I took the bacon out of the brine last night and washed it off, leaving it in the fridge to form a pellicle (a sort of sticky skin that the smoke adheres to). Firing up the smoker was a challenge as I had no idea what I was doing - but finally I managed to get the charcoal to ignite and added some pellets of hickory. Not enough it seems as after half an hour no smoke was in evidence. But i added another half a cup of pellets and away she went.

The meat was supposed to achieve an internal temperature of 150 degrees. It took me a while to realise this was fahrenheit, not centigrade, but not to worry. It worked.

 And here you have it! The finest free range pork belly, brined in maple syrup and cracked black pepper, then smoked in hickory smoke!

I popped it in the fridge to cool down a bit and then, temptation got the better of me so I trimmed off some thin slices from the ends and fried the up in the left-over pork fat from the cumberburgers I had for dinner last night.

It caramelised beautifully around the edges and tastes divine. Now to wait and see if I gave myself botulism. But if I did, I will at least die a very happy woman as that pork belly will feed me for some time.