Pork Middlins

[Drew]

I had planned on getting 2 full middlins (15lb with skin on) as well as other porky parts from a friend at work who was killing this weekend.  He got in touch with me on Friday and told me that he had oversold this round of pork, no sides for me...  I can't find pork belly at the local grocery, but I had a planned trip to Shenendoah for a family function, where there are good butcher shops, I was able to pick up 2 middlins from Gore Meat (used to be Foltz).  One was 7.5lb and the other was 9.5lb, both skin off.  These are shown on the second pic (2599), they have been cut in half to allow me to get them in the bag. 

I got home from Shenendoah and called Eddie to schedule a place/time to pick up the rest of the hog that I had ordered -- the leaf fat and the trotters.  Met him up the road a little bit and he not only had ~25lb of leaf fat and trotters, but he also had a 14.5lb skin on middlin.  First pic (2597).

The leaf fat is gonna be rendered this weekend.  The trotters went to a good friend of mine who requested that I get them.  Next time

Today I worked up the nearly 30 lb of potential bacon.  I used the 5lb recipe from Mike Chester and just multiplied by 6 to get my cure and got them cured and in the fridge.  Plan to see how they do over the next few days and maybe cold smoke them this weekend.  Anyone know if it *has* to be cured for 7 days?  I have noticed in the past that the meat gets a very firm texture to it, almost like you can hold one end of the slab and the other end doesn't bend much at all.  Is this a sign that the bacon is ready to smoke?

Drew