I quit smoking bacon at home because I couldn't get the bellies easily (just cut up chunks) and because I
need another source of saturated fat like a hole in the head. I COULD search our many good butchers for the meat,
but I have to put my foot down over my all new fun-size body. It ain't FUN. I have given up sugary drinks at work
and mostly at home, but I nibble too much at work, and my 40 mins of walking doesn't burn enough calories. I LOVE
bacon, but I sure don't make my own anymore. Too easy to justify eating it. If I want bacon now I have to
go to the store and buy it. :-)
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I guess I am lucky... we kill 1-2 pigs a year and so does my cousin. His wife won't eat homemade bacon so I get his pork bellies too. That usually is enough for the year. The only time I buy bacon is when I do ABTs. I like the thin sliced bacon from Winn Dixie for those so I buy it.

I'm simple minded too... I have convinced myself that without the nitrates and such that my homemade bacon is healthy!!!:-)
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I had a foodsaver, after a year of use and about 100' to 150' feet worth of bags, it died.

I just picked up a Vacmaster 130 from Costco's website (web only, not in stores), about $140 delivered. For a home use machine, it's pretty heavily built. A few things really attracted me to their design over some of the other companies:
1) Heavy duty pump that does not require cool down between runs.
2) The seal strip (what melts the bag together) is two to three times wider than most other brands. I see this as greatly reducing the chance of seal failure and allowing for a good seal even in the event of slight debris or oil in the seal area on the bag.
3) Besides automatic mode with a manual seal button, it also has a timer mode, where I can punch in how long I want the unit to evacuate the bag for. I ran into problems in the past (on the foodsaver) with certain foods trapping air bubbles between the food and wall of the bag and with the machine having no mode other than automatic sensor, me not having enough time to push the air bubble out to the side where it could be evacuated before the pressure switch tripped and sealed the bag.
4) I find bags to be more convenient than rolls and with pre-made bags I only have one seal that is at risk for failure, rather than two when cutting from a roll and making my own. After working out the costs on bags versus rolls for the Vacmaster and Wilson bags/rolls, I found that, for the items I'm sealing, the price of a bag was actually less than rolls when I purchase 100 bags at a time from Amazon for $21 to $39 depending on the size*. Versus other brands, bags/film for the Vacmaster is about 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of the foodsaver brand bags and film.


I've only had the machine about a week, so I can't give you any comments on long term use, but so far, it's done fine sealing up whatever I've thrown at it.


*: I have an Amazon prime account, so shipping is covered. For rolls, the better price was actually on costco's website, where shipping is included. So I'm calling the cost of membership at both vendors a wash. If you have to pay shipping at Amazon, your pricing per bag might be different.
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Smoked some moinks and wings on the kettle yesterday. I was too lazy to deal with the WSM.
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This is for you, Pete. :-)

Image
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Neato, I like it. What kind of temps do you get in the CB unit with the Traeger on "smoke"?
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No clue. I should measure it but it is below 90. VERY dependent on the outside temp to be sure. It was a cool evening. I think that helped.

I cured the salmon for 36 hours, rinsed, and patted dry. Air dry, uncovered in the fridge for another 10 hours. Then ~4 hours on the smoker.

Delicious but a bit on the salty side. Time for some experimentation.
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As you already know, I'm looking at possibly getting a Traeger next year, so I'm curious to know, but it certainly isn't anything you need to rush out and do on my behalf. And, no doubt on the outside temps and if sunlight is hitting the unit, I have to dodge that all the time here when I want to smoke cheeses, hence all my 5-6am starts for them.

Smoked salmon, that's next on my list now that I've finished smoking the 16 lbs of cheese that I picked up last week.
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I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at cold smoking salmon. Just need to refine the cure and prep. I saw one site that recommended soaking the fillet in water for an hour before air drying in the fridge prior to smoking. I may give that a try.
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Did you do the recipe I suggested to you regarding the injection/rub? It's by far the best flavored pulled pork I've ever made.

Regarding a vacuum sealer, I thought I needed one myself. For my last cook, I had 4 freezer 1 gallon bags full of pulled pork. 3 of them went in the freezer and I couldn't tell a difference. I'd just get out all the air you can and you should be good to go. Just my $0.02 as I think you can find a better use for $150 in the world of smoking. Think of how many butts/racks of ribs/etc you can make for that.
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x2, freezer bags and pulled pork are fine and dandy. Sometimes it's even better after some time in the freezer,
cause you get to iintroduce more crispy element into it on the reheat if you wish.
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Please LMK how that compares, I have mixed feelings on those extra water-only soaks, I wonder if some of the flavors that I want to preserve are also being diluted or pulled out, but I can't eliminate enough variables with my method to get a handle on that issue, so all other things being equal, I'd be curious to hear how it affects the final product.
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I'll do that.
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Not for the pulled pork, but for when I buy whole tenderloins, strips, ribeye's, etc at Costco and cut them up into steaks to freeze for future use.
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:-)
I have saved many times the cost of my Foodsaver by buying full primals at Costco and Sams and vac'ing portions, not to mention multitudes of other items.
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The true vacuum seal is great to keep frost from forming inside the package, but even that can't REALLY be stopped
100%. So Freezer bags are fine and realatively cheap. But a really good Vac Sealer is a nice luxury, too.
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hey pnoon.. did you brine your salmon before smoking?

found a link for a bradley and cold smoking salmon... http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=55.0
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No.
I did a dry cure for 36 hours. I will post the recipe this weekend.
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Just got done putting the rub on tomorrow's pork butt. 7 pounder. Used:

1/8 cup pepper
1/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2T cayenne pepper
2T onion powder
2T garlic powder
1T basil
1t ground mustard
Unmeasured amounts of cumin, coriander, and sage.

Hopefully it's good. Just checked and I'm down to not much lump charcoal (under 2 pounds) and only a few chunks of applewood. Get to make a run into town early tomorrow morning with the kids. Probably going to serve homemade Mac and cheese with the pork.
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Rub sounds good to me, Peter. Let us know how it turns out.
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