It’s Bacon!!

Recently I posted here about the supply of pork we were fortunate to get when our Amish friends butchered a hog. It came on Christmas Eve, so Christmas day I was weighing, cutting and packaging pork. Since I had a slab of bacon in the lot, I was also scouring the net to find an easy way to cure it. I set it to cure on Christmas day, so it was no surprise that on New Year’s Day I would be finishing up the bacon making process.

There are several ways to make bacon, but regardless it’s with either a brine soak or a dry rub. I finally got the picture and decided to go with a dry rub for ease. I made my own simple rub from kosher salt, brown sugar and freshly ground black pepper.

For a slab of bacon weighing about 3 ½ pounds I used a mixture of;

4-5 T. kosher salt

1 ½ -2 T. ground black pepper

3-4 T. brown sugar

Mix well. The directions that follow were acquired online, although I was in too big of a hurry to save the url or make a note of it so unfortunately I can’t give credit where credit is due, a least not at this time. : (

After rinsing the pork well and patting it dry, I cut it into two pieces to make sure each piece fit into a gallon bag well. Next lay out your pork on a large piece of parchment paper or wax paper. Rub your mixture into the pork on both sides and into creases well. Once you’ve done this, place pork into gallon size Ziploc (or any other sealable) bags. Add any remaining rub and shake to distribute. Place bags onto a flat tray and refrigerate for 7 days, turning over every other day.

This is the bacon after 7 days in the fridge.

After 7 days the bacon should feel fairly firm to the touch. Take bacon from bags and rinse well under cold running water to remove excess spices. Pat dry.

And again after rinsing. Looks good!

Now, heat your oven to 200◦. Transfer the bacon into appropriately sized cake pan(s) and roast until meat is brown and internal temp is 150 – 160◦. This will take 2 – 2 ½ hours.

Remove bacon and place onto cutting board. With a large thin bladed knife you will remove the tough outer layer of skin.

a job for Cooper-man!

Allow bacon to rest until it has reached room temp. Once cooled, pat dry and wrap in wax paper and refrigerate. Or slice off a few pieces first to fry up like we did. : ) Once completely chilled, store in a plastic bag. It will keep up to 10 days refrigerated or up to 3 months in the freezer.

How did our bacon turn out you ask?

We were impressed and gobbled it up.

I was thrilled it wasn’t a failure since I’d never did a home cure before and even more thrilled at how good it was. Yay! Bacon with no harmful nitrites and nitrates! I can detect the taste of pepper and salt in this bacon but it’s not overpowering and definitely nowhere nearly as salty as commercial bacon. I may add a little more freshly ground pepper when I fry up the next skillet full. But even if I don’t, this is pretty darn good bacon. And the best part, besides doing it myself without the poisonous additives? It was easy!