The recent thread by CloneSmoker, made me want to make some Buckboard bacon. I had not done it for quite a few years.
I always did Tenderquick and Dark brown sugar previously. This time I did and EQ cure 0.25% Cure 1 2.5% salt and 2% sugar (white). I did this back on 2.10.21 and sealed it up stashed in the garage fridge. I remembered it last week and got it out, cut a small piece and tasted it for salt, it was good to me, so I put in the fridge on a rack over night. Put it in the cookshack electric smoker at 180° with some apple and cherry chips until it hit 140°. Cooled a bit then wrapped in plastic wrap and back in the fridge over night.
Sliced a few pieces to make for breakfast on Sunday morning with some sausages and eggs. This was much better than my previous batches using Tenderquick, TQ seemed to always taste more like thin sliced ham than bacon. This was far more of a bacon flavor than ham, I will do it this way again next time to see if I get the same results. This may be my new way, I may lower the salt some as the GF thought it was salty. I did not rinse it off and what I cut was the end, so maybe the next cook if she doesn't mention it it will give me the information if I need to lower the salt.
First pic is before cure, second is after cure and out of the bag ready for the fridge, third is right out of the smoker, fourth is Sunday slices and fifth is the first try.
It was curing for about 37 days, since I forgot about it.
