How To Make The Best Bacon Recipes

CANADIAN BACON RECIPE

Steps:

• Use your knife and make sure that you trim away any and all unwanted fat, as well as the "silver skin" found within pork.
• Do your best to trim the meat down to whole pounds for easy math down the road.
• The less your boneless pork loin weighs, the quicker it can finish cooking.
• Weight is incredibly important when it comes to assessing just how much seasoning is required for the meat.
• Place your meat on the scale and zero in on its weight as soon as you can.
• While you can still have acceptable Canadian bacon if you hiccup on the seasoning, the same cannot be said when it comes to the amount of cure you apply to the meat.
• Because the meat's weight is so important to proper curing, many people who cure meat tend to measure by weight, usually down to the gram, instead of relying upon measuring spoons.
• Combine your cure and sugar into a single bowl.
• Grab a big handful of the mixture and rub it all over the pork loin, making sure to get it into every crevice.
• Once you have saturated the loin with sugar and cure, toss it into the gallon Zip-Lock bag along with any remaining cure.
• Take the bagged pork loin, push out every molecule of air that you possibly can, then seal the bag.
• Lay the bagged loin within a pan to minimize the fallout from a leak.
• Put the panned-and-bagged loin into your refrigerator.
• Ensure the fridge's temperature is set between 33° and 40° Fahrenheit; anything colder inhibits curing and anything warmer could spoil your loin before it can properly cure.
• The loin requires a number of days to cure equal to half its thickness in inches, divided by four; for example, a 3" thick pork loin would require six days of curing because 0.25 goes into 1.5 six times.
• Make sure to flip the loin each day, this will ensure that the cure maintains an even distribution across and within the pork loin.
• If you are still leery of under-curing the loin, give it an extra two days.
• Once your pork loin has been given the appropriate amount of time to cure, remove it from its bag and rinse it free of any remaining cure using cold water.
• Slice off a small piece of the loin and fry it to an even brown using a pan and either a pat of butter of 1 teaspoon of oil.
• Once you've properly cooked the loin, give it a taste to gauge the salt content; if you detect too much salt, you can soak it in cold water, possibly with some quartered raw potatoes, for half an hour.
• While you may not need to do this, it is a handy trick to know.
• You've got a basic Canadian bacon; feel free to add the various seasonings on the ingredients list at this point, seasonings like paprika, onion powder and black pepper.
• Once everything checks out with the cured loin, start your smoker up and get it around 180° to 200° Fahrenheit.
• For wood you can use anything you like as a smoky flavor, like applewood. Put your Canadian bacon into the smoker and cook it until you reach the desired internal temperature.
• Stop once the meat reaches an internal temperature of 140° Fahrenheit.
• While this will preserve some moisture, you must cook this bacon through before consuming it.
• Stop at an internal temperature of 160° Fahrenheit.
• This is the ideal approach for keeping it primed and ready within the fridge for sandwiches, pizza, omelets or whatever you might want to add it to.

HOMEMADE BACON

Steps:

• Rinse the pork belly and pat dry. Transfer to a resealable 2-gallon plastic bag. To make the spice rub, mix the kosher salt, pink salt, brown sugar, honey, red pepper flakes, paprika and cumin in a bowl. Coat the pork belly all over with the mixture.
• Close the bag and refrigerate 7 to 10 days, flipping once a day, until the pork belly feels firm. It should take 7 days for a thin belly that is about 11/2 inches thick, longer for a belly that's 2 to 3 inches thick.
• Remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. Refrigerate the belly on a rack, uncovered, 48 hours.
• Set up your smoker according to the manufacturer's instructions using applewood chips, and set to 200 degrees F. Smoke the pork belly 3 hours, or until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.
• Remove the rind (optional), then slice and cook as desired. To store, wrap the bacon in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 2 months.
• Pink curing salt is a mix of salt and sodium nitrite. It keeps the meat pink and protects it from bacteria. You can find it at specialty food stores or online.

CRISPY BACON

Steps:

• Put the bacon in a non-stick frying pan in a single layer. Top with another heavy pan or frying pan that fits snugly into the pan on top of the bacon. If it's not very heavy, top with another pan, or anything heatproof and weighty.
• Fry on a medium-low heat for 10-15 mins until golden and super-crispy. Check the bacon halfway through cooking - increase the heat slightly if there's lots of liquid in the pan, and flip the bacon over. Keep cooking until the bacon is uniformly golden and crisp.
• Drain on kitchen paper before adding to sandwiches or crumbling over salads or soups.

JOSEPH'S BEST EASY BACON RECIPE

Steps:

• Line a large baking sheet with 2 sheets of aluminum foil, making sure pan is completely covered.
• Arrange bacon strips on the prepared baking sheet, keeping at least 1/2-inch space between strips. Place pan in the cold oven.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Cook bacon for 14 minutes.
• Transfer cooked bacon to paper towel-lined plates. Let cool for 5 minutes for bacon to crisp.