How to Make Homemade Bacon

Hand cured and smoked bacon can be pricey compared to the industrial supermarket stuff. I've seen some go for $16/lb!!! While that is an extreme example, I'm sure with a little searching, just about everyone should be able to find a smokehouse locally with more reasonable prices. But if you have just a little time, you should definitely make your own.

It's a bit of a long process, and you have to find a butcher who has pork bellies. Ethnic butchers will have them. For example, if you have a German, Polish, Italian or Korean neighborhood near where you live, your chances of finding pork belly are very good. It should be about $3/lb, the same price or less than industrial bacon.

There are tons of blogs that have documented the process, and it's easy to do. Basically, you rub the meat with coarse salt, like kosher salt or sea salt and your choice of spices and herbs, like cracked black peppercorns, dried juniper berries, sage, star anise, dried orange peel, you can also add brown sugar or molasses to your rub. The possibilities are endless.

Then you put the belly with it's rub in a sealed container or a large ziploc bag in the fridge for about 10 days. Turn the meat over about every 3 days.

After the 10 day cure is done, you take the meat out, rinse it, pat it dry, and then put it back in the fridge for 24 hours uncovered.

Then, you smoke it. Your grill in your backyard that you use to cook burgers in the summer works fine. Choose some wood chips of your liking like apple or hickory, some lump hardwood charcoal (please dont use that kingsford style briquette crap, it tastes like burning tires) and fire it all up as you would normally, just make sure that you are not placing the meat directly over the coals. You want indirect, slow, smoky heat. Place the meat on the grate fat side up. Close the lid and let it smoke SLOW and LOW, for about 5 - 6 hours. Tend the fire as necessary.

Use a thermometer to test the internal temperature, you want it to be 150 - 160 degrees.

When the meat has reached that temperature, you take it off, and that's pretty much it. Let it cool, slice it, and either eat it as is, or fry it up, or use it in any other way you would normally use bacon. It will keep forever, and you can freeze it for long term use.