Homemade Smoked Maple Bacon Recipes

SMOKED MAPLE SYRUP BACON

Steps:

• Pour water, sodium nitrate, curing salt, coarse salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup into a large kettle. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until everything is well dissolved. Pour brine into a 5 gallon plastic bucket and cool to room temperature, 6 to 8 hours.
• Leaving the skin on the pork belly, cut against the grain into 4 to 6 slabs so they fit inside the bucket, and inside your smoker. Place into the bucket of brine, and weigh down with a glass or ceramic dish to keep the pork submerged. Cover and refrigerate for 5 to 7 days, rearranging the pork in the brine daily.
• On smoking day, remove pork from the brine and rinse well under cold running water, rubbing to remove all external brine. Pat pieces dry and place onto smoker racks. Allow pork pieces to stand, preferably underneath a fan, until the surface of the meat becomes somewhat dried and notably glossy, 1 to 3 hours depending on air circulation.
• Smoke pork belly slabs using wood of your choice at a temperature of 90 to 110 degrees F (32 to 43 degrees C) for 8 to 12 hours. Remove rind before slicing.

CLASSIC TRADITIONAL AMERICAN BACON RECIPE

Steps:

• Skin it. If the skin is still on the belly, remove it and use it to make cracklins. It is sometimes hard to tell if it is still there. It is usually a darker tan color compared to creamy colored fat. You should be able to make a cut in fat with your thumbnail. Your thumbnail will only make a dent in skin. Leaving skin on causes problems for salt penetration, and when you fry it, the skin gets very hard and you probably won't like the texture. Removing the skin can be tricky. Sometimes you can grip a corner with your fingers and run a knife under the skin to peel it back by running the knife between the skin and fat. Sometimes you just have to shave it off with a sharp knife.
• Cure it. Pour everything except the meat into a zipper bag large enough to hold the belly. A 1 gallon (4 L) bag will hold a single 3 pound (1.4 kg) slab. Zip the bag and squish everything around until well mixed. Now add the belly, squeeze out the air as much as possible and squish some more rubbing the cure into the belly and coat all sides. Put the bag in a pan to catch leaks and place in the fridge at 34 to 38°F (1.1 to 3.3°C). The belly will release liquid so every day or two you want to gently massage the bag so the liquid and spices are well distributed, and flip the bag over. NOTE: If you use more than one slab in a bag it is crucial that the slabs do not overlap each other. Thickness matters!
• Rinse off the cure. Remove the belly from the bag, and throw the liquid away. Quick rinse it to wash off any thick deposits of salt on the surface. Most recipes tell you to let the slab dry for 24 hours so the smoke will stick better, but, as the AmazingRibs.com science advisor Dr. Greg Blonder has proven, smoke sticks better to wet surfaces, so this extra step isn't necessary.
• Fire up. If you are using a grill, set up for 2-zone cooking or fire up your smoker.
• Cook. Smoke over indirect heat at 225°F (107.2°C) until the internal temp is 150°F (65.6°C), about 2 hours. You can use any wood you like. Hickory is the tried and true. I'm partial to cherry and applewood. After smoking you should slice off the ends, which may be very dark and more heavily seasoned, and taste them right away. They will be more salty than the innards and the fat will be a bit stringy, but you'll love it all the same. Just wait til you cook up an inside slice!
• Cool. Now let it cool on a plate in the fridge. Cold bacon is easier to slice. Use on a slicer if you have one, or use a long thin knife to slice it. Try some thin and some thick slices. You can also cut bacon in cubes to make lardons and use them like bacon bits in salads, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, baked beans, in sauces or to garnish chops, or roasts.
• Wrap it tightly with several layers of plastic wrap, and then a layer of foil, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months. Do not wrap in foil alone because it can react with the salt.
• Slice. Slice it across the grain. For evenly thick slices, a slicing machine is the best choice, but I rarely use mine because it is a pain to clean. Besides, I like to keep the slab intact and tightly wrapped in the fridge or freezer to reduce exposure to oxygen which can make the fat taste funny in a week or two. When I make bacon I usually shoot for hunks 6 to 8" (15.2 to 20.3 cm) wide across the grain to make sure my thin 9" (22.9 cm) knife and frying pan fit. If you put a slab in the freezer for 15 minutes or so it gets stiffer and easier to slice.
• Save the bacon drippings. While your bacon is cooking lay out a section of newspaper several sheets thick, and cover it with a layer of paper towels. As soon as the bacon is done, move it to the paper towel to drain. Let the fat in the pan cool a bit and then pour it in a glass jar and refrigerate. Hot bacon can melt a plastic tub, so be careful. Save the fat for up to a month and use it to fry. Broccoli and potatoes are especially good cooked in bacon grease.

