Making Grill Dome Bacon

I’ve made corned beef, sausages, pastrami, pulled pork, ribs and brisket on my Grill Dome but never did bacon until a couple of weeks ago.

The results were fantastic! Once you make your own bacon you’ll never buy store-bought bacon again. It’s not difficult to do but it does take some time to cure the bacon before smoking. There are two ways to cure bacon. It can be wet cured or dry cured. Bacon may also be cold smoked or hot smoked. I did a dry cure and hot smoke for this.

Here’s what I did…

Find a butcher with pork bellies (a Chinese butcher probably has them on-hand. If not ask your butcher to order one for you). The one I purchased had the rind (skin) removed and weighed about 11 pounds. I trimmed off some of the excess fat and cut the belly into four pieces about 2 1/2 pounds (or so) each.

Then it was time to make up a maple cure:

• 1/4 cup coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon pink salt (sodium nitrite and salt also called Cure #1)
• 1/2 cup pure Grade B maple syrup (don’t use imitation)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Mix the cure together in a bowl and liberally apply to both surfaces of the bellies. Individually wrap the bellies with food film or place in large food storage bags. Refrigerate the bellies for seven days, turning over every other day. After curing, remove the bellies from the refrigerator and rinse under cold water to remove the cure. Pat dry and place the bellies on a cooling rack over a rimmed cookie pan. Return the bellies to the refrigerator, uncovered, for one or two days to allow the meat to become firm and develop a sticky surface called a pellicle. The pellicle forms a protective barrier for the food helping it retain moisture and enhances capturing the smoke flavor and color.

Remove the bellies from the refrigerator and season both sides liberally with your favorite pork rub.

Prepare your Grill Dome for a 225 degree F. cook using lump charcoal and a combination of maple and apple wood. After lighting the charcoal with firestarters and bringing the Grill Dome up to a stable temperature, I adjusted the bottom damper so it was open about 1 1/2 inches and the top metal top was open 1/2 inch. Remember, the top damper regulates the amount of smoke during the cook while the bottom damper is used for temperature control. Depending on the amount of charcoal you’re using, the actual damper openings may vary.

I recommend placing a remote-reading thermometer on the cooking grate (held in place with a potato) to verify the cooking temperature. The temperature reading on the Grill Dome thermometer does not measure the grate temperature but the temperature in the middle of the dome.

(If you don’t have a metal top for your Grill Dome, I recommend you purchase one. It makes cooking much simpler than the ceramic top as it’s completely adjustable to regulate how much smoke is added to the food. Too much smoke will produce bitter tasting food.)

Place the bellies on the cooking grate, fat side up, close the cover and smoke for one hour. Flip the bellies over and continue cooking for another hour or so or until the bellies have an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.

Remove the bellies from the Grill Dome and let them cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. (I recommend partially freezing the bellies to make for easier slicing.)

Pan-fry or oven-roast the cured bacon to desired degree: Well Done, Done, etc. You don’t want to overcook the bacon. In a 350 degrees F. oven, about 10 minutes per side makes for great bacon.

The uncooked cured bacon will keep, refrigerated, for one week or frozen for three months.