I have tried this Smoked Beef Bacon Recipe because I had problem finding pork belly. So, it made a good replacement for pork belly bacon.
The best cut to make beef bacon is brisket flat. People say beef plate it the cut that comes closest to pork belly.
Ingredients
Boneless Beef briskets
4.15# (1/2 gal. water)
1# Curley’s Brown Sugar
Directions
Dissolve 1# of Curley’s brown sugar cure in ½gallon of cold water, stir well.
Trim briskets of all excess fat and place trimmed briskets in a shallow pan to collect cure run off.
Pump cure into sides of brisket. Pump brisket 10% of weight.
Place pumped brisket in a pan and dry rub all sides of brisket with brown sugar cure.
Place pumped and rubbed briskets in a clean clear plastic bag and seal with twisty.
Let cure in refrigerator for 7 to 10 days.
Note: this is a dry cure procedure; do not add any additional brine water for it to soak in.
Smoking and Cooking
Rinse briskets off with cold water. Don’t soak them in water, but rinse for a few seconds to rinse off any excess salt.
Hang on bacon hooks or put on smokehouse screens at room temp. for one hour to dry.
Preheat smokehouse to 130 degrees, damper open.
Place briskets in smokehouse, temp. 130-140 degrees, damper open, for 1 to 2 hours, or until
meat is dry to touch.
Turn temp. to 150-160 degrees, damper ½ open, add smoke for 2 hours or until desired color.
Turn temp. to 170-180 degrees, damper closed, no smoke, until internal temp. of 150 degrees.
Let cool at room temp. for 1 hour, then place in clean plastic bag and put in refrigerator overnight to cool.
Make sure bag is partially open for proper air movement. Next day slice and serve.
Package and freeze.
