Homemade Bacon
How to make homemade bacon
Suggested Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Pork Belly Buy what looks good to you
Dry Ingredients - Cure Ingredients
- 1 48 oz Box Coarse Kosher Salt 3 Pound Box
- 2 teaspoon Prague Powder Sodium Nitrite + Table Salt
- 1 Cups Brown Sugar
- 1 T Chipotle Powder
- 1 T Cumin
- 2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flake
Instructions
Purchasing & Preparing the Pork Belly
- You can find pork belly at your local butcher shop or Asian grocery store.
- You can save yourself some effort and ask the butcher to remove the pork belly skin. The skin is way too tough to make bacon with. You will not be able to chew it.
- Choosing your piece of pork belly, look for a new piece with a high amount of meat and a low amount of fat (the white stuff).
The Dry Cure Ingredients
- Combine all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add about ( ⅓ ) third of the dry cure to a large casserole dish or you could use a large plastic bag. I’m not a fan of using plastic bags for this process. We will be curing the bacon for 7 days and I feel like salt and plastic touching for 7 days or more sounds off to me.
- Rub the curing mix all over the pork belly very well. Add the remaining curing mix to the top of the pork belly and make sure zero pork belly is exposed to air.
- Place the pork belly on the lower shelf in your refrigerator at the very back. The bacon will cure for 7 days.
- After 7 days rinse off the pork belly under warm water. To dry, place on a roasting rack into the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
Adding Smoke To Your Bacon
- A natural and traditional method is cold smoking. Keeping the temperature der 110/115 degree. The idea is you are NOT cooking the bacon. Only kissing it with a little smoke flavor.
- Second MethodTake 1 ½ cups of water and mix in 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke. Then spray or pour over the bacon. I would slice the bacon before this step to increase the surface area for more flavor.
- Third MethodIncreasing the amount of chipotle powder and even adding more ingredients like smoked paprika some high-quality chili powder. Anything with a smokey note to it. Experiment around.
Video
Notes
Warning:
Sodium Nitrite, PLEASE know that Prague powder can be dangerous, this ingredient should be used with care. Sodium nitrite should NOT be used as normal salt. Used in too high amounts can cause cardiac arrest.
Do not confuse sodium nitrite with sodium nitrate.