Homemade bacon is the best. Here's how to cure bacon at home. I've long commented on the fact that curing your own bacon is no more difficult than marinating a steak. Mix all the ingredients together and put them in a plastic bag with the meat. Refrigerate for 7 days, the roast or smoke in your grill. Use the recipe below. The aromatics, the bay leaves and everything else below can be considered optional. There’s nothing more satisfying to make than homemade bacon.
But there are other strategies for making homemade bacon. You could make a brine if you feel more comfortable with that. For those of you concerned about reaching the right salt and pink salt levels, you could use a technique called equilibrium brining, which I first read about in Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine. To do this, combine the weight of the meat and the weight of the water, then add 2% of that weight in salt, and 0.25% pink salt, in addition to aromatics. This can cure from seven days up to twenty-one days (and maybe longer). This way you will never have bacon that's too salty, since 2% is what you're striving for. It also gives you great flexibility on how long you cure (say you're traveling or something comes up the day you intended to cook it).
The most common question I get is, "My bacon is too salty, what can i do?"
Answer: Slice as usual, cover the slices or lardons in water and bring to a simmer. Drain the water and continue cooking.
If, before you smoke or roast it, you fear that it might be too salty. Cut a piece from the center of the bacon, cook it and taste it. If it's too salty, submerge the belly in water for 8 to 24 hours. Then proceed with the smoking or roasting.
The recipe below is a concise primer and step-by-step for making homemade bacon, or rather curing your own bacon. Follow it and you should have perfect, delicious home-cured bacon every time.
And once you’ve done that, you’ll want to make your own pancetta!
Home-Cured Bacon
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp coarse kosher salt (I like Morton or Diamond Crystal)
- 2 tsp pink curing salt (order from butcherpacker.com, sold under the name DQ Curing salt)
- 4 tbsp coarsely ground pepper
- 4 bay leaves crumbled
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ cup brown sugar or honey or maple syrup
- 5 garlic cloves smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife
- 2 tbsp juniper berries, lightly crushed (optional)
- 5-10 sprigs thyme (optional)
- 5 lbs pork belly
Instructions
- Mix the salt and spices together in a bowl.
- Combine all the ingredients except the pork belly in a 2-gallon zip-top bag. Shake the bag to distribute the ingredients. Put your belly in the zip-top bag (you could also do this in a plastic container, or on a sheet tray with plastic wrap. Rub the salt and spice mixture all over the belly. Close the bag refrigerator it for seven days. Redistribute the seasoning twice or more throughout the week.
- After seven days, take it out of the fridge, rinse off all the seasonings under cold water and pat it dry.
- Cook the belly in a 300˚F oven to an internal temperature of 150˚F, about 40 minutes.
- Let it cool and refrigerate it until you’re ready to cook slice and cook. But I know. You won’t be able to wait. So cut off a piece and cook it. Taste it, savor it. Congratulations! It’s bacon!
Notes
Other links you may like:
- My post on making a classic Hollandaise sauce.
- Smitten Kitchen shares a twist on a breakfast classic, bacon corn hash.
- An oldie, but a goodie: Melissa Clark's recipe for sweet grits pie.
I have about 8 pounds of bacon curing in my fridge right now. My wife gets panicky when we get down to the last pound or two of our apple wood smoked bacon. It's a great counterbalance to the absolute boatload of eggplant and crookneck squash we've received in our last two CSA boxes, like a much needed bacon cleanse :-P.
I wish that I had the space at home! Work is another deal. I love to put Asian inspired spices in mine - so star anise and wolf berries make for a new different dimension to the whole bit. Makes for an interesting side that becomes the star of the show at breakfast.
I also experimented before with smoking the bacon with Rosemary. That lifted it to another dimension altogether. Perhaps I need to revisit those days!
What about adding some sake to the brine? I heard of people adding spirits, but sake is usually about 14-15% and could be doubled up for the same strength... Love the koji flavor in everything.
give it a try! careful though, alcohol can denature the surface of the meat.
That Pancetta link gives me a Page Not Found message.
