Bacon Makes it Better!

If not for cultural, religious, ethical or heart reasons, everyone should be eating pork...

Pork is an amazingly versatile piece of protein which can be cooked in a Forest Gump Shrimp like rant... Baked, Braised, Broiled, Cured, Grilled, Smoked, Steamed... and I'm sure I've missed a few. According to the infallible Wiki, people have been consuming pork in an domesticated manner for over 7000 years.

In all of that time, cultures have found ways to use almost every cut of meat in a delicious way.

Today we'll focus on bacon.



Traditional American bacon, most recognizable as long thin and covered in grease, comes from the belly of your standard pig. During the industrialized creation of bacon, its filled with salt, chemicals fake smoke flavors and other niceties that sound rather awful.

Luckily, there is almost no reason to spend your money on mass produced, average bacon. With vast amounts of information on methods to make your own, "Bacon Enthusiasts", are effortlessly supplying their friends with bacon. (Don't have a friend who gives you fresh bacon? Sounds like its time to make new friends!)

Now that the background and pep-talk is done, on with the makin' of the bacon.

Notes:

• I utilized several sources of information on bacon, first and foremost being the tutorial on the Bradley Smoker Forums which is one of the best places to find information on smoking/curing of delicious things *including vegetables my vegan friends!*, next is the Chowhound website and... as of recently a book by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn Charcuterie (excuse my non MLA complaint style and grammar) which goes deep into the art of curing and working with meat, a must read for any carnivore-chef.
  
• When cooking or curing any foods, sanitation and cleanliness is very, very important mostly for the reason that you don't want to accidentally poison yourself or friends.
• There are only a few required steps in the recipe, feel free to have fun and create your own flavors!
• A Smoker is NOT required, but I prefer the flavor when making American bacon. To substitute, simply place in a preheated oven at 160 Degrees on a wire rack, over a rimmed baking sheet for 4-6 hours or until an internal temperature of 150 degrees is reached
  

Tools:
Smoker (with wood, and the better part of 4-6 hours)
A Friendly Butcher (priceless)
Refrigerator space for a week
2 gallon Ziplock bag, or food safe tub. (Glad is OK, but its leaked in the past)

Ingredients for a 5 LB Belly (From the Bradley Forums Link):
5 Lbs of Pork Belly, I prefer skin off, and trimmed into a neat rectangle
2 oz. Kosher Salt
2 tsp Pink Salt
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
Here I deviate and add a handful of partially cracked black peppercorns

1. Mix up all the ingredients and go to town on your pork belly, rubbing the mixture into every nook and cranny you can find.
2. Store in your Ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible so as liquid leaves the meat, it will stay in contact with the cure. Store in your refrigerator, preferably at a temperature between 36-40 F (The closer to 40 the better)
3. Each day, take a few moments to massage the bag, working and redistributing the cure throughout the process. After 7 days, the belly should feel significantly more denser and firmer than when you first purchased it. (It is now considered "Raw Bacon", and can be consumed after a good sizzle in the frying pan. But wheres the fun in that.)
4. Remove the bacon from the plastic bag and thoroughly wash the meat. (Its very important to wash well, as your removing extra salt that will overpower the finished product.)
5. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels, and let stand in your fridge for a day on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet, OR allow to air dry in your smoker (or oven) at the lowest possible temperature for an hour, this helps to form a pellicule, which will enhance the finished product.
6. Preheat your smoker to 160 degrees (or follow the Oven instructions in the note) and add your smoke of choice (typical is Hickory, Apple or Maple) for 2 hours, then continue to cook until an internal temperature of 150 degrees is reached, approximately 2-4 hours after smoking
7. Wrap in plastic wrap, and foil and freeze before slicing (or store in the freezer for several months!)