Making Bacon

We sell fresh pork sides- mainly because we cannot sell bacon. There are many things to do with a fresh side; you can slice it thick batter and fry, you can brown-braise and bake, or you can make bacon. Granted that there is a limited market here and lots of pork belly to serve it. For you brave souls- I submit a simple bacon cure/smoke/breakfast bacon makin’ method. First a note on cures…there are wet and dry cures. Most every bacon that you can get at the store and we could get made at the butcher shop is made with a wet cure. However, you can make something that was made for centuries, yet has disappeared from the diet in the last fifty years. A dry cured bacon. What an opportunity! So how do you make a dry cure? . . . Easy – make a dry rub, cure in the fridge for a week, smoke, slice, cook.

Now for the details:

• Rub is equal parts salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup. About a 1/4 cup each is plenty for our 5 pound sides.
• Rub the cure into the surface of the slab, cover equally all around the slab.
• Place everything in a zip lock bag, and lay flat in the fridge.
• Turn over every other day for 5-7 days…the longer the saltier.
• Make sure that there is a cup or so of fluid that will pull out of the slab bacon.
• Decide how salty you want your bacon…light salt- soak in water for a day, changing the water a couple of times. For heavy salt flavor (I go heavy when the bacon is used as flavor, like chopped for a salad or used on a BLT) just go straight to the smoker.
• The pedicle is an essential step. Leave the slab out on a plate on the counter for a couple of hours, preferably in front of an open window. The slab will develop a glaze called a pedicle which is needed to seal in the flavor during the smoke process. Smoke for a couple of hours with fat side up…there are too many smokers to detail here; however, I have a Little Chief and I smoke for a couple of hours until the slab temperature reaches 150 degrees F. This smoker runs a bit over 200 degrees….yours may vary. If you want to cold smoke- call me and I will come over and turn green with envy over your cold smoker….but I digress.
• Let the slab cool, in fact chill in the fridge a while to make slicing easy.
• Slice to your desired thickness.
• Cook it up….

Now for the visuals…

Thawed out slab...skin side down (although there is no skin on our slabs)

Here is the slab with the 3-part rub packed on a sealed in a bag ready for the fridge

Ahhh...the magic of osmosis...the cure has pulled out the juice from the slab

Ready for the smoker...let it develop some pedicle for bit before smoking to help the flavor stick

Cured and smoked bacon slab

Chill and slice....then fry it up- ENJOY

Final note….we sell these slabs for just $2.00 a pound- so 5 pounds of bacon will cost a bit over 10 bucks to make – or you can buy it from a specialty shop for around $10 a pound. Flipping a baggie in the fridge every other day doesn’t sound so bad anymore does it!!