I Have Been Shooting Wild Hogs For Many Years. Every Processor I Ever Meet Said You Couldn't Make Beacon From Wild Hog. I always Thought that Was Hog Wash. Thanks For Confirming That. I Will Be Making My Own Wild Hog Beacon In The Very near Future.
They say that because they don't wanna mess with it. Curing takes time and patience. It's okay to go to a processor if they do one client at a time, and it's just a part time gig for them.
Going on my first boar hunt end of August, worried about what to do with all that meat. Now I know what to do. Great video!!!!!! Appreciate you taking the time to go through each step in great detail. Thumbs up for sure!
Hunted hogs for over a decade and have only tried once to make bacon from a 300lb boar. I’m glad I found your video! I will be trying to turn my next hog all into bacon
Awesome informative video. More people need to prepare their own food so they can have some semblance of self-sufficiency and an appreciation for what goes into preparing healthy traditional foods. Thanks for sharing!
My father-in-law had a smoke house on his farm in TN and he shared some Bacon with us. I don't know how long he smoked the meat but you could smell the Hickory, and taste it as well. I have never eaten better bacon. His hogs weren't feral. Thanks for the Video.
I was talking to the butcher about making bacon on wild pugs, he told me make sure to bring the temp up to 165 on the bacon when smoking it because of tricanosys (or however you spell it) but if you are frying the bacon you shouldnt have to worry about that right?
I am with you on bacon, I am going to be using this recipe for my wild hog coming up. Thank you this has given me a new and good idea of how to use up my wild hog. Keep it up 👍
Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this video. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and hit the 👍 thumbs up button under the video and click the notification BELL 🔔 to receive updates whenever we release a new video! Thanks for the support!
I agree with the man who said that he always heard it was impossible to make bacon from a wild hog. Myth Busted! Great job. I will give it a go next time I get a wild hog.
just curious.....when you put on the rub on the outside....how well does it soak into the middle of your chunk of meat vs. just the outside of the meat???
Omg that's the coolest thing I've seen! I've wanted to try bacon on my hogs but they never have enough fat, so I do sausage...I would have never thought to use the hams or back strap! Genius! I'm going to try this for Thanksgiving!
Yes it is hard to find one that is fat enough, but ai am seeing quite a few this year. Got one coming to my feeder right now that looks like it escaped from the county fair. 😅
I absolutely love watching your videos I have wanted to make wild hog bacon for years I went ahead and listened to the naysayers that it couldn't be done. THANK YOU for proving me right I now feel Vindicated and hungry for bacon damn it now my mouth is watering! p.s. if you use the non slider Ziplocks the regular freezer kind you can roll out the opening to help keep that area clean for meat or whatever food I discovered that way after making my chilli the bags don't tip over as easily!
I keep reading comments saying that people told them they couldn't make bacon from feral hogs. Why? They're just hogs right? Just someone's hogs that escaped and bred by themselves in the wild. They aren't a different species are they? So why would they say you can't make bacon from them? Seems odd.
although its been many years, I recall my grandmother soaking the hog meat in beer after seasoning it, almost like a brine, and then throwing it on the smoker, and packing it up...
The sugar is for flavor only and has nothing to do with curing. You can completely leave it out, but the results would be smoked salt pork, not bacon. Bacon has sugar. I guess you could substitute some other sweetener for sugar, but I have no idea how it would taste. Try it out and let me know how the results turn out. If they turn out good, maybe I can do a video of it and give you credit for the recipe.
100 lbs of bacon ? That's just not fare mmmm you the man. Years ago we took a cow to a local processing place and I requested it to be processed into all ground beef and they refused. Your 100 lbs of bacon reminded me of that .lol Keep up the good work.
JJ Luv Thanks. 100lb seems like a lot, but it's not enough. When it comes to bacon, Enough is never Enough! Lol! It seems strange to turn the whole pig into bacon, but you have to understand, this is a wild hog and it is very rare to get a wild hog with this much fat. I get 50 lean hogs for every 1 hog I get like the one in this video. I have no lack of regular hog meat, but there is always a lack of bacon!
