I thought I would share my attempts at home curing some bacon recently. In my area I am fortunate enough to have several family owned butcher shops that are more than happy to get meats for you that they don't normally sell. I was able to get a fresh pork belly in the 10-11 pound range for about $15.00.
When I got it home I cut it in to several approx. 1.5 pound pieces and a piece that was about 3 pounds. I prepared a brine as follows:
1 /2 gallon of water
1/2 gallon of pure apple juice
2 cups of salt
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of maple syrup
I brought this to a boil and then cooled in the fridge until completely cooled. I then placed the 1.5 pound pieces in a large plastic container with a lid and poured the brine over them and put the top in and put them in the fridge for 5 days. I turned them a couple of times during this time to make sure that all of the meat got exposed to the brine.
I decided to do a dry cure for the larger piece. I made a mixture of 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar. I then rubbed the piece of pork with some maple syrup and some powdered mustard to cover. Then I liberally applied the cure to all of the meat. I then put it in a vaccum seal bag and sealed it and put it in the fridge for 5 days.
After 5 days I took all of the meat out of the fridge and rinsed all of the cure off and patted them dry with paper towels. I put the meat on some wire racks on sheet pans and put them in front of a fan to help dry the meat and develop a "pellicle." Basically a skin over the meat. The meat was now ready for smoking.
Since I don't have a large smoker anymore I had to find a way to make "cold smoke". I found a video on you tube that showed a rather ingenious method. I took a tin can and emptied it of its contents leaving the lid attached by a small piece of metal, then cut a small hole in the other end. I went to the hardware store and bought a small soldering iron, the straight kind. While I was there I also bought a bag of the hardwood pellets that are made for pellet fuel stoves (the ones I bought are made of 100% oak). For a Smoker I used my gas grill with the burners off. I put all of the meat on the racks, then I filled my tin can with the oak pellets through the lid and then closed it. I then put the soldering iron through the small hole in the other end and plugged in the soldering iron. In about 10-15 minutes the can started producing a lot of smoke. I closed the lid on the grill and covered the grill with its cover to help keep the smoke in. I left the meat in here for about 8-9 hours. I had to refill the can with pellets about every 1.5-2 hours. Don't make the mistake I did the first time I tried to refill the can, use pliers to pick up the can not your bare hands. It may look cool, but it's not.
After the time was up the meat had taken on a somewhat darker color and a very smoky flavor. I wrapped the bacon in freezer paper and put in the fridge over night. The next morning I vaccum sealed the bacon and put it in the freezer. Except for one piece that I sliced and cooked a few pieces of. It was very good, and tasted almost nothing like the mass produced bacon that they have in the store.
Here is a pic of the meat as it was smoking.
Attachment 295
