Chronicles of curing: Bacon!

Bacon! Aw beautiful, crispy, chewy and salty. Truly an all around American staple, what’s not to love? This was my first jump into the art of charcuterie and I was both nervous and very excited to dive in. The first time I made this recipe I was honestly.. a little heavy handed on the rub because I was worried about it not getting enough cure so I heavily covered the belly in the cure, that was the wrong move as it came out WAY to salty. Don’t get me wrong I love salt but this was a bit overwhelming. To remedy it I followed the books instructions and blanched it for a few minutes to leech some of the salt out of the meat. This really helped but it was still a bit too salty for my families taste. So not wanting to be wasteful I ended up using it more in soups and other dishes to add the meat and fat into the other ingredients and help to mellow the salt so it was not overpowering. For that use it was wonderful, I have sense learned my lesson and made two other gorgeous bacon recipes.

These recipes come from the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, & Curing by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn

I made both the sweet and savory versions in this book and smoked them on our medium sized weber smoky mountain smoker. Which is a dream as far as smokers go and are fairly reasonable compared to the other smokers like The Green Egg. So, shout out to Weber for their wonderful smokers.

Anywho these recipes are pretty simple to throw together and all you really need is 3-5 pounds of pork belly, sugar, kosher salt and pink salt (a nitrate to prevent botulism from growing). This is an easy ingredient to get through the mail, is cheap and lasts quite a long time. I have no problem using it because it is found naturally and if I can prevent bad bacteria from forming in my food I am for that.

The pork I used was from a friend’s farm and I’m going to be real honest with you, I picked this pig out personally and was fully involved with every step of it, including the slaughtering and butchering. I personally believe that as meat eaters we need to be aware of where our meat is coming from and how the animal was raised. That being said; I know not everyone wants to be that involved in every aspect of gaining meat and I totally understand that. It’s definitely not easy. My thoughts are just that I like to support local farmers and their ethical rearing of meat animals and if you are just choosing meat from a good source I’m with you. It’s not easy to find space for a whole pig believe me, so grab what you can from farmers markets or a good butcher and make this recipe because its amazing!

As I said above I was able to butcher the whole pig with the guidance of my friend who owns the farm. I truly appreciated this because I learned so much about every cut of meat I now have in my freezer. Doing that makes the meat extra special to me and for this reason I made sure to take extra care when preparing this bacon and made sure it was something I would truly love to eat. So here is my experience in bacon!

 

The basic sure recipe is as follows

1 Pound Kosher Salt (450 grams)

8 Ounces sugar (225 grams)

8 teaspoons pink salt (56 grams)

You only need ¼ cup of the basic cure for one 3-5 pound slab of pork belly, skin on. To add more flavor I followed the books recipe for savory bacon and for the sweet I followed the recipe but used a local bourbon maple syrup, to make a bourbon, brown sugar, maple bacon.

The savory bacon:

5 smashed cloves of garlic

3 crushed bay leaves

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1 Tablespoon crushed peppercorns

The sweet bacon:

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup Woodinville bourbon maple syrup

 

For both I mixed a ¼ cup of the basic cure in a bowl with the full amount of the savory and then another bowl with 1/4 cup of basic cure and the full amount of the sweet mixes and saved the rest of the basic cure in a Ziploc for later uses. Rub all sides of the belly with the cure and flavorings. I decided to try using a vacuum sealed bag to cure in but you can also place the cured belly in a Ziploc. After doing so you place the sealed bag in the fridge and flip it every other day for seven days. The thicker your belly is the longer it will to cure so use your judgement. Check the firmness. It should be firm in the thickest part of the belly, if it’s not firm after the seven days keep curing it for up to three additional days. The book says to then remove the belly and rinse it well, pat it dry and smoke it or cook it low and slow at in the oven till the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F.

 

 

When I smoked the belly I did it for about 2 hours at about 200 degrees till it reached 150 degrees F. At this point it smelled amazing and was darker in color. I then removed the skin while it was still warm because it comes off much easier than if you were to let it cool all the way. The first time I made this bacon (the super salty time) I needed to blanch it to bring down the salt flavor but these new ones were divine so I just let them cool and sliced them up for breakfast or just to snack on. The blanching does also help to make the bacon crisp up when you fry it so if you do want to try that it’s worth it. I might just blanch half of the savory because I really like its full flavor without blanching. To keep it I vacuumed sealed some sliced pieces and froze them, they should keep for several months even if you freeze them in a Ziploc. I would just suggest keeping layers separate with parchment paper. In the fridge the bacon should keep for a couple weeks. In case you are wondering on the breed of pork I used it is a cross between a Glister Old Spot and a Mangulista. That’s that, the most amazing bacon I have ever had and it feels so good to eat because I know where everything came from and how it was processed plus the flavors are so delicious! So go forth and make bacon! And as always I know you will Crusch It!