More Homemade Bacon

My last attempt at bacon left me wanting a bit more. I wasn't fully satisfied with the results. My obvious mistake was not letting the pork cure for enough time. This time around, I also wanted to add a bit of flavor. At first I was afraid to limit the possible uses of the bacon but since I was making a very small batch I figured I would be to avoid bacon overload. I was lucky to have a giant can of pure Vermont Maple Syrup lying around and that pretty much decided my fate.

I used this recipe that was published by the LA Times from 'Charcuterie' by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Unlike my first attempt, this was a wet cure and it used curing salt. I actually found the wet cure easier to work with since I could just put everything in a Ziploc bag and just turn it over every day after work. After drying for 2 days and cooking it in the oven, I was excited to see the results.

I took out my knife and did my best to cut a not too thick slice of bacon. I failed miserably. I cooked up the bacon and found that it was too meaty. It had a nice salty maple flavor, but lacked the texture of bacon. That was the moment I decided I needed to borrow/take my father's meat slicer that was sitting in his basement.



The meat sliced made all the difference. I could still get thick bacon slices, but with cleaner cuts that cooked and looked like bacon.



I try to do as many things as I can with just basic equipment, but this is one task where I feel having a meat slicer is a must unless you have some crazy knife skills.

Homemade Bacon

Geoff @ imafoodblog posted a pretty nice how to on making your own bacon. It caught my attention immediately and I have to say it was pretty simple. I didn't have access to a smoker but I don't think that taking that extra step would have complicated things much.

I started out with just a few lbs of pig belly from Chinatown. It may have not been the best choice of product to make bacon, especially with my Chinese being so bad but it was way better than buying it from whole foods at ridiculous prices.

The thing about buying the pork belly in Chinatown is that they sell it in slabs all the way to the bone, which is nice but not easy 1-2-3 for bacon making. When I do it again I'll have to do a better job in picking marbleized pieces and trimming the piece for bacon.

I had decided from the get go to just do a salt cure, just to see what 'plain' bacon would taste like and to test out the method. What I ended up with was a dry version of roasted pig belly from Chinatown. It did have some bacon qualities, which was good enough for me. What I realized later was that I only cured the belly for 2 days whereas Geoff mentioned that you should cure for at least 3 days.

As I mentioned I didn't have access to a smoker, so I put it in the oven at the lowest setting with a container of water on the oven floor. I pretty much let it sit until the internal temp reached 150.

The next time around, and there will be a next time, I think I'll do a simple maple bacon and a peppered bacon. I should also probably find a way to raise the belly from the container so that the liquid can drain better.

I actually can't wait to make this again. I mean c'mon its bacon, how can you mess it up. Even as sub par bacon, it was quite delicious.