Curing bacon

Busy day at Hog Wild World Headquarters. We got pork shoulders on the smoker. We got hams on the smoker. And we got bacon curing in the fridge.

We purchased a pig from a local farmer earlier this year. We picked up the meat from the butcher on Saturday. We have 35 pounds of pork butt cubed to make some serious gourmet artisan sausage, and the hams went into a brown sugar-salt brine with garlic, black pepper and juniper 15 minutes ago. (stay tuned for a blog on curing ham). The pork bellies (above) are in the fridge for the next week, slowly turning from fresh meat into slab bacon, which we then smoke over hickory and oak for about 3 hours for a finished product.

For the local farm raised pork, we wanted to try something a little different: honey glazed bacon with black pepper and sage.

10# pork belly, halved
1 cup kosher salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. Prague Cure #1
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup powdered sage
Honey

Mix dry ingredients. Apply honey to both sides of the pork belly halves. Apply dry ingredients. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in non-reactive dish in refrigerator fro 5-7 days. Rinse bacon under running cold water. If you like your bacon with a less salty taste, cover slabs with cold water and soak for 30 minutes to one hour. Smoke at 225-250 degrees until bacon reaches 155 degrees internal temperature.