You need to trap and pen up a couple small to medium sized feral hogs about mid summer and hit them with some dewormer and feed them as much pig starter as they can choke down, in the fall when the apples are ripe add those to the starter. Come Thanksgiving they will be all ready to go..about 4-5 months makes a world of difference. 👍 it's well worth the few extra bucks in my honest opinion..you have to think of it as getting 1/2 grown piglets for free and it's up to you to finish them up.
I'm going hog hunting next May in Texas, the property owners want. Me to get rid of some hogs that Is destroying his property an iv been watching a lot of videos an I like what I see from yours I plan on doing the same. Thanks for the update video.
I found that if I fold the tops over and then insert the meat, you can then bring the tops up without having to clean them. I got sick of spending more time trying to get the bag to seal than the other steps.
The temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Drying times will very depending on humidity levels. In this video it was three days but could take longer in very humid climates.
Not really. You can use things like celery powder and beat juice, but only because these too contain nitrates. By law, the FDA mandates that any meat not cured with nitrates to be labeled as "Uncured Meat". So if you are eating a piece of cured meat, it contains nitrates. Nitrates are a naturally occuring chemecal. Most green leafy vegetables also contain nitrates as well, so avoiding nitrates is a little more difficult then it seems.
Bro . . . Wild boar, self cured bacon, sharp ass knife, real smoker, cast iron - I hope you don’t mind if I construct a small Jungle Explorer shrine to submit humble offerings as I try these techniques myself.
I get that you're not trying to cook the meat during the smoking process, but I only have an electric smoker. Are you basically cold smoking, or is there SOME heat? I'm not sure how low I can get my temp.
+Dan Brownfield A little is not going to hurt as long as it is not enough to cook it. Just keep it as low as possible and keep the bacon as fae away from the heat as you can.
The wild hog in this video came from Eastland county Texas off the ranch of a friend. It was shot during the acorn fall, so it was exceptionally fat from feeding on acorns.
Headed to S Tx here in a little over a month. I've always wanted to try to make some bacon with the ones we shoot. I'll be giving this a try for sure. How long do you smoke it for? Is it a set amount of time, or is it until the slab reaches a certain internal temp? I'll also be bringing home some mesquite chunks, wonder how mixing woods would work out, say some hickory and mesquite in the same batch?
+John Sullivan Good luck on your trip. As far how long, A few hours is enough, but can smoke it more if you want more smoke flavor. I have never tried mixing woods, but I don't think it would be bad to do it. Since I live in a mesquite forest, everything I smoke is mesquite and I love it, but do enjoy the chance some other hardwoods, so I don't mix them.
I don't really know. I have seen those vacuum machines they use on cooking shows to do a quick marinade, but I think those are way stronger than a normal vacuum sealer. I honestly don't know the answer to this question. Sorry.
Your just cruel, mean and murderous. HaHa You had to go fry that delicious bacon and enjoy all by yourself. Dang it man. Thanks for the cure and smoke way.
To many hogs here, but no bacon or hams. They eat the head and hoof, not pickled pigs feet. I just helped butcher a boar, 4th one this year. Tossed in grease on open fire. They cut the fat off leaving it on the skin, deep fry and eat. Not cracklins like I am used to. It all tastes good. I looked your channel up because it said wild hog. But thanks again for the way. So I can make some bacon and hams.
Thanks. This is the time of the year to get a nice fat sow. I got one coming to my feeder right now. Just waiting for the right time to take her. Too busy right now to make bacon. Here are some pics and video of her. thejungleexplorer.com/sow-hog-that-is-coming-to-my-feeder-daily
Loved watching your video, Jungle Explorer! I'm someone who has only known bacon to come from the grocery store, so please forgive me for my ignorance. When I have tried wild game- like Deer and moose, I really didn't like that 'gamey' taste. Can you tell me if your home made bacon from a wild sow tastes 'gamey'? I saw the comment below about the difference in bacon from boars and sows. Does your brine and salt/pepper/nitrates/brown sugar take that gamey taste away? Thanks for uploading this video!
That is a hard question for me to answer because I literally eat about 90% wild game year around, so I cannot taste that "Gamey" taste other people talk about. But I can tell you this. I fed all that bacon to dozens of different people and not one person spit it out or complained about it having a gamey taste. The only rhing they comllained about is me not cooking enough. I would only turn a sow or a young boar into bacon though. Older boars can get pretty smelly and would not make for good bacon.
