Homemade Smoked Cured Bacon

Our family goes through bacon like it’s bread. We eat bacon almost everyday. I’d say we go through 2-3 lbs of bacon a week. This can add up and for the longest time I wanted to make my own. So, I scoured through the internet, looking at some really good sites and using science and reviewing recipes, I came up with my own successful recipe.

Before curing

After curing

Now where does one grab a slab of pork belly? Costco started selling 10lb slabs for a good price of $2.99/lb. This means what normally is $7.99/lb of bacon at the store, can be a big savings in the pocketbook.

Homemade Smoke Cured Bacon

By Mark Published: February 18, 2018

Yield: 10 lbs of bacon
Prep: 60 mins
Cook: 4 hrs 0 min
Ready In: 5 hrs 0 min

Our family goes through bacon like it's bread. We eat bacon almost everyday. I'd say we go through 2-3 lbs of bacon a week. This …

Ingredients

Instructions

Start with a 10lb slab of pork belly. Cut it into two equal sizes (roughly, 5 lbs each) You will apply half of the ingredients to each 5 lbs slab.
Rinse the pork belly and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels. Mix the brown sugar, kosher salt, pepper, and curing salt in a small bowl.
Sprinkle the mixture evenly on all sides of the pork belly, pressing with heel of your hand to help the salt mixture adhere.
Place a piece of plastic wrap twice the length of the pork belly on the countertop. Drizzle 1 ⁄4 cup of the syrup evenly on top of the fatty side of the pork belly, then place the pork belly in the center of the plastic wrap syrup-side down. Drizzle the meaty side of the pork belly with the remaining 1 ⁄4 cup syrup and bring the sides of the plastic wrap up and over the pork belly to wrap it tightly. Place in a zip-top bag and refrigerate for 1 week, turning halfway through the week.
When you’re ready to smoke, remove the pork belly from the bag and rinse thoroughly to remove all traces of the salt mixture. Pat dry with paper towels, place on a wire rack set over a baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator unwrapped to air-dry for 24 hours.
Remove the pork belly from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Prepare a smoker with wood chips according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Place the pork belly directly on the rack of the prepared smoker and smoke for 1 1 ⁄2 to 2 hours, until the pork belly registers 150˚F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from the smoker and let cool.
Refrigerate overnight before slicing lengthwise into strips. The bacon will keep, tightly wrapped, for 1 week in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer.