Home Cured Bacon, Without the Shit,TASTES LIKE “BACON”; But More So.

 Really, It’s Something Awesome.

This bacon is different than bacon you can buy at the store, and not just because it doesn't have the nitrates, water slime and other shit. Since we are using salt, sugar, and smoke as actual preservatives, rather than just flavourings, this bacon is much more intensely flavoured than “modern bacon”. Since we are dry curing, the bacon loses water in the process, which concentrates and intensifies flavours compared to “store bacon”, which often has brine added to it to make it heavier! The upshot is that this bacon tastes more or less salty (as you prefer), more smoky, more intense, more “bacony”, and since it has less water in it, doesn't snap, crackle, pop, splatter, or curl as much during cooking either!

Let’s cure some bacon!

Our Cure: Salt, Sugar, Pepper, Hold the Nitrates(saltpetre).

But first, some debunking. Most people think of nitrates and nitrites as modern preservatives of today’s very unhealthy processed food. In fact, nitrates have been added to bacon and ham as part of the curing process since at least the 16th century. Back then, it was added in the form of “saltpetre”. Saltpetre is mostly potassium nitrate, but some of it is transformed during the cure to nitrite, which is the real preservative agent. On top of that, nitrates and nitrites create the pink colour of the meat, and slow oxidation of fats, which prevents the meat from becoming rancid. So why not use this amazing stuff that improves shelf life, reduces the risk of botulism, preserves colour, and slows oxidation (rancidity)? Well, a lot of people think they are completely horrible for our health, and some people think they taste bad. Simple as that. Personally, when I think of all the other shit that is commonly added to our food supply and that we are unknowingly eating; I'm not much scared of a few nitrates, nitrates occur naturally in some leafy greens(among the most healthful and nutritious of all our foods), in celery, and in our saliva. But you still don’t want nitrates!  Luckily???, there is an established tradition of curing meat with salt and smoke (smoke a carcinogen and sodium a problem for heart patients) which uses no nitrates, and that is what we shall do.

 What the hell is a preservative? A preservative is basically anything that makes your food: less tasty, less healthful, less nutritious, possibly carcinogenic, poisonous; and therefore, hopefully; less hospitable to microbes. Nitrates and nitrates basically poison bacteria that would otherwise grow on the meat. Another method is to smoke the meat, which deposits a layer of compounds on the meat which inhibit bacterial growth, and incidentally, taste “yummy”. Another, very important method is to reduce the moisture in the meat, since bacteria need moisture to grow. This can be done by dehydration, as in jerky. Or we can draw moisture out of the meat by creating an osmotic gradient using salt and/or sugar. We will use salt, sugar, smoke, and time to cure our bacon.

This is not really the time to skimp on salt; but if you must, you must; hopefully you are doing so for health(heart) reasons.

Let me take a moment, once again, to bitch about modern bacon, cured ham, and other highly processed foods. They inject salt brine, slime, sugar, nitrates, nitrites, some smoke flavour, and who knows what other shit; into pork bellies with hundreds of tiny needles. They let it “cure” for a couple of hours, and then package it up. That is that, enough said.

Dry Cured Bacon

Cut a fresh pork belly (not processed, green bacon, or side pork) into manageable chunks of around 3-5 lbs., trimmed of loose bits, and squared it off. Make a mixture of (by weight) of 2.5 parts salt (kosher adheres very nicely), 1 part sugar; then, add a generous grind of black pepper. If you are using pink salt (aka curing salt, aka nitrites), add 7 tsps. per lb. of your cure mixture. Rub the mixture thoroughly all over the belly, working it firmly onto every surface and crevice. You really want to coat every surface very thickly, or else the salt may not draw enough moisture from the meat.

Put the green-bacon on a rack, into the fridge. A quick safety note; you must keep your bacon under 38º the entire cure! It will release a lot of juice, which is good, this type of curing depends on reducing the moisture of the meat. After a couple of days (at most), it will stop releasing juices, and for convenience, you can throw it in a ziploc bag, with a sprinkling of additional cure mixture, and leave it in the fridge for another 5-7days. At the end of the week, give it a thorough rub down in fresh water, even letting it soak for a few minutes in fresh water, then pat it dry. Let it sit uncovered in the fridge one more night to let the surface dry a bit, which will help it form a pellicle. A pellicle is simply a coating of protein that comes to the surface and dries out a bit. Allegedly, this helps smoke adhere better, and improves shelf life by keeping oxygen away from the fat

Get a small fire going in your grill/BBQ, far to one side of the grill. Get the temperature of the grill stabilized around 200º. Sprinkle some soaked hickory chips over the coals, and then also put a foil packet of soaked chips (with a few holes poked in the top) on top of the coals. On the extreme opposite side of the grill lay out your pork belly, then put the lid on the BBQ, positioning the holes in the lid over the belly. Keep monitoring the temp of the grill, and let it smoke for 2-3 hours, removing it when the temperature of the meat reaches 155-165º. You may have to adjust the fire, add a few more coals, more chips, another foil packet, etch  Do what you have to do to keep it producing smoke, and the temperature around 200º.

Once smoked, remove the bacon, and optionally, remove the skin before letting it cool on a rack. The skin cooks up a little tougher and crunchier than the rest of the bacon, some people like it, some don’t. I leave it on. If you don’t want the skin, it pulls off reasonably well while the bacon is still warm, or you can use a thin bladed knife to carve the skin off the slab. Refrigerate, or freeze if you want to keep it for more than a few days. Technically, it is cured, and should keep very well, but freezing doesn't hurt the bacon, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

To cook the bacon, slice the bacon very thinly, which is necessary because this bacon is saltier and more intense than what you are likely used to. Cook it it a pan, appreciating how readily it browns, and without all the popping, curling, and carrying on that wet-cured factory bacon does. Enjoy!

©Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.