First Attempt at Homemade Bacon

A few days ago I made my first attempt at curing a pork belly at home. I started with a 4pound piece of pork belly from HEB and went from there.

I thought it tasted pretty good, but just a little sweet.

I gave away 2 packages to some friends hoping to obtained some unbiased opinions.

Bet it tastes as good as it looks.

Leslie makes it. Always worth it.

Looks like a winner!

I eat that,looks great

👍👍

I'd sure try that. What recipe did you use?

Care to post your process ? I’ve been thinking about trying this myself, looks great BTW!

https://amazingribs.com/

I used the basic recipe found in the website above.

I needed a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag to hold the meat and curing solution. I flipped the bag and squished the contents around early in the morning and then again before I went to bed.

I thought the meat was slightly sweet. My son was given a portion to test. He did not find it sweet.

Next time after rinsing the meat I will add another bit of pepper, since most of the pepper was rinsed off.

Good luck if you try making bacon at home.

Thanks! Printed Meathead's recipe.

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/smoked-homemade-bacon/?

I`ve used their process for making bacon lots of times. Always turns out great.

Looks good. Did you partially freeze it before slicing to get uniform cuts?

No. I used a 10 inch Forschner knife and 26 years of experience cutting meat. I can slice it so thin that it only has one side.

Awesome!

This is what I use came out perfect.
TPAK turned me on to this site few years ago.

Mine is in the fridge doing the backstroke in cure. Will pull and smoke it Wednesday afternoon.

We're waiting with bated breath.

TPACK, in the photo of your lovely slab it looks like you might have reapplied pepper after smoking. Did you? Sixteen mesh?

I only applied the black pepper prior to smoking. It gets redistributed naturally during the slicing process. It was 16 mesh black pepper. More black pepper is always better.

Looking good

Try this recipe, it is cheaper as it uses pork butts and to me just as good. I try to find the pork butt with the most fat.

Buckboard Bacon

Ingredients

4lb boneless pork butt
45.36g/1.6oz of kosher salt
4.54g/0.16oz of pink curing salt
18.16g/0.64oz white sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
Instructions

In a bowl, combine the salt, pink salt, sugar, garlic, onion and black pepper.
Rub this curing mix all over the pork butt, ensuring ALL of the cure ends up on the meat.
Place the butt into a large resealable bag, then place it into the fridge to cure for 14 days. Once a day, flip the meat over and massage the contents of the bag to keep the cure distributing.
After 14 days, remove the cured butt from the bag, and rinse under cold water.
Pat the meat dry with a paper towel, then place the butt onto a rack.
Place the rack into a smoker preheated to 180f for 2-3 hours, until the pork measures 160f internal temperature.
Remove from smoker and allow to cool, then store in an airtight container in the fridge. Slice bacon as needed, then cook as usual (oven baked or pan cooked).

I made some a few years ago using the same method I use for Pork Belly to make bacon. It just didn`t do it for me. Been there and done that.

I paid $5.39 a pound for the H-E-B organic belly, so there isn't a cost savings doing it at home. I am just hoping the fun of the experience and the flavor makes sense/cents in the end.

I buy all of mine at Costco for about 3.79 lb. But they are whole bellies. I haven`t made any bacon in a while since I started slicing the bellies and leaving them on the smoker for about 3.5 hours. It melts in your mouth like butter.

Here's the money shot on my first try. Looks edible to me!

Most definitely edible. Well done.

I started my second pork belly curing a few days ago. I am trying an Equilibrium Dry Curing method this time. I used my reloading scale to measure out the quantities of the curing agents.

Yes, measured the important stuff in grams on an electronic scale.

Let me just say this stuff makes up into a fabulous BLT.

Today I completed the process for my second attempt at making home cured and smoked bacon.

The first attempt I used a Wet Brine technique. In this technique water is added to the curing materials. The pork belly is then submerged in the solution. Today's bacon I used a Dry Brine method. The curing agents are applied to the meat without the addition of water.

Tomorrow I will taste my end product in a BLT.

Wow looks damn good. I try to find the fattiest pork bellys i can find to roast for a dinner with super crunchy pork skins
to eat, but have been thinking of try to make bacon as well.. anyone have recommendations for the best cure?
Also best recommendations for smoking, Pecan , oak, fruit wood, everybody knows hickory, I think mesquite would be a bit to strong?

TLoving, did you get the dry brine recipe at Amazing Ribs? Dang, you sure are picking some nicely balanced pork bellies.

After I started my first belly curing I found the Smoking Meat Forum. In that forum I found the ratios of salt/sugar/cure that was often cited as used by members on that forum. I cross checked other places and decided that I would use 1% sugar, 2% salt, 1 Tablespoon of Black Pepper plus the required curing salt amount.

Those ratios produced a good sugar/salt ration. Next time after curing but before smoking I am going to add additional black pepper.


As far as picking pork bellies, I am just lucky. No magic here.