What are you smoking? Part Two

Howdy. Here's an update on my smoky goings-on. As you can see, the pork belly (all 10 pounds of it) cured wonderfully after five or so days sitting in a mix of spices and herbs.....

The pooled fluid you see here is the excess moisture drawn out by the salt and sugar.

At this point it is now, in effect, bacon. All you really have to do is rinse it well, slice and eat. To gauge it's saltiness I trimmed a piece off, fried it up and gave it to my wife -- who is unerringly honest above all. She proclaimed it too salty, so I soaked it for an hour or so in cold water.

Next up, I rubbed some cracked pepper corn son the four pieces of bacon and placed them in the smoker at about 200 F, along with some chunks of cherry and hickory. 

Note that I left the skin on the bacon (see the piece in the forefront below). I trim this "rind" off later and add it to sauces, beans or chili.

After about 90 minutes on the smoker here's the (almost) finished product.
 

 
All that's left is the slicing, which I do on a home slicer I acquired recently. It seems like a small thing, but slicing it with even the sharpest knife can be frustrating and yield uneven slices. 
   

That's it for now. I'll post an update on my Top Secret Smoked Meat Project in the next couple of days!