RECIPE: MAPLE-SMOKED BACON

Steps:

• In a large sealable plastic bag, combine the pork belly, sugar, kosher salt, maple syrup, curing salt and pepper. Seal the bag and massage the ingredients around the pork belly to incorporate. Allow to cure for 5 days in the fridge, flipping the bag each day.
• After curing, remove the pork belly from the bag and rinse it with cool water. Place it on a wire rack over a baking sheet and refrigerate until the outside of the pork belly is dry and tacky, 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 200° and arrange a rack on the bottom and one in the center of the oven. Line a cast-iron skillet with tinfoil and fill with it wood chips. Almost completely cover the pan with foil and heat over high until a steady stream of smoke is coming out of the opening, 3 to 4 minutes. Quickly transfer the pan to the bottom rack of the oven and remove the foil covering the top. Place the baking sheet with the pork belly on the center rack and cook until it has reached an internal temperature of 150°, 60 to 70 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
• Slice the bacon lengthwise to the desired thickness and cook.

MAPLE-CURED BACON

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix together syrup, salt, dark brown sugar, and pink salt. Coat entire pork belly with the cure and place in a large resealable plastic bag. Place in the coldest part of the refrigerator and cure for 5 days, flipping bag about every 12 hours.
• Remove pork belly from bag and wash any large deposits of salt under cold running water.
• Fire up smoker or grill to between 200-225°F, adding 1-2 fist-size chunks of smoking wood on top of the coals when at temperature. When wood is ignited and producing smoke, place pork belly in smoker, fat side up, and smoke until an instant read thermometer registers 150°F when inserted into thickest part of the meat. Remove pork belly from smoker and let cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator until completely chilled.
• Cut bacon into slices at desired width and cook using your favorite method. Store leftover bacon in Ziploc or vacuum sealed bags in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.

MAPLE BACON RECIPE

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients other than pork belly in a bowl and mix together.
• Pour mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and add the pork belly. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing, then mix around the liquid so that the belly is completely covered.
• Place the bag on a baking dish to catch possible leaks, and allow it to cure in the refrigerator for 1 week, flipping it over and moving around the liquid each day.
• After bacon is done curing, remove it from the bag, give it a rinse to remove excess salt, and pat it dry.
• Smoke at 200-225° F until bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150° F. This should take 2-3 hours depending on your smoker's temperature and the thickness of the pork belly.
• Refrigerate bacon to cool completely before slicing.

MAPLE CANADIAN BACON

Steps:

• Mix the tender quick, sugar, pepper, pepper flakes, and hickory seasoning in a bowl.
• Coat the pork heavily on all sides with the dry rub. Vacuum seal the bags, wrap them in several layers of plastic bags, or use plastic curing trays. Cure in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days. You'll know the cure is done when you slice a piece of pork and it's no longer pink.
• Rinse the pork under cold water and pat dry. Return it to the fridge for 12 to 24 hours, so it can develop a sticky skin (called a "pellicle"). This will help the smoke penetrate the meat.
• Preheat the grill to 150 degrees F (66 degrees C). Light a wedgie with maple pellets.
• Smoked the pork for 6 hours until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).
• Let it cool before slicing, thick or thin.

HOMEMADE SMOKED MAPLE BACON

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Rinse the pork belly under cold water.
• Pat it dry with paper towels or a clean dishcloth.
• Combine the maple syrup, salt, pepper, and curing salt (if using) in a small bowl.
• Rub the seasoning mixture into all sides of the pork belly, using your scrupulously cleaned hands. Spend a couple of minutes massaging the seasoning/curing mixture into the meat.
• Place the pork belly, along with any leftover curing mixture, into a plastic bag and seal it shut. Store it lengthwise in the refrigerator for 10 to 14 days, turning the bag over occasionally. The bacon should be fully cured at this point, with a firm texture and no soft spots.
• Preheat oven to 200 F. Rinse the bacon.
• Again pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels or a clean, dry dishtowel.
• Place the bacon on a rack over a pan and roast the cured bacon in a 200 F oven until the internal temperature reaches 150 F. This should take about 2 hours.
• Remove from oven and baste the cured and roasted bacon with the liquid smoke. Use a pastry brush to evenly coat all sides and allow it to set on the counter to air-dry for 30 minutes.
• Store the bacon in a tightly sealed container or bag in the refrigerator for up to a month, or in the freezer for up to a year.