why make bacon at home? (Reasons to avoid store-bought)
There are a ton of benefits to making your own bacon rather than purchasing it.
First off, you often have a choice in how to slice it and the flavor is generally much better.
Freeze the bacon to make it simpler to slice into the thin, crispy breakfast strips that are so popular in the United States. Alternately, you might make lardons out of your bacon—tiny, somewhat chewy strips or dice of cooked bacon that the French use to enhance substantial meals like coq au vin.
You’ve probably noticed by now how essential it is to me to have a say in the ingredients that go into my cuisine. Instead of buying bacon, I may choose whether or not to add curing salt (nitrite). And I always have the option to select pork bellies from a pastured, organically fed pig that wasn’t given antibiotics or hormone injections.
The majority of bacon that is sold in the US is first sugar-and-salt cured, then it is smoked. But smoking is prohibited in many other nations. With handmade bacon, the last smoking process is a matter of taste rather than preservation, and you may choose to perform it or not. All bacon, whether smoked or unsmoked, is cooked after being salted, but it has to be heated again before being served.
INGREDIENTS
- Choose a pork belly that is about half fat and half lean meat, around 2-3 pounds.
- 1/4 cup molasses or maple syrup + 1/2 cup brown sugar or 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 12 cup of medium-fine, non-iodized salt, such as kosher salt.
- freshly ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon
- a quarter-teaspoon of curing salt, if desired (optional)
- A meat thermometer, GEAR
- (Optional) Smoker To obtain that smoked bacon taste both with and without a smoker, see step 6.)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Wash the pork belly in cold water, then pat it dry with paper towels or a clean dishcloth. Leave the thick rind-like skin on one side of the pork belly for the time being.
- In a large bowl, combine the salt, pepper, and sugar (or sugar with molasses or maple syrup). Use your meticulously clean hands to rub the cure into the pork belly before adding it.
- Place the pork belly and any remaining curing ingredients in a food container or bag that can be sealed. For 7 to 14 days, place it in the refrigerator with a seal. Every other day, flip the pork belly over to reapply the curing mixture. When the bacon has a considerably harder consistency than when it began and has no soft patches, it has finished curing.
- After giving the bacon a cold water rinse, pat it dry. Unsmoked bacon should be placed on a rack that has been placed in a baking dish. The bacon should be roasted in a 200°F oven until it reaches 150°F internally. About two hours will pass throughout this.
- Trim the skin off the pork belly immediately, while it’s still hot. Once the bacon has cooled to room temperature, you may keep it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or the freezer for up to a year by wrapping it tightly.
- There are two methods to prepare smoked bacon:
- There are two methods to prepare smoked bacon:
If you have a smoker, you may skip step 4 and instead leave the bacon in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered, to dry out. The cured pig belly should be hot smoked the next day at around 200°F until it achieves a temperature of 150°F within. For the finest taste, use apple or pear wood from a fruit tree, such as hickory.
If you don’t have a smoker, you may “cheat” and use liquid smoke to acquire the smoked taste. Just bake the bacon in the oven as described above for unsmoked bacon. Take the bacon out of the oven as soon as the internal temperature reaches 150°F and immediately liquid smoke all sides of it.
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