Good writeup, so easy, so delicious!
I get the same "Page not found". Please restore the link.
the pictures are not loading for me - I see the first picture on the front page just fine but if I just look at this one post, no pics.
I'm inspired to be makin' some bacon, though...
I had no fear about curing bacon until you said there are plenty of reasons not to do it :-')
Dearest Michael, I love you.
My dad thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration and he's already got his eye on picking up pork belly at Corti Brothers. Hank offered us some pink salt so we are well on our way to no longer being bacon virgins.
feeling's mutual. look forward to hearing about your bacon experience!
Mr. Ruhlman the link for pancetta is broken. But alas I found what was wrong. https://ruhlman.com/2009/06/home-cured-pancetta.html
Im just questioning the pink salt 2tsp. I have a pork belly right at 5 pounds maybe slightly under. I used your recipe as written. Now everywhere i read online says i should have used 1tsp of pink salt. Is there to much pink salt in my cure. Is it going to make me or my family sick if we eat it. Should i just throw it away? Please help
No, it won't make you sick; nitrite converts to nitric oxide and won't be harmful. Recipe is good, though 1 teaspoon will work. We've changed our basic formula to adding 0.25% pink salt of weight of meat.
Not at all. I have been following this mix for like 5 years and have never gotten sick. I've found that cured bacon is excessively salty after it comes out of the curing mix. I soak it overnight in tap water which desalinates the pork belly prior to smoking.
It shouldn't be tool salty! Must be putting too much cure on or leaving it on the cure too long?
thanks andrew and all for noting glitches. all should be fixed now. some wordpress funkiness today.
and can anyone tell me why sometimes my photo appears with my comments and sometimes they don't? must be how i sign into wordpress? but i only do it one way.
Could be one of several problems, depending on how your developer setup your WordPress installation... also helps if you have a WordPress.com account since they sync up the profile photos between standalone app with the prefab service they offer over there.
Do you have a gravatar that you use for your photo; it would allow your pic to display not just for your posts but if you ever post a comment elsewhere too. That might eliminate your problem.
http://en.gravatar.com/
Responses to posts can display differently depending on where you comment. If you are logged in yet comment on the page itself, it can display differently than if you respond while in WP admin.
Michael
I had a similar problem and signing up with Gravatar worked. Good luck!
Casey
Do we absolutely need the pink salt and can you buy it in a store? I'm in the Cleveland area.
as i say in the post...
Sorry, I just read the rest of your post. Disregard my message.
ah
see, now there! the picture showed up, but after i logged into wordpress to fix something the picture went away!
One thing I like to do while my bacon cures is flip it every day or two so that both sides get equal time in the brine that develops as the moisture is pulled out.
Mr. Ruhlman,
What are your thoughts on Belly with or without skin? I have a Bradley and always wonder how much smoke you like to throw (how many bisquits) at it and what woods you like other than the standard Apple and Hickory.
skin is so valuable i always try to buy skin on. it can be added to soups and stews for body, or confited and fried.
Oh, THANK YOU for posting this!! I was so sad I missed your session but duty called...
I'm now determined to prepare this for all kinds of porky goodness!!!!
Thank you! I bought a pasture raised pig and didn't want the butcher to smoke the bacon (or anything) using nitrates so I had them just give it to me fresh. This will make a nice project. =) You're the best!
I had no idea I was so intrigued by home curing. I have just cured a duck breast and it was great. You book will be my next gift to myself. Thank you.
I was not at BlogHer Food, but Chef Kevin Rathbun did a demonstration on preparing bacon and made pork belly tacos at the kick-off event at Food Blog Forum in Atlanta.
Between the two of you, this seems more approachable. Thank you for the recipe. I can't wait to make piggy goodies at home!
Can bacon be made using other cuts of meat? Is that what canadian bacon is?
(Not fond of pork, but I LOVE bacon!)
Also, I asked this on another post but it kind of got buried, but, can meats be confitted in butter? How about ghee?
