Best Home Cured Bacon Recipes

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.
• After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn't easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

HOME-CURED STREAKY BACON

Steps:

• Tip the salt and sugar into a freezer bag and shake well. Slip the pork into the bag, seal and scrunch around with your hands until the pork is completely covered in the cure.
• Lay the pork flat in the fridge and leave for five days, turning occasionally. The dry cure will turn into a wet brine as the liquid is released from the meat.
• After the five days, lift the pork from the bag, rinse it off and pat it dry. It's now ready to slice into rashers and cook. Will keep in an airtight container for one week.

HOME-CURED JALAPEñO BACON

Steps:

• Trim pork belly to fit into a large zip-top bag.
• Add remaining ingredients to the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth.
• Pour cure into zip top bag with the pork belly. Seal and refrigerate, turning daily, for seven days.
• On the seventh day, remove the pork belly from the fridge and rinse well.
• Pat dry with paper towels. Pre-heat oven to 200°F. Place pork belly fat side up on a rack on baking sheet (line with foil for easy clean-up).
• Roast pork belly 2 or more hours until a thermometer reads 150°F in the center. Alternately, you can smoke or grill to this same internal temp.
• Remove pork from the oven and slice off the skin while still hot. Seal pork in plastic and refrigerate up to 10 days or freeze.
• To serve, slice thinly and pan-fry or chop and add to beans or stews. Freeze for about 30 minutes or until firm and slice with a sharp chef's knife.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Rub the pork belly top and bottom with the Aleppo pepper. Combine the kosher salt, curing salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large, nonreactive container and bury the belly completely in the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days.
• Remove the belly from the refrigerator and discard the cure. Rinse the remaining cure off the meat and pat it dry. Set the belly on a baking sheet and loosely cover. Allow to sit in the refrigerator another 2 days. On the second day, set the hickory chips in water to soak overnight.
• Using a conventional smoker, smoke the belly until the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Once the belly is smoked and cooled, cut into 4 sections. Wrap the sections well in plastic wrap and foil and store in the freezer until needed, up to 3 months.