After watching your video and the way you salted the meat in the refrigerator the pink salt isn't really necessary. It just takes a little longer to cure in the fridge. Once the moisture content has gone down and the salinity is to the point of good hard meat no microbes can live in it. Once the smoke is completed the meat is sealed. But, freezing/ refridgerating the bacon will keep it. I'd be concerned about skipping the pink salt if you hung the meat in the smokehouse after curing and smoking it until use which was common along with hams and other smoked meats when refridgerating wasn't available.
Do you think I this process would work on elk or deer? I live in an area that is hard to find land to get a hog on, but I have elk and deer in the freezer and am going to hopefully harvest an elk in a month or so, and if it would work I’d love to do some because I love some bacon
Although you could use this process to cure any kind of meat, you would not get bacon. You can only get bacon from hog with enough fat content. Deer and Elk are very lean and have almost no fat content in the meat. Even if you get a really fat one, the fat will not be in the meat, and besides that, the fat of deer and elk is more of a tallow like fat and nothing like pork fat. Personally, I don't like deer fat and would never try to make bacon out of it. But, that does not mean you cannot cure it for other purposes then bacon. Hope this helps?
To make better bacon, keep your bacon grease every time you fry it and start with at least one inch deep of bacon fat... That way, you cook the bacon evenly without the hard/fat areas. Either that or a bacon press. (but I love it 'deep fried'.)
Well done and thanks for your time and suggestions on this process. No matter what you call it....just remember to call me for breakfast, I'll even bring some of cast iron collection to share.
How does the pink salt do with the kosher salt doesn't? Also being here in Texas I've killed many wild hogs or pretty much over run with them like cockroaches if you know what I mean stop. How do you get enough fat on a wild hog to make bacon?
The pink salt contain nitrates that prevent bacteria growth. It is rare to find a hog this fat. This particular hog came from Eastland county during the acorn fall, so it was exceptionally fat.
I love me some meaty bacon. I don't like it too fatty. I need to get me a hog. Does it have to be a ziploc? I've got a large tupperware with a lid. Also, what temp are you cooking at?
You can use anything you want ad long as it is watertight and does not come open when flipped. When smoking the bacon, you want the lowest possible temperature you can get.
You should try smoking that with some cherry wood you'll flip when you try it it's so good it imparts such a nice heavy smoke flavor to it I just love the flavor of cherry smoked meet
The answer to that question depends on the climate. Having lived a true primitive pioneer life style before when I lived in the Amazon, we kept meat stored up above a our house cooking fireplace. Up North the normally cut ice blocks out of the lakes and store it in a cellar buried in saw dust or hay. They could keep things cold all summer.
Best bacon I’ve done is castrated wild boars..and yes the belly can make very good bacon…tastes even better if you brine out all the blood from meat as much as possible when butchering…nice bacon dude 👍🏼
I've eatin' food made in cast iron since the beginnin'. And we have feral pigs in the southern part of the county we live in. So as soon as I get things set up, my son and I are gonna get some. Good idea here! I worked in a butcher shop as a teen, and we raised our own animals. I remember an old oak barrel we wet brined hams and slabs in. Socked, pumped the hams with it, and smoked overnight. We'd then unsock'em, hose down and scrub the crystalized salt of the outside. Then towel dry and store.
Be picky on the chosen I say .I use the belly meat/fat that’s cut off the ribs to make my wild bacon and so far the best I’ve come across is the castrated ones that has an edge on flavor …
@@thejungleexplorer thank you sir! Would vacuum sealing help the cure speed? I'm leaving for our 3rd annual hog hunt on public land in Georgia. I know we'll be bring back a lot of meat. I'm super pumped to turn most of it into bacon. Thanks a lot for making this video!
I do not believe that vacuum sealing would speed up the curing process. From what I understand about if, vacuum sealing meat is a way to speed up marination time. In other words, it helps get juices into the meat. Curing is the opposite of marinating. Curing it trying to get the juices out of the meat, not into the meat. So it seems to be the opposite of what we would want do to. I am not an expert on using vacuum to marinate meat and I could be wrong about it though.
That looks way better than any bacon I’ve ever bought at the store. Thank you for the great video!!
