How to Make Bacon at Home from Scratch: Baked or Smoked

By Dustin

Ingredients

• 4 4 4 cups coarse kosher salt
• 2 2 2 cups sugar
• 3 3 3 bay leaves, broken up
• 1 1 1 tbsp coarsely ground black peppercorns
• 3 3 3 tbsp garlic, minced
• 2-gallon 2-gallon to bag - It helps to have a nice big bag that closes securely.
• Meat thermometer
• to to are going to smoke your bacon, make sure you have plenty of smoking wood in addition to your grill and fuel for the grill. Hickory or Applewood both make an excellent smoked bacon!

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from firepit-and-grilling-guru.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. First, prepare your curing salt by combining the kosher salt, sugar, black pepper and garlic in a bowl and mixing well. The measurements above give a large batch in case you are curing several pork bellies, which can be easier if you use a lot of bacon. If you are only doing one pork belly, you can make a half or even quarter batch of curing salt.

2. Pour about 1/2 cup of the curing salt onto a large pan and press all sides of the pork belly into the curing salt to coat thoroughly. Rub the salt into all surfaces of the pork and dredge so that it is completely coated.

3. Place the belly into the Ziploc bag. Only include the curing salt that sticks to the belly, discard the rest of the free salt which remains in the pan.

4. Seal the bag tightly and refrigerate for 5 days, flipping and rubbing the belly through the bag once a day to redistribute the salt mixture. The pork will quickly start throwing off a good deal of liquid. This is normal. You will notice the meat get firmer as it cures if you squeeze it. If the belly is very thick it may still feel a bit squishy in the middle after 5 days. If this is the case, you can leave it in the refrigerator for up to 2 more days, no more than 7 days total.

5. The belly should then be gently cooked. This can be done in two ways, either in the oven or in a grill or smoker. If you plan to use the bacon as a salt pork for cooking and flavoring other ingredients in recipes, I recommend going with the regular baking method, it is easy and the result is delicious, even without the smoking. But if you are a die-hard outdoor cooker and crave that smoked flavor, particularly if you are going to be eating the bacon primarily with eggs and breakfast, then go for the smoking technique which will add a rich flavor complexity to it.

6. If you are going to cook it in the oven, preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. Place the cured belly on a baking rack and cook it until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F. I recommend cooking straight for about 1 1/2 hours and then testing. If it is not ready, test again every 15 to 20 minutes until done.

7. If you are going to smoke the bacon, preheat your grill and adjust the burners or your vents (if using charcoal) to maintain not much more than a 200 degree F internal grill temperature. Add abundant smoking wood. Once the temperature is reached and the wood is smoking, add the pork belly and cover. Smoke, maintaining the gentle heat and smoke, until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F, as described above for the oven method. For more tips on smoking bacon see my

8. Let the meat rest until cool enough to handle. With a shape knife, slice the skin off, leaving as much fat as possible on the belly. You can discard the skin but if you braise it until tender, cut it up and fry it in pig fat till crispy it makes a delicious treat!

9. When ready to use, simply use a sharp slicing knife to cut off thick slices from the end. To make lardons, cut thick slices (about 1/2 inch) and then cut these crosswise again into 1/2 batons.