CreepersWiener wrote:I never buy bacon, I only make my own.
It is quite simple, but takes a little time.
I make mine with a cold smoker now, but you can make it using a hot smoke instead (the only difference really is that the Hot Smoke Bacon is very close to being cooked, so you have to be careful when you fry it because it will brown and burn very quickly...)
Here is my secret bacon recipe:
CreepersWiener's Secret Bacon Recipe
2 cups Kosher Salt
2 cups Brown Sugar
1 bottle of PURE Mapel Syrup (I think it is a 9 oz bottle, but I am not sure)
3 oz (2 shots) of Bourbon Whiskey (I like Maker's Mark)
3 sides of raw pork belly/side pork
Big Ziploc Baggies (I use the 2 Gallon Bags and I cut my pork sides each in half. One bag will hold approximately one half a side, so you would need 6 2 Gallon baggies if you are going to smoke three sides of bacon)
Large Plastic Container (I use a flat Rubber Maid container, works perfect!)
Some type of Smoker, use either Hot Smoke or Cold Smoke (if using a Cold Smoke technique and it is your first time, please take the time to research it, otherwise you may end up getting botulism)
6 Wire Baking Racks
1 or 2 rolls of Paper Towels
1. Mix salt, sugar, maple syrup, and bourbon in a large bowl and set aside
2. cut your pork sides in half
3. Rinse your pork sides and use Paper Towels to dry them THOROUGHLY
3. Place a side of pork in a 2 gallon plastic Ziploc bag and put one large spoonful of salt/sugar mixture into bag and thoroughly cover the pork side all over.
4. Get as much air as possible out of bag and Ziploc it and put it into the Rubber Maid (or other) container
5. Place your curing side pork into a refrigerator, and leave it cure for seven days making sure to flip all the bags over every day during curing process.
6. When curing is done, take cured bacon out of plastic bags and rinse off thoroughly (some people even soak them in water, but I just rinse them off really good)
7. Use paper towels to thoroughly dry the bacon off again (important to keep the bacon dry)
8. Place wire baking racks in refrigerator and put dried cured bacon sides on the racks (these racks stack on top of each other very well)
9. Let cured bacon sit in fridge again for 24 hours drying. Little beads of moisture will form on the outside of your bacon...that is a GOOD thing! Don't Wipe them away! They will act like a sticky glue for your smoke to adhere to.
10. For hot smoke, put your smoker on the lowest possible temp (this is usually around 140F or so). If you are smoking in the winter time, your smoking temp might not get above 100F and this is considered Cold Smoking Temp, then you must follow stricter smoking guidelines for this type of smoking technique.
11. You should hot smoke your bacon until it reaches a temp of 140 F, this usually only takes a couple hours. For wood chips, I recommend Apple and Hickory.
12. When Bacon is done in the smoker, put the sides back on the baking racks and put back into the Fridge overnight again.
13. Cut yourself a nice slice of bacon and fry in a pan! THE BEST FRICKIN BACON YOU WILL EVER HAVE...EVER!
Can you please mail me some of your bacon.