I Have Been Shooting Wild Hogs For Many Years. Every Processor I Ever Meet Said You Couldn't Make Beacon From Wild Hog. I always Thought that Was Hog Wash. Thanks For Confirming That. I Will Be Making My Own Wild Hog Beacon In The Very near Future.
Kent Yoder 4
It is because they want to use the belly wild hogs don't have that thick belly meat!
Cause it’s a pain in ass when they actually have to do it. Don’t go to processors they give you other people’s meat.
They say that because they don't wanna mess with it. Curing takes time and patience. It's okay to go to a processor if they do one client at a time, and it's just a part time gig for them.
You can bacon just about anything, I assume what they meant is that a wild hog is not preferable to a domesticated hog because it is more lean.
The irony of using kosher salt on pork.
Stephen Oy Vey
Thank you for commenting Stephen. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Salt is salt, period.
🤣🤣🤣
Going on my first boar hunt end of August, worried about what to do with all that meat. Now I know what to do. Great video!!!!!! Appreciate you taking the time to go through each step in great detail. Thumbs up for sure!
What a great video! Thanks for sharing your recipe and not talking too fast. Looking forward to the next one!
Thank you for commenting amsterdope. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Hunted hogs for over a decade and have only tried once to make bacon from a 300lb boar. I’m glad I found your video! I will be trying to turn my next hog all into bacon
Get the young one for better meat, save the big boars and such for when you want tusks or mounts
Thank you for commenting MrSshagster! I am so glad the video was helpful.
Awesome informative video. More people need to prepare their own food so they can have some semblance of self-sufficiency and an appreciation for what goes into preparing healthy traditional foods. Thanks for sharing!
Your video is very informative:) thank you! I must say this bacon has me drooling!!
really nicely done, looking forward to trying this. Really enjoyed this.
I really appreciate your video. It was complete from being to end. You answered all my questions!!!
Awesome Job! Especially liked your fishing line suspension system!
Good stuff. Not rushed and informative
I prefer bacon with more fat than lean meat. The fat is what gives it the awesome flavor that we all crave! Thanx for sharing.
Thank you for commenting Christopher vernon. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
My father-in-law had a smoke house on his farm in TN and he shared some Bacon with us. I don't know how long he smoked the meat but you could smell the Hickory, and taste it as well. I have never eaten better bacon. His hogs weren't feral. Thanks for the Video.
Thank you for commenting Paul A. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
The price of food now days is insane, I hunt Alot and want to try your style, Awesome video 👍
Thanks. Happy Hunting!
Glad I saw your video. I am planning a wild pig hunt and this will be helpful in the use of the meet.
Thank you for commenting Rick Talerico! I am so glad the video was helpful.
When you hang it for 2-3 days to dry does the room temp matter? Room temp? Cold? Warm ok? Thanks for sharing the video!
Temp should be around 70 or lower.
I was talking to the butcher about making bacon on wild pugs, he told me make sure to bring the temp up to 165 on the bacon when smoking it because of tricanosys (or however you spell it) but if you are frying the bacon you shouldnt have to worry about that right?
He is right. You always want to cook any pork, wild or domestic, before eating it.
I am with you on bacon, I am going to be using this recipe for my wild hog coming up. Thank you this has given me a new and good idea of how to use up my wild hog. Keep it up 👍
Thanks for visiting my channel and watching this video. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and hit the 👍 thumbs up button under the video and click the notification BELL 🔔 to receive updates whenever we release a new video! Thanks for the support!
That bacon looks great man,keep up the good work.
This vid is a big part of my plan for next year.
How long would you smoke the bacon? And for peppered bacon do I rub coarse ground pepper on it prior to smoking? Thanks for a great video.
How long you smoke is a personal taste thing.
I agree with the man who said that he always heard it was impossible to make bacon from a wild hog. Myth Busted! Great job. I will give it a go next time I get a wild hog.
Thank you for commenting Double 5!
Thanks so much for taking the Time and effort to make such an educational vid - Wow, I can almost smell that bacon!
+Greg Gaxiola
You are very welcome. So glad you enjoyed it.
just curious.....when you put on the rub on the outside....how well does it soak into the middle of your chunk of meat vs. just the outside of the meat???
The cure goes all the way through.