Thank you
I was a the BlogHer Food demo and I believe Ruhlman said that canadian bacon is salted and cured the same way that regular bacon is, but it's a different cut of the pic. It's taken from the pork loin, which is the center of the pig's back. It's sometimes referred to as "back bacon".
By the way, thank you Ruhlman for posting this. I didn't take notes at the demo but you made it sound so easy to do, both there, and on this post. I can't wait to make it.
Good meeting you at BlogHer Food!
irvin is correct. it's the pink salt that gives ham and canadian bacon the ham flavor. all parts of the pig can be treated this way
Any ideas about my second question, confitting with butter? Or should I just try it and see?
Excellent!
What a perfect project to jumpstart my day off tomorrow.
I recently came to acquire a new smoker and am excited to have a new application for it.
So I take it I should just bring the internal temp of the belly to 150 in the smoker as opposed to the oven?
precisely!
is the smoking instead of or addition to the roasting at 200F?
what kind of smoking? cold or hot smoking? for how long?
tradtionally hot smoked at 200 degrees to internal temp of 150.
I just got your book Charcuterie and even before you wrote this post, I was planning on preparing my bacon tomorrow. You extra advice gives me comfort! I wrote you a comment a while back about Himalayan Pink Salt vs Pink Curing Salt... for some reason, I think that tip was meant for me!
Thank you for this post. I will be making bacon.
Can you talk about storage options and methods, and shelf life?
This of course assumes that it is not devoured by me and the family first.
keeps in fridge for maybe up to two weeks, but it freezes great for a few months if well wrapped (keep air away from it).
Have you ever seen the poster titled "Making Bacon"?
http://www.carrtoonin.com/making_bacon.jpg
How long will the bacon keep in the fridge after the initial cooking in the oven?
Can you do this cure if the raw bacon is already sliced or would I have to make changes?
Thanks,
Richard
you could but might be too salty. you could probably have bacon slices in a couple hours though!
I'm so glad you posted this. You helped me understand what to do with that jar of curing salt I picked up at work a few weeks ago - thanks! And here's the dumb question of the day ... is curing salt used when making lox? I'd like to try making some. All we get around here is the packaged stuff which is not worth eating. A worthwhile bagel is hard to come by as well, but if I can have some stellar lox that's 1/2 the battle.
It looks like now that my shop girl days are coming to a close I should take advantage of my employee discount and pick up a copy of Charcuterie as well. 🙂
i don't use pink salt when curing salmon, though if youre smoking the salmon, it is advised as an anti-microbial agent.
I've been making cold-smoked bacon using a hybrid of the recipe in Charcuterie and Alton Brown's recipe. A friend & I put away three whole bellies (37 pounds) last winter, and I made some jowl bacon as well.
I'm using a Smoke Daddy (http://www.smokedaddyinc.com/) on my big Texas smoker. Here is a video of the setup & the smoke production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDqM64Ab2Zw
Speaking of WordPress funkiness, when I first read this I saw a comment from Lynda that isn't here any longer, and no other comments.
In any case, she said you also did prosciutto at BlogHer. Any chance of showing that one ... again for those of use who weren't at BlogHer?
prosciutto trickier because of its size, but it's basically just packed in salt for a day per kilo i think it is, then hung to dry. dry curing facilities are important.
When rinsing off the seasonings, don't mistake the nipples for garlic and try to rinse them off. They are very stubborn.
Minor freakout moment.
glad you got a skin on belly!
This is officially my favorite comment of the week.
"Don't mistake the nipples for garlic" -- words to live by.
I was looking for a culinary school when I stumbled across your blog. You are now my unofficial professor. My family thanks you and their bellies are happy!
Bacon....yum!
I need to stop by your site more often, and of course, buy your book.
I'm picking up a pig's head and some ears next week, will have my butcher toss in a pork belly.
I have a Cookshack smoker, your recipe rocks.
Thanks for posting.
Jay
Western PA
Eating anything with a Face.
Recently executed the pancetta version of this. Then braised several hours wrapped in foil, then crisped up the meltingly tender slabs, and served with Ruhlman-inspired herbed mayo, tomato jam and Ad-Hoc's slow roasted garlic croutons for a sort of deconstructed BLT. Quite fabulous. Thanks for making life taste good, Ruhlman.
