I love using hickory smoked salt on my pot roast and haven't been able to find it anywhere for a long time. My roast doesn't taste the same without it. I am getting discouraged, also, with the other items that are being discontinued at my local Kroger store--Martha White all-purpose flour, Butter Buds, 8 oz. cans of sauerkraut (I'm the only one in my family that likes it), large containers of Country time lemonade, and shoepeg corn to name a few. The only other place to grocery shop in town is Aldi's, Wal-Mart, Sam's (don't need bulk supplies anymore as an empty nester), and IGA. Because of my husband's dietary needs I have certain brands that I have come to rely on and most of these don't carry the brands I need.

Sharon, I'm not at home, I'm at work, so I had to search the web for someone else who made that bacon! Sure enough, I found this on a smoking blog, and it's the same recipe that I used, but with notes from the blogger. Maple Cured Bacon One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on 2 ounces kosher salt 1/4 C. pure Maple syrup 2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawain stuff) 1/4 C. Maple sugar (pricey, worth it) Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly). Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use one of the cheapies from walmart used for allowing cookies to cool) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle). Next, take the bacon out of the fridge and hot smoke it (about 200 degrees) until your therm reads 147. Take the slab out, place it in another zip lock bag, and immerse in a cool water bath to cool it quickly. Put it in the fridge, and now you've got bacon!!!! Ruhlman suggests slicing the rind off after smoking. I did it before smoking, because I wanted more smoke flavor for the bacon itself. I guess some people also leave the rind on and just slice as is (I'm going to do this next time...I've discovered I like rind on bacon). OK, those were the bloggers instructions. I removed the rind before smoking and I used Grade B maple syrup and Elery smoked it with apple wood. I hope that helps, so smoke away, my friend... Annie

vieja, I wanted to let you know, I buy most of my spices from spicebarn.com. They have hickory smoke powder and salt. We love to grill and bbq and someone told us about this company because you can get really cool stuff from them such as worcestershire powder, hickory powder (or salt), honey powder, beer powder, etc., to make rubs with. Just thought I'd let you know in cast you're interested.

You could bring them in. Could you cover them with something clear to keep them clean and out in that nice hot weather you are having? Last year we had a Fire burning on the Mainland, not the Island and this is what the Sun looked like. This was all smoke not haze or clouds. Rick