Omg that's the coolest thing I've seen! I've wanted to try bacon on my hogs but they never have enough fat, so I do sausage...I would have never thought to use the hams or back strap! Genius! I'm going to try this for Thanksgiving!
Yes it is hard to find one that is fat enough, but ai am seeing quite a few this year. Got one coming to my feeder right now that looks like it escaped from the county fair. 😅
I absolutely love watching your videos I have wanted to make wild hog bacon for years I went ahead and listened to the naysayers that it couldn't be done. THANK YOU for proving me right I now feel Vindicated and hungry for bacon damn it now my mouth is watering! p.s. if you use the non slider Ziplocks the regular freezer kind you can roll out the opening to help keep that area clean for meat or whatever food I discovered that way after making my chilli the bags don't tip over as easily!
I keep reading comments saying that people told them they couldn't make bacon from feral hogs. Why? They're just hogs right? Just someone's hogs that escaped and bred by themselves in the wild. They aren't a different species are they? So why would they say you can't make bacon from them? Seems odd.
For a second there, I thought I smelled some bacon cooking. Thanks for the demonstration on how to make the rub, cure it and smoke it. Great video.
Me too
Thank you for commenting Luvstruck. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Followed your recipe do I need to drain any liquid while it’s curing off?
There is no need to drain the liquid off during the curing process.
Excellent video sir......I cant wait to try this myself. Keep up the great work!!
Thank you for commenting JON MARTINEZ!
Awesome video Buhhhd!
On domestic hogs you xan get some nice bacon from the jowl. I wonder if you can do the same from a feral piggy.
I bet it would be delicious!
although its been many years, I recall my grandmother soaking the hog meat in beer after seasoning it, almost like a brine, and then throwing it on the smoker, and packing it up...
Thank you for commenting Bill Browne!
Is the sugar for flavor, or is essential to curing? I avoid sugar if I can. Just wondering if I could use erythritol instead?
The sugar is for flavor only and has nothing to do with curing. You can completely leave it out, but the results would be smoked salt pork, not bacon. Bacon has sugar. I guess you could substitute some other sweetener for sugar, but I have no idea how it would taste. Try it out and let me know how the results turn out. If they turn out good, maybe I can do a video of it and give you credit for the recipe.
100 lbs of bacon ? That's just not fare mmmm you the man.
Years ago we took a cow to a local processing place and I requested it to be processed into all ground beef and they refused.
Your 100 lbs of bacon reminded me of that .lol
Keep up the good work.
JJ Luv
Thanks. 100lb seems like a lot, but it's not enough. When it comes to bacon, Enough is never Enough! Lol!
It seems strange to turn the whole pig into bacon, but you have to understand, this is a wild hog and it is very rare to get a wild hog with this much fat. I get 50 lean hogs for every 1 hog I get like the one in this video. I have no lack of regular hog meat, but there is always a lack of bacon!
You need to trap and pen up a couple small to medium sized feral hogs about mid summer and hit them with some dewormer and feed them as much pig starter as they can choke down, in the fall when the apples are ripe add those to the starter. Come Thanksgiving they will be all ready to go..about 4-5 months makes a world of difference. 👍 it's well worth the few extra bucks in my honest opinion..you have to think of it as getting 1/2 grown piglets for free and it's up to you to finish them up.
I'm going hog hunting next May in Texas, the property owners want. Me to get rid of some hogs that Is destroying his property an iv been watching a lot of videos an I like what I see from yours I plan on doing the same. Thanks for the update video.
Good luck on your hunt. Hogs are exceptionally fat this time of the year, so you should be able to get one that make some awesome bacon.
I found that if I fold the tops over and then insert the meat, you can then bring the tops up without having to clean them.
I got sick of spending more time trying to get the bag to seal than the other steps.
CR Jordan great idea man. Thanks
Wicked work man. Good stuff.
+JJ P
Thanks.
When you're hanging it to dry, what's the air temperature? And about how long would you estimate drying takes?
The temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Drying times will very depending on humidity levels. In this video it was three days but could take longer in very humid climates.
Jungle Explorer In Texas it's humid would you recommend a fan to help it along?
I live in the desert part of West Texas where there is low humidity, but if I lived in East Texas I might use a fan to speed it up a bit.