Sounds like you're almost at a BLT salad. Hmm, haven't had one of those in a while. Time to but out the bacon ends.
How much is everyone here paying for pork belly? It seems like it's mostly available at the higher end butcher shops for more than what costs to buy the same amount of actual bacon. I don't mind buying a pound or so at this price for braising, but a 5lb slab might end up being a little too pricey. Last time, I paid close to $6/lb, but the butcher was kind and gave me some extra for free because he thought the shop was charging too much.
I've also found it in a couple of Asian markets for a much lower price, but it's usually cut into strips rather than a whole slab.
Yeah, it's not cheap at my farmers market in St. Paul MN. I think $7.99/lb.
Here in Cleveland I pay $4/lb at the farmers' market - New Creations Farm. I think you can order from them online but I don't know if it will be much cheaper once you factor in S&H. The quality of their products is excellent!
Michael,
In the comments of your pancetta post, you mention that it will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks or in the freezer, well wrapped, for 6 months. Does the same apply to the bacon?
Thanks!
@laurelmackenzie
indeed it does
I got my bellies at a meat wholesaler. I did have to but a case which was 3 slabs about 10 lbs piece. Cost me a little over 50 bucks.
I love pepper-crusted bacon. Can a home-curer effectively get a pepper crust on a whole belly and if so, how? Also, if I want to experiment with unusual flavor combinations, would I always add the herbs/spices to the cure, or are there certain instances when it would be advisable to season during/after roasting in the oven?
Does the homecook save good money by buying and curing their own pork belly, or would you say after time/money spent you come out about even (versus buying store bought high-quality bacon)? Also can you store bacon fat like duck fat & use it for home fries etc., or will it spoil quickly? Thanks!
I can answer for the bacon fat. I filter mine through a plain paper towel after cooking bacon. I've got a container I keep in the fridge that I keep topping up. The bottom layer has probably been there for over a year, and no sign of spoilage yet.
This wasn't just an experiment, by the way. I've found old sausage recipes that say to pack the finished sausages in lard to preserve. The fat itself is a preservative.
there's cheaper bacon out there if youre looking for cheap.
bacon fat same as duck, keep all fat out of the light.
I love making the bacon! I have to drive 80 miles to pick up belly and try to have one curing before I use the last of the last batch. I do find that cooking our home cured bacon in the oven is better than the stove top. The sugar content is fairly high and the oven is more consistent. But it has been a great BST season (bacon sorrel and tomato...too hot for lettuce in the garden but sorrel grows like the weed it once was). Hugs!
bacon is life itself? try telling that to the pig.
Your "pink salt" is a "carrier" for the sodium nitrite, diluting its strength. There's a good reason why the USDA calls this stuff a "restricted ingredient", and carefully prescribes how much of it can be used in the curing process. Personally, I think it's not something that amateurs should be messing with. I can buy beautiful artisinal bacon either locally or on the web, and not have to worry about a bad reaction. But I am "Old School", and have memories of the USDA looking over my shoulder all the time. I would certainly "experiment" with bacon before I would even think of "dry Curing". That is very specialized business!
Sodium nitrate is definitely toxic at high levels, but then again, so is regular table salt if you ate enough of it straight. Any reason why the amateur at home should worry, when recipes with precise measurements are given by people who know what they are talking about? And any reason the amateur should have to worry about adverse affects of continuous sodium nitrate ingestion this is probably something they will only do a couple of times a year? Just curious as to your reasons why someone shouldn't "mess with it."
I am just an old butcher, not a food scientist; but the analogy of table salt to "curing agents" such as sodium nitrate is not applicable. And the specific agent we're talking about here is sodium NITRITE, not Nitrate, a much more potent chemical.
