The Essential Tools

To make great bacon you have to have a smoker, like the kind you put wood chips in to flavor pork, chicken, etc.

(Smokers actually don’t have to be expensive. Our friends bought this Costway Smoker from a big box store for around $80. You can definitely go up in price with other brands, but they have been happy with this model.)

DIY Bacon Ingredients

Ingredients:

• Good slab of Asper Family Farm pork belly (about 4lbs) precut to fit in a 9×13 dish

Use the following per pound (or your own recipe found online)

• 2T Salt
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 3 Tbsp black pepper
• 2Tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 Tbsp dried Thyme 

There are many sweet or savory variations on line::including, coffee, maple syrup, brown sugar…

If you want to be nitrate free….DO NOT USE PRAQUE POWDER (Pink curing salt), just use regular salt.

This bacon WILL NOT keep unrefrigerated. It will be more like a meat you prepare at home.

So you’ll want to keep in the fridge what lasts about 3 days or keep it sliced in the freezer for longer, convenient, easy use.

DIY Bacon Steps

Essentially, you’re rubbing in salt and sugar each day into the meat for 2-3 days under refrigeration, then letting it air-circulate/dry in the refrigerator for 1 day, then smoking it, cooling it, slicing it, and storing it : some in fridge, most in freezer bags. 

Steps

1. Defrost the pork belly overnight in the fridge. Rinse, pat dry.

2. Put the defrosted pork belly in it a 9×13 glass dish. 

**Pork skin—-the bacon with the rind can make a nice addition for soups so you can keep it on or slice it off after smoking.

(You can even make “pork rinds” with a little more work.)

4. Brining

• Take the ingredients and generously rub it all over the meat to draw out the moisture. (1st time)
• Put a lid on it and put it in the fridge for about 12 hours (doesn’t have to be exact)
• Take it out and flip it in the brine that is forming and rub the salt/sugar from pan back in the meat (This is the 2nd time)
• Put the lid on and let it sit for about 12 hours.
• Repeat the flip in the brine and rub the salt/sugar in the pan back in the pork belly (This is the 3rd time) 
• Put the lid on and let sit for 12 hours.

5. Air Dry in Fridge

• This time, take out the dish, pat dry.
• Put a rack on cookie sheet/pan. I use the one I put cookies on after baking.  Place the dry pork belly on it.
• Place it back in the fridge for air circulation for the final time.  Let it sit for 1-24 hours.
• Just time this for the time of day you want to be using your smoker since it will take 4-6 hours plus time to cool down.

6. Smoker

• Get the smoker going with your favorite wood chips to about 170F.
• Smoke the whole pork belly until the internal temperature is 150. You want this cooked, and it will still cook some once out of the cooker. 
• Smoking the pork may take 4 to 6 hours.

7. Let it cool and put it in the fridge.

8. Slice the next day when it is harder. A deli slicer is great to use or borrow or cut it yourself.

Notes:

• **Anything too fatty? Keep those in small slices in a bag in the freezer for greasing skillets when making eggs or to flavor soup.
• **Extra bacon grease? A healthy way to grease your skillet, keep in the fridge too in a small jelly jar.
• **Keep in the fridge the slices you want for that week and bag portions to store in the freezer for breakfasts, etc.
• **Cook it like you would regular bacon but slowly because it has less moisture than store bacon.

It’s not as hard as it may seem. It’s just different and takes 3, maybe 4 days. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.