Jungle Explorer Thanks I'm in San Antonio. 50/50 on humid days. Appreciate the reply
My pleasure. Anytime
Where is the "smell-o-vision" when you want to enjoy to! Looks great !
Thank you for commenting D. Keith Swinney!
Awesome video my mouth was watering!! What kind of knife is that you use ?
Thank you for commenting Jay Macklin!
Good job man! That looks great. very informational I learned a lot.
Thank you for commenting Terry Raffield! I am so glad the video was helpful.
Do you have to use nitrite..? What is the substitute for nitrite?
Not really. You can use things like celery powder and beat juice, but only because these too contain nitrates. By law, the FDA mandates that any meat not cured with nitrates to be labeled as "Uncured Meat". So if you are eating a piece of cured meat, it contains nitrates.
Nitrates are a naturally occuring chemecal. Most green leafy vegetables also contain nitrates as well, so avoiding nitrates is a little more difficult then it seems.
Bro . . . Wild boar, self cured bacon, sharp ass knife, real smoker, cast iron - I hope you don’t mind if I construct a small Jungle Explorer shrine to submit humble offerings as I try these techniques myself.
Thank you for commenting Phil Davies!
I get that you're not trying to cook the meat during the smoking process, but I only have an electric smoker. Are you basically cold smoking, or is there SOME heat? I'm not sure how low I can get my temp.
+Dan Brownfield
A little is not going to hurt as long as it is not enough to cook it. Just keep it as low as possible and keep the bacon as fae away from the heat as you can.
Where did you find the wild pig?
The wild hog in this video came from Eastland county Texas off the ranch of a friend. It was shot during the acorn fall, so it was exceptionally fat from feeding on acorns.
Looks absolutely delicious!
Great job of explaining how to make bacon
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
Nice video. Have you considered adding liquid smoke to your dry rub?
+John Patriot
Thanks. I prefer real smoke, but I would consider using it if I had no way to smoke the meat.
The amount of money I could save doing this myself, thanks for sharing.
Thank you for commenting agentcypher. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Headed to S Tx here in a little over a month. I've always wanted to try to make some bacon with the ones we shoot. I'll be giving this a try for sure. How long do you smoke it for? Is it a set amount of time, or is it until the slab reaches a certain internal temp? I'll also be bringing home some mesquite chunks, wonder how mixing woods would work out, say some hickory and mesquite in the same batch?
+John Sullivan
Good luck on your trip. As far how long, A few hours is enough, but can smoke it more if you want more smoke flavor. I have never tried mixing woods, but I don't think it would be bad to do it. Since I live in a mesquite forest, everything I smoke is mesquite and I love it, but do enjoy the chance some other hardwoods, so I don't mix them.
I didn't know it was that simple to make
Can you use a vacuum sealer to cure it? Seems like the vacuum would force the cure in better.
I don't really know. I have seen those vacuum machines they use on cooking shows to do a quick marinade, but I think those are way stronger than a normal vacuum sealer. I honestly don't know the answer to this question. Sorry.
Your just cruel, mean and murderous. HaHa You had to go fry that delicious bacon and enjoy all by yourself. Dang it man. Thanks for the cure and smoke way.
To many hogs here, but no bacon or hams. They eat the head and hoof, not pickled pigs feet. I just helped butcher a boar, 4th one this year. Tossed in grease on open fire. They cut the fat off leaving it on the skin, deep fry and eat. Not cracklins like I am used to. It all tastes good. I looked your channel up because it said wild hog. But thanks again for the way. So I can make some bacon and hams.
Thanks. This is the time of the year to get a nice fat sow. I got one coming to my feeder right now. Just waiting for the right time to take her. Too busy right now to make bacon. Here are some pics and video of her. thejungleexplorer.com/sow-hog-that-is-coming-to-my-feeder-daily
Should have finished cooking and added eggs and a taste test!!! Left me HANGING!!!
Loved watching your video, Jungle Explorer! I'm someone who has only known bacon to come from the grocery store, so please forgive me for my ignorance. When I have tried wild game- like Deer and moose, I really didn't like that 'gamey' taste. Can you tell me if your home made bacon from a wild sow tastes 'gamey'? I saw the comment below about the difference in bacon from boars and sows. Does your brine and salt/pepper/nitrates/brown sugar take that gamey taste away?
