The end result turned out great. The skin came off very easily with the "skin on" belly and the only difference that I could tell is that you don't have the nice looking smokey bark on half of the belly. Some BBQ Gloves help when it's time to take the bacon off the smoker and during the skin removal. I noticed no difference in the effectiveness of the cure or the overall flavor of the final product. If pressed for time, I believe the initial skinning process can be skipped without any repercussions. The maple flavor came out the best and was my favorite. When it's fried up it smells and tastes just as you would imagine, like smoked sausage covered in maple syrup. Perfect with some pancakes or waffles. I saved a bit of skin and other discarded trimmings and made pork stock and cracklings.