Lately I've been dabbling in charcuterie and learned to make my own bacon. As this is the internet and consequently stocked with fatties, I naturally assumed it would be full of people who might be interested in learning to make their own bacon.
It's not terribly hard to make bacon. The hardest part is finding the right cut of meat (and even that can be dodged fairly easily). I'll describe the process, then give my recipe and some pictures.
The process is very straightforward. First, you cure the bacon using salt and sugar (and, optionally,
http://pink salt and/or seasonings). Then, you cook the bacon (either by smoking it like a real man with a rude ass beard or using an oven, like someone with a vagina and low self-esteem). Once that's done, you can refrigerate it or freeze it. You fry it up just like wussy store bought bacon.
There are some things to know, however. For example, if you don't use pink salt your meat will turn grey once cooked rather than remaining rosy red. On the other hand, there are some who think that pink salt is a dangerous carcinogen (for what it's worth,
Harold McGee doesn't think so, and he knows far more about food science than I'll ever know). Anyway, the curing process basically works by sucking out moisture from the meat and simultaneously drawing in sugar and spices. It's pretty rad.
Other considerations include how to actually get a pork belly. It's not as easy as it sounds, unfortunately. I frequent a butchery for cold cuts and steaks, and that butcher was unable to get bellies in non-bulk quantities. I also checked 3 grocery store butcheries with no luck. I finally found a large international market that sells bellies. Fortunately, it's possible to make bacon from a number of different cuts of pork (for example, tenderloins can be made into Canadian bacon). The downside is that you won't have the succulent, tender, fatty belly pieces for your bacon.
There are tons of ways to cure bacon. I'll give my recipe, but know that there are a plethora of variations that all work just fine. Use Google, you'll find plenty. My recipe is geared toward using a food scale to get precise amounts of ingredients, so everything is in communist grams. Deal with it. Anyway, on with the show.
Cure (for 5 lbs of pork belly)50 grams kosher salt (about 1/4 cup)
12 grams pink salt (about 2 teaspoons)
50 grams maple sugar (about 1/4 cup)
10 grams ground pepper (white or black is fine; about 2 teaspoons)
Just mix that shit all up. Nothing to it. Now get some pork bellies. Preferably you did this before you made the cure, but it'll keep just fine.
It's traditional to misspell belly on packaging. Anyway, once you get the belly out you'll notice two things immediately.
First, that it looks fucking delicious. If that doesn't look tasty, just stop now. You're obviously a fagosexual communist who hates guns and kills babies.
Second, there's some funky stuff on the back. That's pig skin. If you weren't aware, pigs aren't just walking piles of meat that happily give away bits of pieces to hungry children. That's creepy, and you're sick for thinking that. Pigs have skin and whatnot to keep their organs all tight and naughty and not falling out. Don't sweat the skin, we'll deal with it later.
At this point you'll probably need to cut the belly into more manageable pieces. You could cure a whole belly, but it's kind of big to fit in a normal refrigerator (it needs to lay skin side down for 5-7 days, so it eats up fridge space). I cut mine in half.
In case you're a complete retard, there's a picture of what it looks like when cut in half. Moving on, once you've cut it in half you're going to have to grab some freezer bags. I should have mentioned that before, but you will want some freezer bags. They're not absolutely essential, but they make the whole curing process much cleaner.
Put the chunks of belly into separate bags, and coat thoroughly with the cure (I like to keep my cure in tupperware - that way I can just shake the hell out of it to mix it up if it settles). You don't have to get much (if any) on the skin side - there won't be much (if any) osmosis happening there. Just make sure to thoroughly coat all the exposed portions of meat. This will help the curing process go smoothly.
Once that is done, you'll want to pile all of your now bagged pork bellies skin side up in a pan, and put it all in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. Make sure the skin side is up; as the belly cures, water will be drawn out and create a salty brine solution that will sit in the bag - you want this solution to bath the meaty surfaces. Make sure to store all of the bags in a pan; leaky bacon juice makes a hell of a mess in a refrigerator. I'll post daily updates with pictures to give you an idea of how the curing process goes, then show how to smoke the bacon after it's done curing.
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