Thanks for uploading this video!
That is a hard question for me to answer because I literally eat about 90% wild game year around, so I cannot taste that "Gamey" taste other people talk about. But I can tell you this. I fed all that bacon to dozens of different people and not one person spit it out or complained about it having a gamey taste. The only rhing they comllained about is me not cooking enough.
I would only turn a sow or a young boar into bacon though. Older boars can get pretty smelly and would not make for good bacon.
Every time we harvest an animal we soak the meat in ice water for a couple days to let it bleed out n get most of the gamey flavors out of the meat
looks simple and delicious 👍👍
Thanks. Glad it helped
Can I use Kosher salt on the Pig?
Thank you for commenting Dandy Beano!
After watching your video and the way you salted the meat in the refrigerator the pink salt isn't really necessary. It just takes a little longer to cure in the fridge. Once the moisture content has gone down and the salinity is to the point of good hard meat no microbes can live in it. Once the smoke is completed the meat is sealed. But, freezing/ refridgerating the bacon will keep it.
I'd be concerned about skipping the pink salt if you hung the meat in the smokehouse after curing and smoking it until use which was common along with hams and other smoked meats when refridgerating wasn't available.
Thank you for this great information sirwilliam51. I appreciate it very much when viewers contribute useful information as you have here.
4:37 "I'm gonna end up with about 100 lbs of bacon" *followed by excited laugh*
Haven’t tried using the ham. Just haven’t had enough fat on a hog. But I’ll definitely try it the next time on that range free organic porker I get.
Thank you for commenting Dan Felice! I am so glad the video was helpful.
Do you think I this process would work on elk or deer? I live in an area that is hard to find land to get a hog on, but I have elk and deer in the freezer and am going to hopefully harvest an elk in a month or so, and if it would work I’d love to do some because I love some bacon
Although you could use this process to cure any kind of meat, you would not get bacon. You can only get bacon from hog with enough fat content. Deer and Elk are very lean and have almost no fat content in the meat. Even if you get a really fat one, the fat will not be in the meat, and besides that, the fat of deer and elk is more of a tallow like fat and nothing like pork fat. Personally, I don't like deer fat and would never try to make bacon out of it. But, that does not mean you cannot cure it for other purposes then bacon. Hope this helps?
Jungle Explorer that helped a lot thank you, I agree now that you say it like that the fat is definitely different now that I think of it
Thank you for the video posting.
Thank you for commenting David Jobes!
17:30 yep, that meat is deffently going to dennys. what else could you exspect? a 1st class meal?
It was Awesome 😎
It is delicious. So far I've made it 3 times. Even I the meat is lean. It's still good. I call it BAM. It taste between bacon and ham.
I thought he didn’t flip the last piece but good job thanks for the video that looked ono licious aloha
To make better bacon, keep your bacon grease every time you fry it and start with at least one inch deep of bacon fat... That way, you cook the bacon evenly without the hard/fat areas.
Either that or a bacon press. (but I love it 'deep fried'.)
Thank you for commenting RonRay!
great vid bud great info cant wait do it myself
Thank you for commenting Content Quality. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Thanks!!!
You made it look simple.
Can’t wait to try bacon made by me!!
Got to get pigggy. Fat 1st.
Nice job I do a lot of my own process deer & hogs👍
Thanks
You had me at "bacon"
Haha 😄
very helpful thank you.
Can you use this process with any other meats or does it have to be pork?
Any meat could be done like this.
just curious was the meat fresh or was it aged before you started this
Fresh
how much for the piece of slab you are cooking
Thank you for commenting Blain Hawkins!
Well done and thanks for your time and suggestions on this process. No matter what you call it....just remember to call me for breakfast, I'll even bring some of cast iron collection to share.
Thanks.
I don't care what they call it, as long as they don't call me late for breakfast...😁
How long did you air dry?
Until it develops a film like substance over the meat.
How would you go about wet curing the bacon??
Madiline Scott marinade (add water to salt brown sugar mix
put meat in bag first. scoop the rub in to the bag. Seal the bag and shake it. Nofuss no muss.Great system. ..
Once the salt extraxt juice from the meat, it become a wet cure.
