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How to make your own Smoked Bacon simplified version

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How to make your own Smoked Bacon simplified version

How to make your own Smoked Bacon simplified version

  • Total: a few days
  • Prep: 30mins
  • Cook: 2-3hours 
  • Yield: 4 Servings

I do not know any meat lover that hasn't cultivated the thought of trying to make his own bacon. Let's face it anything you will buy at your supermarket are industrial products that can't even hold a candle to the real thing unless you put the price in it. Also, you'll have a lot more latitude choosing your seasoning, choosing quality products as the basis of your masterpiece🤣, the kind of smoking wood that you want to use, possibilities are endless. 

This version is a simplified version using saumure (french word for curing liquid or Brine) instead of  curing salt (generally a mixture of table salt and sodium nitrite ) or commonly referred to as pink salt , not to be confused with Himalayan pink rock salt  ( will try to use it in another attempt to reach perfection...😂)

Homemade bacon is a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is some pork belly and a little time to create thick, juicy, delicious, bacon. 

One of the best things about homemade bacon, besides being able to brag about the fact that you can make it, is you end up with a thick bacon brick that can be sliced thick or thin or cut into little cubes, that we like to use instead of butter or oil when we’re making soups and stews or sautéing vegetables. It’s also pretty amazing when you’re trying to make a better BLT, burger, or anything that involves bacon.

HOW TO CURE AND SMOKE BACON

Think of this recipe as a good starting place when you’re learning how to cure and smoke bacon at home. Once you learn the basics, the options for different seasonings are endless, which opens up all sorts of culinary and probably coronary doors. 

Ingredients

  • Pork Belly 
  • Salt
  • Water 
  • Black pepper
  • bay leaf
  • coriander seeds
  • ginger
  • Chili mix
  • 2 garlic cloves

Follow the recipe or watch the video 

Preparing the saumure or brining liquid

It is Saline water with a relatively high concentration of salt. Brine is a common agent in food processing and cooking. Brining is used to preserve or season the food. Brining can be applied to vegetables, cheeses, and fruit in a process known as pickling. Meat and fish are typically steeped in brine for shorter periods of time, as a form of marination, enhancing its tenderness and flavor, or to enhance shelf period. (thank you Wikipedia) 

  

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Pour all the ingredient seasoning, herns, spices in the water, bring to a boil let simmer for 30mn.   

    Remember that for a successful saumure you will need 150g of salt for 1 liter of water. you can add sugar to but it is optional, quantity should be around 75g for one liter of water (brown sugar is recommended)

  3. Let it cool (so it won't cook the meat) and reserve

Getting the meat ready for the curing process

The method used here has it detractors and to tell the truth i had my doubt about it, as it is an oversimplification of the injection process used in industrial factories to make ham and bacon. You might end up with a not so cured product, and the flavors might not penetrate the meat as much as you want it to.

Most flavor molecules from marinades don't penetrate much below the surface of the meat. (Salt and to a lesser extent sugar are exceptions: they will gradually work their way in deeper in long marinades.)

Anyhow, if you actually want your marinade flavors to penetrate more than about 1/8" into the meat, the only real option is injection. But if you don't want to do that, poking holes or even gashing the surface with rough knife cuts will help a bit. 

My advice is to use a syringe or using the traditional curing salt method. I will try that for my next attempt. 

  

Steps to Make It

  1. Use a fork to poke holes in the meat make sure you pierce it from side to side. Repeat the process until the entire surface of the meat is covered by holes. Each line of holes should be spaced by 1 to 1.5 cm. 

  2. Put the meat into the saumure and let it marinate in the fridge for 3-4 days, ideally you take it out when the meat starts to stiffen a bit, meaning the curing process took place.

  3. Rinse thoroughly and dry using kitchen paper towels 

  4. Smoke for 2 hours at least or until internal temperature reaches 65C or  150F

Recommeded Pork belly Product

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  • Volan Rabary
Comments 1
  • John
    John

    Looks good, but also looks like you done a hot smoke, I do a cold smoke, giving me more of a bacon flavor. But it is a good way to get western style bacon here in Japan.

    https://www.amazon.co.jp/photos/share/gTBGXHcOgyw7znyPY3BlrAGcQcKn9uG2NyMoghgMi9p

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