Home Cured Bacon Food

HOMEMADE BACON

Steps:

• Rinse the pork belly and pat dry. Transfer to a resealable 2-gallon plastic bag. To make the spice rub, mix the kosher salt, pink salt, brown sugar, honey, red pepper flakes, paprika and cumin in a bowl. Coat the pork belly all over with the mixture.
• Close the bag and refrigerate 7 to 10 days, flipping once a day, until the pork belly feels firm. It should take 7 days for a thin belly that is about 11/2 inches thick, longer for a belly that's 2 to 3 inches thick.
• Remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. Refrigerate the belly on a rack, uncovered, 48 hours.
• Set up your smoker according to the manufacturer's instructions using applewood chips, and set to 200 degrees F. Smoke the pork belly 3 hours, or until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.
• Remove the rind (optional), then slice and cook as desired. To store, wrap the bacon in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 2 months.
• Pink curing salt is a mix of salt and sodium nitrite. It keeps the meat pink and protects it from bacteria. You can find it at specialty food stores or online.

HOME-CURED STREAKY BACON

Steps:

• Tip the salt and sugar into a freezer bag and shake well. Slip the pork into the bag, seal and scrunch around with your hands until the pork is completely covered in the cure.
• Lay the pork flat in the fridge and leave for five days, turning occasionally. The dry cure will turn into a wet brine as the liquid is released from the meat.
• After the five days, lift the pork from the bag, rinse it off and pat it dry. It's now ready to slice into rashers and cook. Will keep in an airtight container for one week.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.
• After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn't easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

ENGLISH BACON

Steps:

• Combine the spices and grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder, then mix with the salt, pink salt, and sugar.
• Stand the pork roast up so that the fat cap is facing up. Score the fat ¼ inch deep in a cross-hatch pattern, then flip over and cut next to the bone/spine a bit as if you were going to start removing the bone. Follow the bone with a paring knife, revealing an inch or two in, to make it easier for the cure to absorb, and to give you an outline of where to cut to remove the bone when the "bacon" is done smoking.
• Rub the meat liberally with the cure, getting into all the nooks and crannies, then put in a zip loc bag or vacuum seal and refrigerate for 5 days, turning occasionally to distribute the juices.
• After 5 days, remove the pork from the liquid, rinse, pat dry, then refrigerate for at least a few hours, preferably overnight, uncovered, which will help it form a skin that will absorb smoke, known as the pellicle.
• Smoke the loin, fat side up at 225 for 3 hours, or until lightly browned and fully cooked (145-150F)* then cool, cut off the bone, slice, portion, vacuum seal and freeze or refrigerate until needed.

HOMEMADE BACON (DRY CURED AND AIR DRIED)

Steps:

• Combine the sugar and salt. Generously rub the flesh side of the pork belly with the mixture.
• Rub the sugar and salt into the flesh some more.
• Did I mention you need to rub the 'ol pork belly down with the sugar and salt? The sides too. Make sure to get any pockets or under bits of fat - anywhere where water could accumulate. All of it, man.
• Stack the pork belly slab (or slabs) into the large plastic bin. Stick in the refrigerator and forget about it until the next day. Dump the accumulated liquid out of the plastic bin and rerub the flesh with the sugar and salt. Stack it all back in the tub and stick it in the fridge again.
• The next day, dump out any accumulated liquid and rub the sugar and salt mixture on any part of the pork belly where the salt and sugar has been completely dissolved. A thin layer will do. Repeat this process every day until liquid stops accumulating in the bin. Ours took about 10 days.
• Rinse the pork belly under water, using your fingertips to scrub off any remaining sugar and salt. Pat dry.
• Voila! Cured bacon. We ran meat hooks through ours and hung it up in the kitchen.

HOW TO MAKE MEASURED DRY CURE BACON AT HOME || GLEN & FRIENDS COOKING

Steps:

• Weigh your piece of pork belly.
• Weigh the rest of the cure components:
• Salt is 2.5% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Sugar is 1% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Pink Cure #1 is 0.25% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Mix together the salt, sugar, and pink cure #1.
• The above constitutes the 'cure'.
• If you wish to 'flavour' the bacon you can layer on as much as you want of almost whatever you want.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Rub the pork belly top and bottom with the Aleppo pepper. Combine the kosher salt, curing salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large, nonreactive container and bury the belly completely in the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days.
• Remove the belly from the refrigerator and discard the cure. Rinse the remaining cure off the meat and pat it dry. Set the belly on a baking sheet and loosely cover. Allow to sit in the refrigerator another 2 days. On the second day, set the hickory chips in water to soak overnight.
• Using a conventional smoker, smoke the belly until the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Once the belly is smoked and cooled, cut into 4 sections. Wrap the sections well in plastic wrap and foil and store in the freezer until needed, up to 3 months.