Post by drazzl on Dec 24, 2014 1:53:51 GMT
I got crazy a year or so back and decided I wanted to cure and smoke my own bacon. It's a daunting task the first time but after that is super easy to do and yields some of the best quality bacon you'll ever have.
You'll need a 2-2.5 lb piece of Pork Belly - you may need a butcher shop for this or ask the butcher in your supermarket if they can provide this as it's not available normally. Some places leave rib bones in and that's fine, you can remove later and get bacon-flavored ribs. It's not important if the skin is still on the cut either, you'll be removing it when you're done anyway.
You'll need to prepare a curing mix, i.e. a rub. There's no scaled down version of this so you'll need to make extra and you can save it for a later point.
12 oz Kosher Salt
6 oz Brown Sugar
1.25 oz Insta Cure No. 1 - You'll almost certainly need to find this online, it isn't hard to get and is cheap.
Wash the Pork Belly and then pat it dry with paper towels. If the skin is still on the meat, poke several holes in it with a knife about an inch deep to ensure the rub can penetrate or the meat will rot. Rub the cure all over the meat, as much as sticks to the surface. You'll need close to half of the mix you've prepared.
Place the meat skin-side down in a covered container big enough to hold it. You will be storing the meat for 7-10 days this way for the cure to do its thing. Additionally, you'll need to take the meat out every other day and flip the meat over, and you'll be rubbing in the juices in the container back onto the meat. The reason for this flipping is that the salt concentration will settle unevenly and this redistributes it...do not attempt to skip this step or things will go badly.
After the curing process is done, rinse the meat under lukewarm water and then soak it for 30 minutes. Pat dry with paper towels and then place the meat back in the fridge for 18-24 hours uncovered...but it needs to be elevated in some way. For me, I used a cooling rack for cookies. The reason for this is that the meat needs contact with air in order to form what is called a pellicle, it's a dry yet tacky surface feel to the meat, this is what allows the smoke flavor to stick later on.
The final step is the smoking process. How you achieve this varies based on your grill. The ideal would be a charcoal grill with a smoker attachment, at which point you already know what to do here. If you've got a basic charcoal grill, light up one side of the grill with wood chips added and keep the flame as low as possible, with the meat on the far end of the grill. I've managed this on a gas grill in similar fashion, but had to add a metal tray directly on top of the flame vents to hold the wood chips. The idea is to keep the heat as low as possible, you want the the wood chips to create smoke, not catch fire and you're not looking to cook the meat. This is a 3 hour process, so grab a drink and get comfy checking in every 30 mins or so.
Once the smoking is done, you can cut off the skin/rind if you haven't yet, slice and cook as you would bacon. If the bones were still on, you can slice these off as well and finish grilling or even baking them.
I know this sounds complicated, but after the first time it's really second nature. Rub the cure into the meat, store in the fridge, rotate every other day, wash off the excess salt, store overnight with air circulation to form a pellicle, smoke, slice and cook.
I have seen a variation that is a simpler pre-smoking involving an overnight brine and using a box fan for the pellicle.
You'll need a 2-2.5 lb piece of Pork Belly - you may need a butcher shop for this or ask the butcher in your supermarket if they can provide this as it's not available normally. Some places leave rib bones in and that's fine, you can remove later and get bacon-flavored ribs. It's not important if the skin is still on the cut either, you'll be removing it when you're done anyway.
You'll need to prepare a curing mix, i.e. a rub. There's no scaled down version of this so you'll need to make extra and you can save it for a later point.
12 oz Kosher Salt
6 oz Brown Sugar
1.25 oz Insta Cure No. 1 - You'll almost certainly need to find this online, it isn't hard to get and is cheap.
Wash the Pork Belly and then pat it dry with paper towels. If the skin is still on the meat, poke several holes in it with a knife about an inch deep to ensure the rub can penetrate or the meat will rot. Rub the cure all over the meat, as much as sticks to the surface. You'll need close to half of the mix you've prepared.
Place the meat skin-side down in a covered container big enough to hold it. You will be storing the meat for 7-10 days this way for the cure to do its thing. Additionally, you'll need to take the meat out every other day and flip the meat over, and you'll be rubbing in the juices in the container back onto the meat. The reason for this flipping is that the salt concentration will settle unevenly and this redistributes it...do not attempt to skip this step or things will go badly.
After the curing process is done, rinse the meat under lukewarm water and then soak it for 30 minutes. Pat dry with paper towels and then place the meat back in the fridge for 18-24 hours uncovered...but it needs to be elevated in some way. For me, I used a cooling rack for cookies. The reason for this is that the meat needs contact with air in order to form what is called a pellicle, it's a dry yet tacky surface feel to the meat, this is what allows the smoke flavor to stick later on.
The final step is the smoking process. How you achieve this varies based on your grill. The ideal would be a charcoal grill with a smoker attachment, at which point you already know what to do here. If you've got a basic charcoal grill, light up one side of the grill with wood chips added and keep the flame as low as possible, with the meat on the far end of the grill. I've managed this on a gas grill in similar fashion, but had to add a metal tray directly on top of the flame vents to hold the wood chips. The idea is to keep the heat as low as possible, you want the the wood chips to create smoke, not catch fire and you're not looking to cook the meat. This is a 3 hour process, so grab a drink and get comfy checking in every 30 mins or so.
Once the smoking is done, you can cut off the skin/rind if you haven't yet, slice and cook as you would bacon. If the bones were still on, you can slice these off as well and finish grilling or even baking them.
I know this sounds complicated, but after the first time it's really second nature. Rub the cure into the meat, store in the fridge, rotate every other day, wash off the excess salt, store overnight with air circulation to form a pellicle, smoke, slice and cook.
I have seen a variation that is a simpler pre-smoking involving an overnight brine and using a box fan for the pellicle.