How to Make Homemade Bacon

How to cure, smoke, and cook homemade bacon. It's much easier than you'd think; it just requires a couple of special ingredients and the right equipment.

Jalapeño Garlic Bacon

3 lb. pork belly with skin attached
40 grams kosher salt (about 5 tbsp Diamond Crystal, about 3 tbsp Morton)
1 ½ tsp pink salt (Prague Powder # 1, Insta-Cure, DQ Curing Salt, etc.)
40 grams maple sugar (or 40 g/3 tbsp brown sugar)
5 cloves garlic*
4 mashed jalapeños*

*optional flavors (Unfortunately, most savory ingredients don't really add much flavor. Try using sweeter additives, like 1/2 cup applesauce or 3 tablespoons maple syrup.)

1. Combine ingredients in a gallon-size zipper bag. Refrigerate for one week, flipping every other day.

2. Rinse pork belly and place on a rack in the refrigerator for 12 - 24 hours.

3. Smoke with apple wood at 200 degrees until the bacon has reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees.

4. Cool at room temperature for a couple of hours, but remove skin 10 - 15 minutes after removing from smoker.

5. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. Trim sides, ends, and top before slicing as desired.



Sources for curing (pink) salt:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=237_...

http://www.lemproducts.com/product/169/Cure_Ham_Curing_Kits


Link to a highly informative discussion on the merits of nitrites and nitrates:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/331350

Recipe adapted from/inspired by the bacon recipe in "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.
http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298/...

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• homemade
• bacon
• smoked
• cured
• uncured
• pork
• belly
• charcuterie
• cooking
• recipe

[Sexyav22]

That's awesome.. Btw where did u get your awesome starwars spatula from?

[zacharyzachary]

@Sexyav22 Williams-Sonoma

[mordissa]

Where do I get a Darth Vader Spatula? WANT ONE!

[zacharyzachary]

@mordissa Williams-Sonoma has a number of high quality Star Wars kitchen items. They also sell a Stormtrooper spatula.

[ByTheSPiRiTs]

Do you have to fry it or is it ok to eat after it has been smoked?

[zacharyzachary]

@ByTheSPiRiTs Well, it gets smoked/cooked to 150 degrees, so technically it is a thoroughly cooked edible meat. I'm sure if it were sliced really thinly and wrapped around a piece of fruit it would be palatable, but "raw" bacon just isn't as exciting as a crispy slice of bacon that you just pulled out of a frying pan.

[Lenaleenallen]

@Grcho420 go google it if you are that unsure -.-

[Sorren11]

Thanks!!! very informative.

[punkrockike]

@Grcho420 hey you asked. i was just letting you know. wasnt insulting you or anything. i assumed you wouldnt ACTUALLY punch yourself. just used it as a visual.

[Grcho420]

@punkrockike how bout i punch you in the stomach

[punkrockike]

@Grcho420 punch yourself in the stomach. the skin and muscle you just punched. thats the pork belly on a pig. its NOT pork "stomach" the organ, if thats what you were thinking.

[griiiiiiiiiin]

This guy's funnier'n hell. The way he* stiffened up when the organ music started, almost as if in reverence, was too damned funny!

[mikeygeneral]

Nice video. You country bastard of whom i'm so jealous of. I hate NYC.. I live in a concrete jungle box apartment and i love the farm life. Even if i could get pork belly, I couldn't even smoke it cause i live in a building. How sad is that? The white man is good because he knows how to build sky scratchers. But he forgot what the Indian taught him. The beauty of the werld.

[DejectedDonkey]

@Grcho420 yes. most butchers have it.