The chief concern with sodium nitrite, as I understand it, is the production of carcinogenic substances called nitrosomines (sp?) as the cured product is cooked prior to eating. While I have heard all sorts of arguments about the relative safety of modern curing methods, I would rather play it safe. We were required to have our curing formulations approved by the USDA, specifying precise amounts of curing agents and percentage of pump and/or absorption. We were required to send samples of finished product to certified labs for analysis as well. There is also the issue of sodium nitrite itself being, as you say, potentially toxic. I can recall some stories, whose veracity I cannot vouch for, of some people going into shock after consuming meats that were cured with too much sodium nitrite.
Again, if you followed precise instructions, meticulously measuring and weighing ingredients, ensuring that all parts of the meat received the proper amount of cure, you'd probably be safe. Maybe I feel I've done my share of "makin bacon". That's my two cents.
Sorry - I totally meant to type "nitrite" instead of "nitrate." I even re-read Ruhlman's blog to make sure I had it right and then did a little online research to make sure I had my terms right.
agree with mantonat
thank you so much for posting this. i am the incessant note taker, however, that night I left my note pad at home! great demo - you made the task look effortless! and p.s. your closing words at BHF was one to be remembered!
The bacon I cure has been the way I've been maintaining some porcine presence in our home. It's unquestionably better than anything I can find locally. I started with the basics from Charcuterie and have variously experimented and tweaked the recipe to suit our taste. I've been fortunate to share some of my knowledge and product with friends and colleagues. The look on someone's face when they first taste a piece of home cured bacon makes it well worth the time and effort.
You are only using the DQ 'cause you don't live in Buffalo - home of The Sausage Maker, Inc. see: http://www.buffalorising.com/2010/10/best-and-wurst-oktoberfest-buffalo-style.html
I am such a homer!
but sausage maker costs 4x as much
Egads! I love the simplistic beauty of curing meat. A very strong memory from my childhood is walking into the speciality shop Teitel Bros. on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx and seeing all the sausages and various kinds of meat on glorious display. I'll never forget the smell. Such a nice treat to have in one's home.
Thanks so much for posting this. I was directed to your site via Serious Eats.
My copy of Charcuterie is upstate so I can't check this out before I write this. Obviously, you know that in England and Ireland, this is called streaky bacon. What we always ate with a full English breakfast was called by my granddad Irish bacon, but I assume it would be properly known as back bacon. It was delicious, so I am imagining this recipe could be adapted for that, and I assume the loin of pork is what would be used for that. But what I ate - and what is pictured in the Ballymaloe Cookbook - does not look round and completely lean like Canadian bacon; it looks like a comma and has some fat on it. Does that mean it's one particular end of the loin? I am drooling to have it with tomatoes and mushrooms and a fried egg. My granddad was a pork butcher so he did "bacon" his own pig.
likely part of the loin with back fat attached.
I've used the same recipe that I use for belly to cure pork loins to make back bacon for some Irish & British friends. It turned out wonderfully and the comments were very positive. You shouldn't have any trouble. Enjoy!
I was at the demo and you used sodium nitrates in your recipe. I'm so glad to see you posted the recipe without nitrates as I get horribly sick if I consume them. Now I can try curing at home. Thanks!
vegetables are filled with nitrates. can you not eat vegetables.
Great, now he's going to get horribly sick when he eats veggies.
:rolleyes:
Thanks to you and your book on the subject I've been making bacon as a matter of routine for a year now. I don't even get to eat much of it because friends are always asking for samples. Also, the value of bacon as a gift shouldn't be underestimated. I haven't bought commercially produced bacon since.
I think people who have never made bacon or have never had dry-cured bacon will be impressed by how differently it cooks from the wet cured stuff that is standard fare in supermarkets. The wet cured stuff (it's injected with brine) spits water all over the damn place during the first few messy minutes of cooking. Also plasma proteins come out and coagulate into puss-like blobs. Suffice it to say, that I prefer the cooking aesthetics of dry rubbed bacon a lot!
Finally, for those who are nervous about using pink salt but still want their bacon to have the color and flavor that only nitrite (and nitrate-which should NOT be used for bacon) can impart. You can buy premixed cure from Butcher and Packer (I think it's called Maple Sugar Cure). Just make sure to follow the directions carefully.
