I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give. -Thomas Jefferson
I have purchased all kinds of bacon over the years. From the thin, slimy stuff, to thick-cut, “artisanal” bacon, and now my very own.
Why would I learn to cure pork belly (where good quality bacon should come from) when I can buy bacon at Costco, Whole Foods, or a local butcher? Well…because I can control the actual source of the pig! How many supermarket butchers will be able to tell you where they get their porcine? Doubt they know. Do you think the Costco guys know? Nope. Maybe, just maybe a good quality local butcher will know but better yet, have a relationship with a farm that will grow on ethically and beautifully (like we do!). If he can tell you “this little farmer from Mt. Vernon or Sandpoint, or something, then you are on to something. Keep him and hold him and love him because in our quest to try and fix our food problems, sourcing food is probably one of the single most important things we can do. We can then know what the animal ate and what sort of life it lived before it met the butchers bullet and knife. It is important, not for existential reasons, rather, for health reasons and if you are going to eat the meat from the pig, you may as well get as healthy as you can.
But for those of you that want to go just one step further, and learn to make it yourself, frankly, it isn’t as difficult as it sounds. It take a little time, and very little product that you can’t find in your local store. It is also WAY CHEAPER to buy high quality pork belly from a butcher you trust, and then curing yourself, than buying the slab bacon they sell in their very own display cases. You will be doing everyone, including your taste buds and your wallet, a favor.
There is a lot to say (and a lot of misinformation) about nitrites and nitrates for bacon and other cured products. I will write that up in another post but for now, I have two options to cure your own American-style bacon at home. One with pink curing salt and the other without.
I also want to point out that there are two methods to curing with salt whether your are doing curing salt-free, or not. You can either use the salt box method (shown below), where you make plenty of “cure” and then coat the belly in salt on all sides and then place in bag or nonreactive container, or you can do it by volume, meaning, you make JUST ENOUGH cure, and use it all based on the weight of the belly. To cure by weight, simply weigh your belly after you have trimmed off what you want (see note below), and then take 2.5% of that and that is enough kosher salt. Then take .25% of that belly weight and whatever that number is, that is your weight of curing salt.
I have been using the salt box method for years but have since switched to the “by volume” method because I found that my salt box method simply made the end product too salty (I am pretty sure it is because for years I used Morton’s kosher, which is great, but tends to be saltier than the Diamond Crystal, and now the Pacific ocean kosher salt I use now. When the curing part of the process was done (not yet smoked), I would cut off a piece, fry it, and then taste it. If it was too salty, I would soak the now-cured belly in water for about 30 minutes to an hour, then pat dry and and hang/refrigerate for a day before I smoked. I felt that worked well.
Home Cured Bacon – with Pink Curing Salt using Salt Box Method
1, 3-5 lb pork belly, trimmed (*see note)
1/4 cup dry curing salt (see below)
Dry Salt Cure
1 lb kosher salt
8 oz sugar
2 oz pink salt (about 10 tsp) – you can order this online, its pretty cheap and is what stops botulism so a big deal!
This Dry Salt Cure makes enough for many pork bellies as you can probably tell so make a quick batch and store in a container until you need it again.
For the Belly/Bacon
Liberally salt (dry cure) both sides on a cookie sheet. Place in Ziplock bag and store in fridge for 7 days, flipping and redistributing the salt mixture on each side.
After 7 days, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
Salt and Sugar ONLY method – no Pink Curing Salt
You can make a “batch” of curing salt this way at equal parts kosher salt and sugar (ideally organic). You will then have extra for for future cures.
After you prep the belly as written above, sprinkle a dust of the salt and sugar mixture over all sides of the belly. You don’t want to blanket it, rather, a dusting. Place in a ziplock bag to cure in the fridge for a day (or alternatively in a nonreactive bin, with holes so that the liquid that will form from the moisture being pulled out, will drain). After a day, drain any liquid and then do the dusting again. Repeat for up to 4 days. To know if it is ready, it will be a touch firmer than when you started and you should see less and less liquid being extracted. The belly will have a nice look to it. Rinse and then pat dry and then hang or place in fridge on a wire rack in a cookie sheet so that air can circulate. This “drying out” forms a pellicle, which will allow the smoke to “stick” to it.
Smoking the Belly – All Versions
Preheat oven (or smoker!) to 200 degrees and roast on a roasting pan (get some air under there) for about 2 hours or until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Place the now-smoked bacon in the fridge for at least 10 days to let the salt redistribute.
Note: I say “trimmed” because I got a belly once that had all sorts of fat on the undercarriage. Not the kind of fat you want either. Most butchers, if you tell them you are making your own bacon or pork belly, will know, but it is worth triple checking!
