Making Bacon

I made a batch last year with this recipe only in stead of the pink salt I just used a little more kosher salt (I have family that have bad reactions to nitrates or nitrites which pink salt and especially Tender Quick are full of).
Ingredients
1 pound of pork belly
1 1/2 teaspoons Morton's kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pink curing salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
1/4 cup water
I cut the pork belly into one pound chunks, made a paste with the above ingredients, smeared the pork belly with it (coating it thoroughly and rubbing it in good) and cured it in ziplock bags for 7 days in the fridge flipping it daily to distribute the liquids that the pork belly and salt produce.
At the end of the seven days I gave the cured belly a good rinse and then soaked it in water for about three hours to draw as much salt off of the surface as I could.
I didn't dry it out for a day as many people do before smoking it, I just sprinkled it with a little black pepper and some paprika and smoked it at 225 for 2 hours over pecan.
It turned out great and even without the curing salts the pork belly cured just fine, it just didn't have the reddish color to it that the curing salts produce. I froze all but one pound at a time and it kept for a couple of weeks in the fridge (when it lasted that long without being eaten). Made some awesome BLTs!:wink:

Brother Third Eye has a good recipe on his site ( playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com ), as does Sister Cowgirl ( cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com ). I tried to paste the links, but my phone isn't cooperating. I'll try to remember and post my recipe, after work tonight.

Making bacon is super easy, and I'm sure your wife will love it. I've made it with just Tenderquick, and brown sugar. That was a bit too sweet, but still better than store bought.

Matt

8 oz sugar (1/2 brown, 1/2 regular)

8 oz kosher salt

1 tbl pink salt (cure #1)

2 tbl black pepper

2 tbl garlic powder

1 tea allspice

1 tbl chili powder

1 Tbl onion powder

1 tea Cayenne

This is my standard cure recipe. It will make 15 lbs of bacon. Just make sure you use 1tsp of Pink salt per 5lbs belly.

You can drop everything after the salts and sugars and add whatever you want really. Lately I've been trying some different things.. I do one that is salt, sugar, chipotle powder, black pepper, cayenne, chili powder, and then slather the belly with sriracha. Another with a basic spice profile (pepper, garlic, onion) and then add some molasses in the bag. Have fun!

Makin' Bacon

I have tried quite a few different recipes using all types of ingredients (star anise and soy sauce, chili, tabasco, sage, rosemary even cilantro and lime one time...), but I always come back to good old simple bacon. Salt, prague powder #2, pepper, and cane sugar. My favorite recipe is identical to oldbill's recipe (also the same as Meathead's recipe from Amazing Ribs) listed above with one exception. I do not use any maple syrup. I found it to be far to sweet for my tastes with the syrup added. I actually threw away my first 6 pound batch. Additionally, I use unbleached pure cane sugar which is different than standard brown sugar, in that there is no molasses added for color. I grew up on a sugarcane farm, so I am a littlle partial to that particular type of sweetness.
Mix all ingredients into vacuum bags, shake well, add the commensurate portion of belly that corresponds to the ammount of cure in the bag. Seal bag. Refrigerate at 36 degrees for approvimately 7-9 days turning over and massaging intermittently.
Remove from bag, rinse (no soak for me, but I like my bacon SALTY). Smoke over apple at about 160 degrees until internal temp gets above 90 degrees. I realize that the prague powder should eliminate the danger of botulism, and that frying the bacon further negates this risk, but I'd rather go with a warm smoke than suffer descending paralysis, respiratory failure... again, low risk of that but I don't think that it affects the final product that much, so why not?
Good Luck and enjoy. You are in for a treat.
I use an el cheapo deli slicer then bag into freezer bags in one lb portions, freeze some, and share some with friends and co-workers.

@chump, unless you are dry curing your bacon, you should be using Prague Powder #1, not #2

chuMP said:

I have tried quite a few different recipes using all types of ingredients (star anise and soy sauce, chili, tabasco, sage, rosemary even cilantro and lime one time...), but I always come back to good old simple bacon. Salt, prague powder #2, pepper, and cane sugar. My favorite recipe is identical to oldbill's recipe (also the same as Meathead's recipe from Amazing Ribs) listed above with one exception. I do not use any maple syrup. I found it to be far to sweet for my tastes with the syrup added. I actually threw away my first 6 pound batch. Additionally, I use unbleached pure cane sugar which is different than standard brown sugar, in that there is no molasses added for color. I grew up on a sugarcane farm, so I am a littlle partial to that particular type of sweetness.
Mix all ingredients into vacuum bags, shake well, add the commensurate portion of belly that corresponds to the ammount of cure in the bag. Seal bag. Refrigerate at 36 degrees for approvimately 7-9 days turning over and massaging intermittently.
Remove from bag, rinse (no soak for me, but I like my bacon SALTY). Smoke over apple at about 160 degrees until internal temp gets above 90 degrees. I realize that the prague powder should eliminate the danger of botulism, and that frying the bacon further negates this risk, but I'd rather go with a warm smoke than suffer descending paralysis, respiratory failure... again, low risk of that but I don't think that it affects the final product that much, so why not?
Good Luck and enjoy. You are in for a treat.
I use an el cheapo deli slicer then bag into freezer bags in one lb portions, freeze some, and share some with friends and co-workers.

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Shagdog said:

@chump, unless you are dry curing your bacon, you should be using Prague Powder #1, not #2

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I agree with Shagdog, you should be using Cure#1 not Cure#2.... #2 is for long periods of dry curing for sausage and converts to nitrites over a long period of time.

Double Check your recipe....

Yep, cure #2 is a bad idea as nitrate can become carcinogenic when exposed to high temperatures like frying, as such it's meant for products that are to be stored for months or years and eaten raw. Note that it's not an issue with cure #1 as the nitrite will be converted to nitric oxide during the curing process. If you measure out your ingredients accurately you shouldn't have to soak the bacon once it's cured

I've posted this a fair bit but IMHO it's a foolproof basic cure -
Weigh the meat then measure out 1% of the weight in sugar, 2.5-3.5% of the weight in salt and 0.25% of the weight in cure #1. Rub into the meat the refrigerate for a week to ten days depending on the thickness, then rinse and pat dry. No soaking required! I usually use 3% salt

Thanks y'all. My bad on the typo. PP#1. Brain farts are becoming more common than the other type for me recently. Definitely not #2.

The first time I made bacon, I used this proportion:
per 1# of meat. use:
1g cure #1
5g dark brown sugar
7g salt

The sugar can be substituted for any other sugar, increased or decreased to taste, or simply omitted.

I forget who, but it was either Chambers, Big George, or IamMadMan who gave me the proportions. thanks whoever--it worked perfectly

I made it with that and no other seasonings and smoked at 150 with heavy applewood till I got internal of 140-145. This was the best bacon I've ever had that I didn't buy directly from a smokehouse in Tn or Ky (which we did when I was growing up). Reminds me of the very old fashioned country bacon. You could add cracked pepper, etc if that's your thing

chuMP said:

Thanks y'all. My bad on the typo. PP#1. Brain farts are becoming more common than the other type for me recently. Definitely not #2.

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Glad it was a typo, you had us worried......

And Pink Salt is NOT Himalayan Pink Salt, for anyone who thinks it's the same.
You can get Pink salt (or cure #1) at Williams Sonoma, or sausagemaker.com.

RolandJT said:

The first time I made bacon, I used this proportion:
per 1# of meat. use:
1g cure #1
5g dark brown sugar
7g salt

The sugar can be substituted for any other sugar, increased or decreased to taste, or simply omitted.

I forget who, but it was either Chambers, Big George, or IamMadMan who gave me the proportions. thanks whoever--it worked perfectly

I made it with that and no other seasonings and smoked at 150 with heavy applewood till I got internal of 140-145. This was the best bacon I've ever had that I didn't buy directly from a smokehouse in Tn or Ky (which we did when I was growing up). Reminds me of the very old fashioned country bacon. You could add cracked pepper, etc if that's your thing

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If that's for 1lb your weights are slightly off. That comes out at just below 1.5% salt, which I'm not sure is sufficient to offer protection against spoilage, and your cure should be 1.13g. Seems like splitting hairs at that kinda level but recommend usage is 2.5g per Kg