How does the pink salt do with the kosher salt doesn't? Also being here in Texas I've killed many wild hogs or pretty much over run with them like cockroaches if you know what I mean stop. How do you get enough fat on a wild hog to make bacon?
The pink salt contain nitrates that prevent bacteria growth. It is rare to find a hog this fat. This particular hog came from Eastland county during the acorn fall, so it was exceptionally fat.
Black Pepper is No 1
It aids in digestion and uptake of vitamins & minerals, very beneficial.
Thank you for this great information tree Climbing. I appreciate it very much when viewers contribute useful information as you have here.
I love me some meaty bacon. I don't like it too fatty. I need to get me a hog.
Does it have to be a ziploc? I've got a large tupperware with a lid. Also, what temp are you cooking at?
You can use anything you want ad long as it is watertight and does not come open when flipped.
When smoking the bacon, you want the lowest possible temperature you can get.
you make me hungry brother....looks taste really really good
Thank you for this great information ernesto lagramada. I appreciate it very much when viewers contribute useful information as you have here.
Great job!! Good Eaton right there!!! A lot of work though.
Thank you for commenting Ron Grett!
Awesome. Will make it.
Thank you for commenting Frank Faker. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
You should try smoking that with some cherry wood you'll flip when you try it it's so good it imparts such a nice heavy smoke flavor to it I just love the flavor of cherry smoked meet
I bet you are right. I will definitely try it yhe next time I make b some bacon.
Why not use celery salt instead of nitrates?
Thank you for this great information Richard Cherry. I appreciate it very much when viewers contribute useful information as you have here.
How does it taste?
Amazing!
thats how its done . good job. smoking it a bit longer never hurts.. Brad B
Thanks.
Looks mighty tastey.......... Nice video. Thanks
Thank you for commenting Mark Keplinger. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.
Years ago our poor fathers did not use that pink salt. What did they use?
The answer to that question depends on the climate. Having lived a true primitive pioneer life style before when I lived in the Amazon, we kept meat stored up above a our house cooking fireplace.
Up North the normally cut ice blocks out of the lakes and store it in a cellar buried in saw dust or hay. They could keep things cold all summer.
Best bacon I’ve done is castrated wild boars..and yes the belly can make very good bacon…tastes even better if you brine out all the blood from meat as much as possible when butchering…nice bacon dude 👍🏼
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
Very well done.
Thank you for commenting Keith Watts!
I've eatin' food made in cast iron since the beginnin'. And we have feral pigs in the southern part of the county we live in. So as soon as I get things set up, my son and I are gonna get some. Good idea here! I worked in a butcher shop as a teen, and we raised our own animals. I remember an old oak barrel we wet brined hams and slabs in. Socked, pumped the hams with it, and smoked overnight. We'd then unsock'em, hose down and scrub the crystalized salt of the outside. Then towel dry and store.
Cast Iron is the best for most everything fried. Never could "cure" cast, though, but I've eaten a lot off it.
Thank you for commenting unionrdr!
Be picky on the chosen I say .I use the belly meat/fat that’s cut off the ribs to make my wild bacon and so far the best I’ve come across is the castrated ones that has an edge on flavor …
How long did you end up smoking? Personal preference?
I love smoke flavor, so I smoke longer then most. I would say four hours would be a minimum time to smoke.
@@thejungleexplorer thank you sir! Would vacuum sealing help the cure speed? I'm leaving for our 3rd annual hog hunt on public land in Georgia. I know we'll be bring back a lot of meat. I'm super pumped to turn most of it into bacon. Thanks a lot for making this video!
I do not believe that vacuum sealing would speed up the curing process. From what I understand about if, vacuum sealing meat is a way to speed up marination time. In other words, it helps get juices into the meat. Curing is the opposite of marinating. Curing it trying to get the juices out of the meat, not into the meat. So it seems to be the opposite of what we would want do to. I am not an expert on using vacuum to marinate meat and I could be wrong about it though.
Looks awesome!
Thanks
Very much tempting
Thank you for commenting DAVID MARTIN SATHYANATHAN! I am so glad the video was helpful.
i can't wait to get me a hog! thanks for the vid
Thank you for commenting john mc dowell. I am very happy to hear that you enjoyed the video.