Mmmm Bacon

Here's what happened to the pork belly after air drying in the fridge overnight. I lit a chimney of lump charcoal and poured it into a "bullet" style cooker. They kind of look like R2-D2 and they are relatively cheap in the BBQ world. I got it about 10 years ago from a Home Depot. This came with a water pan, but I almost never use it. For some reason, probably a barbecue forum I followed during my formative BBQ years, I prefer to cook directly over coals.

So the coals go in, the bacon goes on skin-side down, a handful of apple chips gets tossed on the coals, and I head back inside to help clean the house for Thanksgiving.



A little side note about the small kettle grill in the back. That is my first grill. It is an 18" Weber kettle that I got when I first moved to the Albany area. I was fresh out of college - sophomore year of college was the best 3 years of my life, unemployed, and living in a 2 room attic apartment with my now wife in Rotterdam. I was in a Fay's for some reason (remember Fay's? Only the best pharmacy ever) and saw this grill on sale for half off. I hemmed, then I hawed, then I decided half off was still too much. After all, what good is a grill if you can't afford anything to put on it? About 2 weeks later I was back in Fay's for something and the grill was still there. And the price had been cut in half again. And that was the beginning of my love affair with cooking with a live fire. And now that you've suffered through my stroll down memory lane...here's the finished bacon. I left the thicker, third piece on a little longer and it missed the photo shoot.


The bacon got chilled then put in the freezer for about half an hour before being sliced, packaged and frozen. I wanted to get a picture of the slicer I have on loan for my mother-in-law, but...my hands were a little bacony and you need two hands to run the slicer. I'll get a picture next time. It's bacon, there WILL be a next time.