I curred pork belly like pancetta then confit in bacon fat. Ill use it tomarow in a galette wth Chanterells, onion marmalade, fig butter potato confit and maybe Black Truffle if I get them donated. Thanks for the influence!
I had some organic pig belly in the freezer that was on its way to becoming bacon soon after I read this post yesterday morning. It's curing in a Ziploc vacuum bag, which is helping to keep the rub on the meat. Now the hard part: waiting 'til next week to smoke it over pecan wood.
Thanks for the recipe Michael, fantastic.
ho ho ho .....feel hungry already 🙂
In what strange world does garlic have any place in bacon ?
You said this -
"strictly speaking, it needs to have the pink salt in the cure if you’re going to smoke because, in rare instances, botulism bacteria from spores on the garlic could grow; pink salt eliminates this possibility; but I never worry about this, you’re going to cook it again in any case"
I hate to be a downer - but if you've had botulism growing from spores on your food, it doesn't matter if you cook the food again. In the case of botulism, it's not the bacteria itself that is toxic, but a toxin produced by the bacterium. And that toxin is heat-stable; cooking is not going to make it go away, and it will kill you.
So, you SHOULD worry about it. The bacterium is found very commonly in soil, and the whole problem is easily prevented as long as you take the proper precautions.
I agree in full, you must also worry about Botulism toxin inhalation. That's right, just breathing the stuff can paralyse and kill you. This is the same reason you never open a bloated canned food item. Just thrown it out.
You can inhale the spores but not, I believe, the toxin. can the toxin be airborn?
It was my understanding that the botulism toxin is neutralized by heat. it's the spores that cause it that are highly heat resistant. can anyone clear this up definitively?
I'd like to second the question stated above regarding pepper crusting the bacon. If I do this, should I just put pepper in the initial brining mixture, or put the pepper on it before I throw it in the oven/smoker?
why would you want to use turkey?<blockquote
I’d like to second the question stated above regarding pepper crusting the bacon. If I do this, should I just put pepper in the initial brining mixture, or put the pepper on it before I throw it in the oven/smoker?
put extra pepper on after
I've been using Michael's recipe from his book for a few years, and it is *divine*. New friends are always impressed...once they understand that I mean "smoking my bacon" literally.
@Chris I put the pepper in the dry rub, pressing it into the belly. There was plenty stuck to it when it when into the smoker.
Trying different cures is sooo much fun. Cocoa powder didn't work out....I'm planning on trying a liquid coffee concentrate in the next cure.
-John
Thanks for the informative post. This isn't something that I'd thought of doing but am interested. Could you tell me if it would work with Turkey as well if I wanted to do turkey bacon?
Thanks,
Greg
why would you want to use turkey?
I know this is nearly heresy... but I use liquid smoke when oven finishing bacon. After washing a dry, full-strength liquid smoke can be brushed over the meat.
I'm a little confused about 2 oz or 1/4 cup of Morton or Diamond kosher salt, since they have quite a difference in density.
actually, i use mortons because it actually has a near-equal volume to weight ratio, so that 1/4 cup weighs about 2 ounces.
Just how essential is the use of sugar in this recipe? I realize that only a small amount of sugar will actually make it into the bacon, but I would prefer not to have any sugar at all.
I may try it with a small amount of artificial sweetener, or no sweetening at all to see how that turns out. Another variation I'm likely to try is using potassium chloride instead of salt, or maybe 50-50 potassium and sodium chloride.
actually here it is just to balance out the salt, so ok to omit.
Don't assume the sugar is just there for sweetening. In baking the sugar has a big effect on the structure of the baked goods. I'm guessing it has a structural effect in the curing process, too.
agree that in baking sugar is very important structurally, but here, it is only for flavor balance.
Thanks God, I live and eat in Europe.
"Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt"
That's right - it's the *salt* that Jewish people object to! Use kosher salt and all your Jewish friends will be perfectly happy to eat your home-cured bacon. :o)
every body loves bacon!!
