9 months still no off taste or smell and was edible after the same process used at the 6 month point. Very thin pieces fry up very similarly to bacon but I think its best use is as an additive to fried potatoes, beans, or soup where it is one flavor among others. By itself it is very onenote salt with a porky aftertaste. Doubling the quantity of fresh water and time in all methods for destalinization doesn't seem to help more than the original method used at 6 months.Interesting!! I love doing stuff like this and seeing how it goes. Thanks for sharing. I can hardly wait to hear how it is at 9 months.