Culinary Tips

Bacon, a brief introduction

Bacon is a broad term given to cured pork products, but in north America, the term ‘bacon’ is almost always used to refer to cured pork belly.  The cured pork may be raw, hot smoked, cold smoked, boiled or fried.  Aside from the belly, back portions like fatback and loin, and side cuts can be used to make ‘bacon’.  For those wondering what ‘Canadian’ bacon is, it is simply back bacon.
Is your mouth watering yet?  Time to discover how (belly) bacon can be made at home, fairly easily.

Part 1: Fresh Bacon

The fresh bacon we’re about to make is raw, unsmoked belly, and must be cooked before eating, much like those cryovac packs of sliced bacon at the grocery store.
First, you’ll need to get a few ingredients:

• Pork belly – Can be found in some Asian meat and grocery stores, or at your local butcher if you’re lucky enough to be near one.
• Curing salt or ‘pink’ salt – Pink salt is sodium nitrite, a preservative used in curing meat.  It prevents bacterial growth so you won’t kill anyone with botulism when they eat your cured meat.  Sodium nitrite IS TOXIC and must be handled with care, which is why when it is sold as a salt blend, it is often dyed pink.
• Sugar
• A large zip lock freezer bag, and a container or tray it can fit in or on.

Raw pork belly

You can order pink salt online, or talk to your butcher.  Premixed cure blends such as Insta Cure can also be purchased online.

If you have Insta Cure, or another premix, follow the labelled instructions.  Otherwise, mix up a half pound of cure mix:

150g kosher or coarse salt
75g sugar
16g curing salt/sodium nitrite/pink salt

The half pound should be enough for 1 or 2 belly portions.

Here we’re making honey garlic bacon, so we’ve crushed a few garlic cloves and added some honey to the cure mix.  Now it gets messy.  Spread the cure mix over the surface, put the belly in the bag, and refrigerate.

Cure mix mise: Curing salt, kosher salt, black peppercorns, honey and garlic

Pork belly rubbed with cure mix

Turn the belly daily to redistribute the liquid that is going to come out of the meat.  After 5 days to 1 week, the belly will be done.  It is finished curing when the thickest portion is firm to the touch.  Remove the bacon from the brine, and rinse off the cure.  You may wish to slice off a small portion and fry it up to check the salt level.  If it is too salty, blanch the cured belly in a large pot of boiling water for a minute or so.

Curing pork belly - after 1 day

Curing pork belly - after 3 days

Curing pork belly - after 5 days

Fully Cured Pork Belly

Finished Fresh Bacon

Now you’re ready to smoke!

Part 2: Hot smoked and ready to eat

I can’t say I’m going to recommend you try this next part at home.  I did this because I am crazy.

I had a little portable charcoal BBQ, removed the coals, put them in a big disposable aluminum roasting pan, lit them up and let them burn down in my oven.

Turning the oven into a smoker

Dry the pork belly with a paper towel so it can take up some of the smoke flavour.  Next I placed the pork belly directly on the oven rack with a tray underneath to catch the dripping fat.  I smoked this in the oven for approximately 2 hours, until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees.  The rind is then pulled off while the bacon is still hot.

Charcoal smoking pork belly

Don’t do this unless you intend on blocking the vent in your oven, and figuring out how to not smoke up your home.

Victoria and I live in an apartment with little space for a BBQ, so we can’t smoke anything in a normal, sane way.  If you have a gas or charcoal grill, you’ll have no problem loading it up with wood chips and smoking your home made bacon.