Type what you have

Ingredients

• ✓ hickory wood chunk
• pork belly
• brown sugar
• salt
• paprika
• red pepper flake
• black pepper
• curing salt
• cumin seed
• maple syrup
• applewood chunk

Instructions

1. 1 Rinse pork belly; pat dry. Combine brown sugar, non-iodized salt, paprika, red pepper flakes, black pepper, curing salt, and cumin seeds in a bowl; stir in maple syrup. Evenly spread brown sugar curing mixture over pork belly.
2. 2 Vacuum-seal pork belly or place into a resealable plastic bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Refrigerate for 7 to 10 days.
3. 3 Remove pork belly from bag; rinse thoroughly. Pat dry; refrigerate while preheating smoker.
4. 4 Preheat a smoker to 220 degrees F (105 degrees C) according to manufacturers' instructions.
5. 5 Place pork belly, fat-side down, onto the wire rack. Place the rack into the smoker. Add 1 fist-sized chunk of applewood and 1 chunk of hickory wood to the smoke pan according to manufacturer's directions. Smoke for 1 1/2 hours; add 2 more applewood chunks. Continue smoking until pork belly reaches an internal temperature of about 150 degrees F (66 degrees C), about 1 1/2 hours more.
6. 6 Remove pork belly from smoker; slice as desired. Store in the refrigerator for about 30 days. You can also portion the smoked bacon, freezing whatever you don't plan to consume right away. To use, thaw it in the refrigerator.

By Smye Sarrel

Ingredients

• ✓ hickory wood chunk
• toothpick
• lump charcoal
• hog casing
• cayenne pepper
• red pepper
• black pepper
• white pepper
• marjoram
• liquid smoke
• white sugar
• salt
• cider vinegar
• powdered milk
• paprika
• red wine
• pork butt
• garlic
• olive oil
• pork backfat

Instructions

1. 1 Rinse fatback thoroughly and soak in warm water for 30 minutes. Remove and chop into small pieces.
2. 2 Pour olive oil in a small pan and saute garlic for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not let it brown. Remove from pan and put into a large bowl. Add fatback, pork butt, wine, paprika, milk, vinegar, salt, sugar, liquid smoke, marjoram, white pepper, black pepper, and red pepper and mix until everything is well combined. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.
3. 3 Test the sausage flavor by frying a small bit of it in a pan and tasting it. Adjust spices if needed and place back in the refrigerator, covered, for 2 more hours.
4. 4 Run water through hog casings and rinse out as well as possible. Soak in warm water for 30 minutes.
5. 5 Set up sausage stuffing attachment on KitchenAid®. Squeeze out water from a length of casing. Tie one end in a knot, then roll onto sausage making fitting like a condom. Turn KitchenAid® onto medium speed. Feed cold sausage mixture a little at a time into the funnel. Use one hand to keep casing tight and one to feed meat mixture. Twist off links as you get to desired length. Repeat with remaining hog casings and sausage mixture.
6. 6 Add several handfuls of hot coal into a smoker to get a base temperature going, then let the temperature die down to about 140 degrees F 60 degrees C). You need a cold smoke to smoke the sausages so it doesn't cook and the skin doesn't get browned.
7. 7 When smoker has the right temperature, add hickory wood chunks. The temperature will spike again, so let it cool back down to 140 degrees F (60 degrees C).
8. 8 Using toothpicks, hang sausages in the smoker as far away from the direct heat source as possible. Maintain temperature at 140 degrees F (60 degrees C) as best as possible. It's difficult - don't sweat it if you get spikes. Just open the smoker door and let heat escape accordingly.
9. 9 Smoke until links are deep red and skin is starting to firm, about 1 1/2 hours.
10. 10 Remove from smoker and let rest for 30 minutes. Cook like any other sausage before, either pan-fry or grill, before serving.

By Brian Genest