Hot Smoked Cured Bacon Recipes

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.

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.

HOMEMADE BACON

Steps:

• In a large food-safe container, combine 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of Kosher Salt, 1 cup of white sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1 TBS of Insta-Cure #1.
• Mix together until dissolved.
• Drop in the pork belly and make sure it stays submerged. I used a plastic container filled with water to weigh mine down.
• Refrigerate for 14 days.
• After 14 days remove and rinse cure and pat dry.
• Leave uncovered in the refrigerator overnight.
• Smoke for 4 hours at temperatures under 165 degrees F.
• Remove and cool in the refrigerator overnight.
• Slice and enjoy.

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.

HOT-SMOKED CURED BACON

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, mix together salt and ground peppercorns; rub all over pork belly. Place pork belly in a shallow baking dish and drizzle with apple cider. Cover and transfer to refrigerator; let chill for 24 to 36 hours.
• Preheat oven to 210 degrees. Place 7 cups hickory wood chips in a large metal container; ignite wood chips.
• Rinse pork belly and pat dry. Fit a large roasting pan with a rack and set pork belly on rack. When wood chips are smoldering, transfer metal container to bottom rack of oven; place roasting pan with pork belly on middle rack of oven. Let pork belly smoke until it reaches 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, at least 5 hours for lightly smoked bacon, or up to 8 hours for a smokier bacon. Remove bacon from oven and let stand until it reaches 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
• Slice and prepare the same as you would any store-bought bacon. Bacon can be stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

HOW TO MAKE MEASURED DRY CURE BACON AT HOME || GLEN & FRIENDS COOKING

Steps:

• Weigh your piece of pork belly.
• Weigh the rest of the cure components:
• Salt is 2.5% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Sugar is 1% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Pink Cure #1 is 0.25% of the weight of the pork belly.
• Mix together the salt, sugar, and pink cure #1.
• The above constitutes the 'cure'.
• If you wish to 'flavour' the bacon you can layer on as much as you want of almost whatever you want.