I am so doing this. Our neighbor butchers two pigs every Saturday night, so we can get pork belly that is super fresh. We may throw in a filipino twist - so I'll let you know how it comes out.
I just took my pork belly out of the oven and am cooking my second batch of bacon! First off, thanks, what a wonderful addition to my cooking skills.
Couple questions: how do you slice it? I have tried my electric knife and a couple other knives I have but I'm having trouble getting it thin enough. I don't like thick sliced bacon. Are my knives just bad?
Second, will this bacon, if sliced thin enough produce bacon crumbles, like the store bought stuff does? Mine seems to be a bit chewy rather than crispy, but it may be the thickness of the slices.
Lastly,there is a very large slab of fat on the top of mine, but no skin, should I take some of that fat off and just use it for bacon grease or something?
The flavor is WONDERFUL. Thanks again.
Here's a suggestion for the bacon crumbles: Instead of slicing, cooking, then crumbling, run the bacon through a meat grinder before cooking. You want it nearly frozen when you do it, or the fat will extrude instead of chopping.
Michael,
Thanks for the recipe. I split a 5lb pork belly and finished half in the oven and the other half got smoked in my Green Egg. Both were far superior to the brined bacon that I made a few months back. No comparison. I liked the oven version better while my wife preferred the smoked (go figure) A 5lb brisket is now in the works so we shall see in a couple of weeks how that works out.
Does skin on change how you cure the bacon? Where you rub the cure spice mix?
Fantastic recipe - used it for years and never failed me! I double cold smoke (no more than 100 degrees) It over applewood for 8 hours and I have yet to taste store-bought bacon that even comes close, including Nueske’s.
thanks, and keep spreading the word.
I’ve been making bacon with this recipe for 5 years.
Neuske’s is great bacon but using this recipe produces bacon that is simply amazing.
I never make it the same way twice, I vary the aromatics and am never disappointed because the base flavor to me is the key.
Prior to smoking I square up the belly and use the trimmings rather than store bought salt pork for my New England clam chowder.
I smoke the cured belly in a Traeger loaded with Traeger blended pellets to 160 degrees internal.
Thick sliced lardons are the key to a delicious BLT iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing. I’m salivating.
Thank you Michael Ruhlman!
love these details, thanks chuck.
It looks like the cooking instructions are missing between steps 3 and 4. Had to jump over to your other bacon post to grab them (https://ruhlman.com/2016/04/11/bacon-time/). Great recipe and technique, though, especially for those of us without a smoker at home!
Hi Mike - University School grad a few years behind you ('85). Just finished my pork belly in the oven; was able to remove the skin pretty easy, just a bit of fat on it here and there. My question: I'm going to refrigerate the skin overnight. At this point, what's the best thing to do with the skin? Should I slice it into thin strips and bake it in the oven for chicharrones? If so, should I scrape away any of the remaining fat? Would love any details here! Bacon looks delicious!
for chicharones, skin needs to be simmered till tender, fat removed then dehydrated or dried. alternately add skin to any stew or stock for its copious gelatin.
Hey Mate, can you give us the ingredients in grams as well? Kosher salt is impossible to find here in Australia and weights of everything would be super helpful. Cheers.
You can make a basic dry cure using 450 g salt, 225 g sugar, and 50 grams of pink salt. dredge the belly in this, add aromats and refrigerate for a week.
or for the above recipe, 60 g salt, 10 g pink salt.
My first experiment with curing was mostly a success! I will admit the finished product is a bit too salty for my taste. I started with about a 5lb slab of belly, skin off. I mixed up a batch of the basic dry cure from your book, but that's when I hit a bit of a bump in the road. The amount of cure indicated in the book wasn't enough to cover the surface of the belly, so I switched to a pseudo salt-box method where I dusted the belly with enough cure to cover and then shook the excess off. I see two potential remedies - less time, or less coverage. With the latter I'm concerned about uneven curing so I'm inclined to stop at 4 days next time and note the results. Any input would be greatly appreciated!
sorry! busy holidays, just seeing this now. if too salty can soak before cooking or start it in some water, blanching it a bit. then frying.