigerator for almost two weeks. Now it is time to add some smoke. About a year ago, maybe more, Michael Ruhlman issued a challenge to create a BLT completely from scratch. I thought I would give it a try as I had the tomatoes and lettuce growing and could bake a decent loaf of bread. So I read all about curing bacon. Most sources mentioned that bacon is cold smoked. How to do that on a regular grill?
I saw a little grill at RiteAid on clearance and bought two of them. My son helped me drill a four inch hole in each and I connected them with a hose meant for a clothes dryer. Voila – a cold smoker where you build a fire in the lower side and add soaked wood and put the meat in the upper grill to receive the smoke.
This will smoke for about two hours. Then I will chill, well almost freeze, the meat and slice it to whatever thickness we feel like around here.
This smoker has also done chicken breasts – I add a few coals to the hot side to actually cook the chicken and it was great for smoking scallops as they cook so quickly.