Some Assembly Required: Makin Bacon

This is probably the most exciting item I have endeavored to make so far. I am a very serious pork lover in all forms. The idea of a breakfast of my own home cured and smoked crispy bacon fills me with an anticipated sense of pride that is pretty profound. I started this project on Monday, November 9th when I ordered the pork belly from my favorite local grocer, Figueroa Produce. I got 5 pounds at $1.99/lb, which seemed like a good price since the guy on the blog I was following paid $3/lb and he lives in Iowa where pigs outnumber people. I went in to pick it up on Friday, November 13th. This is a family owned establishment, and it so happened that nearly the entire family was in the store at the time. They were all abuzz with the news that I was going to make my own bacon and made me promise to bring them some to try. The pressure is on for it to be good.

On Saturday I began the curing process. I used the instructions I found on this blog. I chose this one because it didn't use curing salt, which contains sodium nitrate or nitrite. These are two things I was told to steer clear of when I was pregnant. My thinking is that if it isn't good for you when you are pregnant, it is likely not good for you other times too. Of course bacon isn't exactly a health food no matter how you prepare it... but I do what I can.

So I cut the pork belly into three strips and cured each one a little differently.
1. Brown Sugar and Kosher Salt
2. Brown Sugar, Kosher Salt and diced Apple
3. Brown Sugar, Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

The blog recommended using a half cup of salt and and a half cup of brown sugar on each section. His pork belly was 12lbs, which is more than twice the size of mine, so I used a half cup of each total and felt that I probably overdid it at that.

After rubbing them down I put them in double ziploc bags and put them in the refrigerator. Every day for the next five days I turned them over. On Thursday, November 19th I rinsed them off and set them uncovered on a broiling pan in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This step is meant to "form the pellicle", which is a layer of sticky goo that the smoke adheres to in the smoking process. I didn't particularly notice this layer, but maybe it was a very thin layer.

Next came the smoking. We have a Little Chief smoker, and we used hickory smoking chips. It is necessary to put it in skin side up. This is because the smoke rises, and you want the meat to cook under the protective layer of skin, and the fat under the skin bastes the meat as it cooks. I had no idea how long the smoking process was meant to take, and my husband was convinced it was only about an hour or two, so I checked the temperature about every 30 minutes at first. The meat is supposed to reach a temp of 150º. It ended up taking about seven hours. In fact, it had only reached about 130º by that point, but DR was very concerned that it was turning into jerky and insisted we take it off. Since I had already used some off the meat before smoking it I wasn't afraid of getting sick or anything, so I gave in to him.

Here is the smoked meat. It looks pretty good, I have to say. But not as good as the picture on the blog. I have a feeling Mr. Iowa has more meat-making experience than I do, and is probably a more confident user of his smoker. We sliced off a few pieces and fried them up right away. The result was very much like bacon, but a very, very salty bacon. I could almost feel my fingers swelling up after the first bite.

We ended up dicing up a couple of pieces and sauteing them in with some lentils, ground beef, onion, green pepper and salsa that we were having for dinner. The saltiness was more welcome in that situation where the blandness of the lentils might otherwise overwhelm. I think this first foray into bacon making might be best suited to use in the making of soups and other recipes, rather than as a stand alone dish.

That being said, we had the apple bacon this morning for breakfast with eggs and potatoes.