Home-Cured Pork Belly Bacon

(from Metro Cooks’s recipe box)

Source: Primal Pallet

Cook time: 120 minutes
Serves 10 people

Categories: Bacon

Ingredients

—Order five pounds of fresh pork belly from your grocery store, the pork guy at your farmers market, or from a local butcher shop.
—Buy a box of 2-gallon zip-top bags if you don’t have a container big enough to hold the belly.
—Mix the following together in a small bowl:
2 ounces (1/4 cup Morton or Diamond Crystal coarse kosher) salt
2 teaspoons pink curing salt #1 (I use this DQ Cure from Butcher-Packer, $2)
4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
4 bay leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup brown sugar or honey or maple syrup
5 cloves of garlic, smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife
2 tablespoons juniper berries, lightly crushed (optional)
5 to 10 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)

Directions

OPTION 1
First, we cut up the belly into approximately 1 lb chunks. Small pieces are easier to handle throughout the processing, so make some logical cuts. Also consider what will be easy to fit into your skillet. Our pieces are about 6-8″ long, and 4″ wide. This slices up nicely for frying.
Mix up the salt and sugar rub evenly over each piece of belly, making sure to get even coverage. Since the salt ratio is important, it’s therefore also important to portion out the salt and sugar rub amongst all the pieces of pork belly you have.
The pork belly is going to dry-cure for 7 days, sealed up in your refrigerator. Place several pieces of the belly in each resealable bag (use the ones from Target which are BPA-free, if that’s a concern). When closing, try to force out as much air as possible. Place all the sealed belly on a jelly roll pan, and place in your refrigerator for one week.
After one week has passed, take the belly out of the refrigerator.
Rinse the belly, and try to remove as much of the dry cure as possible. Use your hands to “scrub” the belly under a steam of cold water.
Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. While drying the belly, fire up your smoker. If you don’t have a smoker, you can use your oven (but alas, you will miss out on the smoky flavor that is classic to bacon).
Place the pork belly in the smoker. You should have it set to a low smoke setting (200-220 degrees), and smoke the belly for 2 hours.
2 hours, your pork belly will be almost this delicious looking. This batch (above) went for 2.5 hours, and developed a very strong smoky flavor along with a darker color. Keep the smoking to 2 hours only – the second batch we did went 2 hours and it was better than the batch that went 2.5 hours. Ideally, what you really are looking for is an internal temperature of 150 degrees. You can also cook the belly in your oven set to 200 degrees for 90 minutes. We tested that method as well and it worked just fine. The only shortcoming was the lack of smoky flavor.
When the pork belly comes off the smoker, it should be refrigerated overnight to help the belly firm up. At this point, we like to vacuum pack our bacon so that it will keep a long time in the freezer. Although let’s be honest – it’s going to go FAST. That bacon in the front of the photo is from the batch that went 2 hours. Look how pretty…
After allowing the bacon to firm up in the refrigerator over night, you’re ready to fry up some bacon! Fry it, eat it, and enjoy!
To cook it, we recommend placing the cool bacon in a cool cast iron skillet. Cook it slowly over a medium low flame until it reaches its desired crispiness.
OPTION 2
First, we cut up the belly into approximately 1 lb chunks. Small pieces are easier to handle throughout the processing, so make some logical cuts. Also consider what will be easy to fit into your skillet. Our pieces are about 6-8″ long, and 4″ wide. This slices up nicely for frying.
Mix up the salt and sugar rub evenly over each piece of belly, making sure to get even coverage. Since the salt ratio is important, it’s therefore also important to portion out the salt and sugar rub amongst all the pieces of pork belly you have.
The pork belly is going to dry-cure for 7 days, sealed up in your refrigerator. Place several pieces of the belly in each resealable bag (use the ones from Target which are BPA-free, if that’s a concern). When closing, try to force out as much air as possible. Place all the sealed belly on a jelly roll pan, and place in your refrigerator for one week.
After one week has passed, take the belly out of the refrigerator.
Rinse the belly, and try to remove as much of the dry cure as possible. Use your hands to “scrub” the belly under a steam of cold water.
Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. While drying the belly, fire up your smoker. If you don’t have a smoker, you can use your oven (but alas, you will miss out on the smoky flavor that is classic to bacon).
Place the pork belly in the smoker. You should have it set to a low smoke setting (200-220 degrees), and smoke the belly for 2 hours.
ter 2 hours, your pork belly will be almost this delicious looking. This batch (above) went for 2.5 hours, and developed a very strong smoky flavor along with a darker color. Keep the smoking to 2 hours only – the second batch we did went 2 hours and it was better than the batch that went 2.5 hours. Ideally, what you really are looking for is an internal temperature of 150 degrees. You can also cook the belly in your oven set to 200 degrees for 90 minutes. We tested that method as well and it worked just fine. The only shortcoming was the lack of smoky flavor.
When the pork belly comes off the smoker, it should be refrigerated overnight to help the belly firm up. At this point, we like to vacuum pack our bacon so that it will keep a long time in the freezer. Although let’s be honest – it’s going to go FAST. That bacon in the front of the photo is from the batch that went 2 hours. Look how pretty…
After allowing the bacon to firm up in the refrigerator over night, you’re ready to fry up some bacon! Fry it, eat it, and enjoy!
To cook it, we recommend placing the cool bacon in a cool cast iron skillet. Cook it slowly over a medium low flame until it reaches its desired crispiness.

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