How To Pickle Cured Bacon Recipes

BACON-PICKLE KETCHUP

Steps:

• Cook 4 slices bacon in a skillet over medium heat, turning, until crisp, about 7 minutes. Drain on paper towels, then crumble. Combine 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 finely chopped onion, 1/2 cup relish and 1/4 cup finely chopped pickled jalapenos (drained) in a bowl. Stir in the bacon.

HOW TO PICKLE CURED BACON

Steps:

• Lay the sides of bacon on a board and rub with fine salt.
• Let stand for 48 hours.
• Mix the next three ingredients and dissolve in the water.
• Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.
• Skim and cool.
• Place bacon in a clean oak barrel and pour liquid over meat.
• Place a heavy weight on the bacon to keep it under the brine.
• Bacon prepared like this will keep about a year in a cool place.
• After bacon has been in brine for five weeks; it may all be hung up to dry and when thoroughly dried, smoked at smoke house as needed.

BACON-WRAPPED PICKLES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Pat pickles dry with a paper towel. Cut cream cheese into 8 strips. Place 1 strip onto each pickle, and wrap with a strip of bacon, securing ends with toothpicks if necessary. Place pickles on the baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until bacon is browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, then serve with ranch dressing.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Rub the pork belly top and bottom with the Aleppo pepper. Combine the kosher salt, curing salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large, nonreactive container and bury the belly completely in the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 2 days.
• Remove the belly from the refrigerator and discard the cure. Rinse the remaining cure off the meat and pat it dry. Set the belly on a baking sheet and loosely cover. Allow to sit in the refrigerator another 2 days. On the second day, set the hickory chips in water to soak overnight.
• Using a conventional smoker, smoke the belly until the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Once the belly is smoked and cooled, cut into 4 sections. Wrap the sections well in plastic wrap and foil and store in the freezer until needed, up to 3 months.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.
• After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn't easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.