Bacon is a Many Splendored Thing

On occasion, living like we do out in the boondocks some things get a little old. Everything has to be done by myself, maybe not alone, but certainly you have to take care of it yourself. Recently I had to replace the booster pump on one of the water wells. What a chore, I'm one of those people who inspect everything when I'm doing a job and replace it if necessary (Do It once, Do It Right). Yeah, anal retentive over our infrastructure about covers it. But then again I rarely have to hear at 0 dark 30 from my family that something is wrong with... (insert appropriate system here). There is also the idea of having personally taken care of it for myself and my family which always appeals to me.

Most of our food comes from my supplying it either through growing or raising it, or getting the raw ingredients from other people I know and trust. I don't like pigs, but I do like pork, especially the belly, because of Bacon! I get my pork belly from a fellow who raises hogs who also supplies me with the cuts I need for making our hams. I just got a slab which yielded about 10 pounds of cured meat ready for the smoker. I always wet cure my bacon. Below is the cure I use.

For a 3 pound portion of Pork Belly

4 1/2 teaspoons Pickling Salt

5 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

3/4 cup distilled water

1/2 teaspoon Prague Powder #1

I cut a whole pork belly into 4 slabs of meat which are usually between 2 and 3 lbs. each. This is a convenient size. I put each slab into a 1 gallon storage bag and place the cure in each bag. I squeeze out all the air in the bags and then place the bags flat in a roasting pan in a refrigerator set at 38 F. Each day I flip the bags and massage the meat. After 7 days I'm ready to smoke. Here's a photograph of the cured meat ready to go in the smoker after it soaked in fresh water for 2 to 3 hours.  I don't recommend going without the fresh water soak as the end product can be overly salty.

I smoke my bacon at 180F to 200F using charcoal and apple chunks. It usually takes about 2 hours to reach an internal temperature of 145F. After it's smoked I slice it, bag it and freeze it in convenient amounts.