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Home Made Bacon
Tired of bacon that's too salty or watery? Try making it yourself at home. It may take a while, but the effort is certainly worth it. This is a really basic recipe for a rubbed dry cure bacon.
Ingredients
At a glance
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Main Ingredient
Cooking Method
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Tidings Eats
Mixology
Makes
10 - 12 lbs
10-12 lbs of skin on pork belly
2 cups coarse Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3/4 cup maple syrup
Method/Steps
Mix salt, sugar, and maple syrup in a bowl.
Rub mixture on pork belly, making sure to thoroughly cover all surfaces.
Place belly in sealed air tight freezer or storage bags, and place bags in fridge.
Turn over bags daily, to evenly distribute brine that will be released from pork.
Continue to turn bags for 7 days.
Remove pork from bags and rinse completely.
Cut off a small piece and fry it up so you can taste salt level.
If the bacon is too salty you can soak in cold water for an hour or so to reduce salt level.
If you are not goint to smoke it, remove skin and portion out the bacon.
Freeze to store.
If you are smoking the bacon, lay it out on a rack in your fridge for 12-24 hours to form a ‘pelicule’. This step is very important, the pelicule will help during smoking.
You can hot or cold smoke your bacon. Smoked at a temp of 175ºf until the internal temp of the bacon is 150ºf.
Remove skin, and freeze to store.
Wine and Spirits Match
Even after smoking the bacon needs to be refrigerated or frozen for storage, and cooked before eating.