Home-Cured Bacon

Name: Home-Cured Bacon
Total time: 2 h
Yield: About 2 pounds
Ingredients: 2 1/2 pounds pork belly, squared off, rind removed; 2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon pink salt, optional; 1/4 cup maple syrup, or honey, brown sugar, white sugar or molasses; 2 tablespoons cold strong black coffee, bourbon or apple cider; 2 garlic cloves, smashed; 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed; 2 teaspoons fresh thyme; 1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted; 1 teaspoon coriander seed, toasted

Recipe from Eugenia Bone

Adapted by Cathy Barrow

Home-Cured Bacon — Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Total Time: 2 hours, plus 7 to 8 days' refrigeration
Rating: 4(161)
Comments: Read comments

Pink salt, also known as curing salt No. 1, is a nitrate, a combination of sodium chloride — table salt — and nitrite, a preserving agent used to deter the growth of bacteria in cured meats. Bacon is cured in the refrigerator, then slow roasted, and finally cooked again before serving. It is not being consumed as a raw, cured meat, so the use of a nitrate is a personal decision. A small amount of pink salt in your cure provides that familiar pink color and bacon-y flavor, or what we have come to know as bacon-y. It is absolutely possible to cure bacon without nitrates; but be aware that the end product will be more the color of cooked pork and that the flavor will be akin to that of a pork roast. With or without the pink salt, homemade bacon is worth the effort. —Cathy Barrow

Featured in: This Little Piggy Stayed Home

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Ingredients

Yield:About 2 pounds

2½pounds pork belly, squared off, rind removed
2½tablespoons kosher salt
½teaspoon pink salt, optional
¼cup maple syrup, or honey, brown sugar, white sugar or molasses
2tablespoons cold strong black coffee, bourbon or apple cider
2garlic cloves, smashed
1tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
2teaspoons fresh thyme
1teaspoon fennel seed, toasted
1teaspoon coriander seed, toasted

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.
Step 2
After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.
Step 3
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn't easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

Ratings

4 out of 5

161 user ratings

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Comments

Foo7 years ago

The "Pink salt" listed in this recipe is Prague powder #1 (which contains 6.25% potasium nitrite) , NOT Himalayan pink salt.

Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor7 years ago

We called Morton's and they said that Morton's Tender Quick is not the same thing as "pink salt", so please read your labels carefully.

LKF7 years ago

The drying phase in the refrigerator is typically utilized to create a pedicle-- an absorbent surface to which smoke flavor can then adhere. If not smoking the bacon, the drying phase may not be as important.

Rather than roast in the oven, smoke the bacon using a fragrant wood such as oak, hickory or maple for a few hours. This can be done in a smoker or even a covered bar b que.

Using a rotary slicer (if you have one or can borrow one) on chilled bacon is much easier than slicing by hand

Gorney443 years ago

Kept it simple. Didn’t use anything other than salt and syrup. Don’t have access to smoker at the moment but overall very easy and very delicious. Will try variations with pepper, etc. in future batches.

CMP_SRF4 years ago

<1tsp cure for 4.5lbs belly. Mix sep rub per gallon ziploc! Add bay leaf; honey w Molasses best final taste, little sweet but kids love. skip the coffee, bourbon, etc as ends up in sour taste in end product. Smoke at 225 after 24 hr fridge for 1.5 to 3 hrs depending on smoke wants. Final cook in 325 oven to avoid burning light sugars. Turkey club on sourdough loaf or use in ranch beans. Less sugar if using for collards, etc

Mike Giuseffi6 years ago

Instead of roasting in an oven I cooked the cured belly in a stove top smoker. It was divine, however the second time I made this I omitted the coriander seeds. I found that they made the bacon taste more like pastrami.

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