Welcome to the next installment of cured meats at home. Last month, we covered cured salmon at home. Next up is bacon! Don't worry, if you're an apartment dweller like myself you don't need a smoker. I'll include instructions for both cooking in the oven and on the smoker.
Like salmon, bacon is a great beginner project to learn curing at home.
You won't need any special equipment for this recipe apart from a meat thermometer and a kitchen scale. If you have a precision scale as well, even better!
Homemade Bacon
Pork belly
Salt
Brown sugar
Spices
Liquid smoke (optional)
Pink salt #1 (optional)
Any pork belly will work, but I recommend finding the best quality you can. Skin on or off doesn't matter. If you're lucky enough to have a real butcher, you can ask them to take the skin off to make your life a little easier. If not, the skin will come off very easily after cooking. That's right, bacon is a cooked product. When it comes out of the package all floppy it's completely edible, albeit unappetizing.
Once you have a pork belly, it's time to weigh it and weigh out the cure.
The cure ratio here is 2.5% salt, 1.5% brown sugar, 0.25% pink salt, and spices.
Let's talk about pink salt. All cured meats apart from fish have nitrites in the form of pink salt. When a product like salami, bacon, or ham is marketed as “uncured” or “no nitrites” it is intentionally misleading the consumer. If you check the ingredients, you will find celery or Swiss chard extract or powder. These are natural sources of the exact same chemical as pink salt. There is just as much nitrite in these products as the others, if there wasn't, not only would they not be red/pink, but they wouldn't be shelf stable or safe to eat.
At home, you aren't storing or shipping your bacon for very long so you can choose to omit the pink salt, however the resulting bacon will not hold onto its pink color.
My pork belly was 1923g or 4.23lbs. To calculate the cure well use these equations:
Salt: 1923×0.025 = 48g
Sugar: 1923×0.015 = 29g
Pink salt: 1923×0.0025=4.8g (Yes, that little.)
Whisk these together with a generous amount of black pepper, coriander, thyme, a bit of red pepper and a teaspoon of liquid smoke (if not smoking). Coat all exposed meat.
Next, wrap the salted belly in a zip-top bag or vacuum seal it. I'm wrapping mine in parchment because it allows some moisture loss to occur, and I like the slight chew it gives to the final bacon.
Let the bacon cure in the fridge for 12 to 14 days flipping halfway.
After the curing period is done it's time to cook the bacon. Rinse it thoroughly, if you want to give it a black pepper crust, now is the time.
Preheat the oven or smoker to 225°F. It's best to cook the bacon on a wire rack over a sheet tray but it's okay if you don't have one. Bake or smoke the bacon until it reaches an internal temperature of 145°. For me that took about 2.5 hours. If you'd like more smoke you can start it at 180°. I included a full teaspoon of hickory liquid smoke in my cure because I don't have a smoker. Let the finished bacon fully cool in the refrigerator before carefully removing the skin by tearing or cutting with a small knife.
You're ready to cut and eat your bacon!
This bacon would go nicely with everything you will learn how to make in our Hands-On Bagel Brunch class coming up on Saturday, March 16 at 11am. You'll make bagels from scratch just like this bacon!
- Homemade Bagels with Hot-Smoked Salmon and Herb Cream Cheese
- Cucumber-Dill Salad
- Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole
