Monday, February 14, 2011

Mak'in Bacon

Scott finished curing our bacon last week. This requires fresh pork bellies with the skin left on. Once you have the bellies, here's how it's done.


Lay out bellies and rub with sugar cure (see LEM for pink salt; read instructions carefully to make the rub); seal in 2 gallon bags and refrigerate.


Flip over once daily checking consistancy; when stiff at the thickest part, the bellies are ready for the next step (note: for safety reasons bellies must be removed from the cure in 7-10 days).


Take bellies out of bags, rinse throughly, and pat dry; then smoke with indirect heat or bake in oven at 200 degrees until internal temperature is 150 degrees; take off the grill or out of oven and remove skin while bacon is still warm.


Walla, your bacon is ready to slice and fry, and, as the old lady at the local butcher shop says, "You can slice 'em thick, thin or just right." Personally, I always opt for "just right"!



We usually bake some in the oven and smoke the rest with apple wood on our homemade grill.


For definitive information on curing,  refer to Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Scott learned most of his curing techniques from this book, and we highly recommend it.


Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. We're curing our bacon right now, from the first Guinea hog we've butchered. Can't wait to try it!

    ReplyDelete