Bringing Home the Bacon

Last fall we found that a neighbor of a friend of ours was raising pigs for sale. We split one with another friend and have been enjoying various pork products ever since. I asked the processing plant not to cure the bacon so that I could experiment with making our own. I had no idea that making bacon was so easy or that it would taste so good.

Bruce Audell's Complete Book of Pork proved a reliable guide and our Bradley Smoker was just the ticket for cold-smoking the meat.

Here's the formula for the curing solution.

• 6 cups water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 21/2 tablespoons Insta-cure No. 1*

 

Steps to make bacon

1.Make a brine by dissolving salt, sugar, and Insta-cure No. 1 in water and chill to 45 degrees.

2. If using a whole pork belly, cut into 3 equal pieces. If using boneless Boston butt, butterfly and cut it into 2 equal pieces. Put the meat into a pleastic storage container and submerge it in the brine. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 days then remove from the brine, Pat dry.

3.Now the meat is ready to be cold-smoked. The goal of cold-smoking is to keep wood smoldering to produce smoke, but not to produce enough heat for cooking. For a nice smoky flavor, Aidell's smokes the meat for 6 to 8 hours. When the bacon is done take it out, cool it, wrap it tightly in plastic before storing it in the fridge. Smoked bacon will last a week to 10 days in the refrigerator. It can be frozen if well-wrapped for up to 2 months.

The Bacon after being smoked

Bacon cooking

* Insta-Cure is availabe from The Sausage Maker.

Comments

[ann hunt]

I can smell it cooking from here...

[Anne Ritchings]

This was soooo good.