Home Cured, Home Smoked Duroc Bacon
The curing salt gives the bacon a pink tint to it. Cook in a pan until crispy and add onto a jalapeno smash burger, check out my recipe!
The following is done by weight:
Pork belly (in this example I will go with 1205 g or just over 2.5 lbs)
3 percent salt
1.5 percent sugar
.25 percent Prague powder #1
Other ingredients not done by weight:
1/2 tsp anise seeds
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Tools needed:
Digital kitchen scale that reads in grams
Small sauce cups or ramekins
Plastic wrap (or 2 gallon zip top bag)
Tin foil
Glass baking dish or sheet pan
Smoker (I have an offset smoker)
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Thermometer
Mason jar with lid
Measuring spoons
How to make it:
Remove the pork from the packaging and weigh it on your scale in grams. Using the following percentages, calculate and write down each measurement. If you have a scale that won’t read decimal points, round to the nearest whole number. Weight out each of the following and add to a clean mason jar.
Salt: 1205 g x 3 % = 36 g
Sugar: 1205 g x 1.5 % = 18 g
Curing salt: 1205 g x .25 = 3 g
To the jar, add 1/2 tsp anise seeds and rough chop a sprig of fresh rosemary. Shake the jar to mix the ingredients and sprinkle the salt mixture all over the pork making sure to use all of the salt. Get all sides of the pork with the salt mixture.
Once the salt is added, place the pork in a zip top bag or wrap with plastic wrap and foil. Place the pork onto a sheet pan or baking sheet and place in the refrigerator. The cure time is 7 days. I like to flip the pork over half way through the cure time.
On day 7, remove the pork from the bag or wrapping and rinse the salt off thoroughly under cold running water. Pat completely dry with clean paper towels.
Place the pork on sheet pan on counter top while the smoker warms up. You can smoke this on whatever smoker you have. Pellet smoker, offset, drum etc. I have an offset smoke that I use for all kinds of smoking projects. I like to use XL lump charcoal as I find that it burns longer and cleaner than smaller pieces of charcoal or briquettes. For the smokey flavor, I use a combination of oak half splits and applewood chips. For the temperature of the smoker, keep it around 175-200 F.
Make sure to monitor the temperature of the pork belly as it smokes.
Once the smoker is warmed up, place a thermometer in the pork and set a temperature target of 150 F. My thermometer beeps when the specified temperature is reached. Smoke for about 2-3 hours or until the temperature is reached. Of course, smoke time will vary with different pork belly weights. I add small handfuls of charcoal every 45 minutes and pieces of wood once the coal is heated thoroughly.
Once the temperature of 150 F is reached, remove the pork from the smoker and place on clean baking sheet to rest on your kitchen countertop before slicing up.
The color of the bacon after it gets smoked is amazing.
Congratulations, you have your very own homemade bacon! Use within 2 weeks of making it if kept in the refrigerator. You can wrap it tightly and store in the freezer for up to 3 months as well.
Goes great on burgers (especially my jalapeno smash burger), made into bacon bits and as a side for breakfast with eggs. The bacon will render out plenty of fat so make sure to save that grease. I filter the grease through cheese cloth or a coffee filter and store it in a clean mason jar.
Enjoy!
Logan
