Bacon: Home-Cured (no nitrates)
by Lishka DeVoss

YIELD about 1 pound

Pink salt (aka Curing Salt No. 1) is a nitrate — a combination of table salt (sodium chloride) and nitrite. It is used as a preserving agent to deter bacteria growth in cured meats. Used by many hunters, it can be found in sporting goods stores. It also gives most commercial bacon its pinkish “bacony” color. But you don’t need it to make bacon. Pork belly — the part of the pig we use to make bacon — can be cured with regular salt in the refrigerator, then slow roasted, and finally cooked again before serving. This bacon will have more the color of cooked pork (not pinkish), but hey, it’s delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1.5 pounds pork belly
1 tbsp kosher salt (use less if it’s Morton Kosher Salt)
1.5 tbsp pure maple syrup (or honey, brown sugar, white sugar or molasses)
1 tbsp cold espresso or apple cider (or 1 tsp bourbon)
4 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed in a ziplock using a heavy jar or meat tenderizing mallet
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seed, toasted
1/2 tsp coriander seed, toasted

PREPARATION

1. Square off the pork belly, remove the rind, and cut off some of the fat if it looks too fatty.

2. Place the cure ingredients in a clean large freezer ziplock bag. Squish them together and then add the pork belly.

3. Turn the bag over and over while pressing and rubbing the cure ingredients into the pork belly.

4. Squeeze out all the air and refrigerate for seven days — each day, flip the bag over. To make this easier, on one side of the bag put a Post-It with “Day 2, Day 4, Day 6” and on the other side of the bag put another Post-It with “Day 3, Day 5, Day 7”. (Use dates or the actual weekday names, depending on which day of the week you start, so you don’t have to think about it too much.) Some extra liquid will begin to gather in the bag. This is normal.

5. After seven days (Day 8), wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat it dry with paper towels.

6. On a rack over a baking sheet, set your newly-cured bacon and let it air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.

7. After it’s air-dried, preheat the oven to 225°F and roast it for 90 minutes (or to an internal temperature of 150°F). You now have bacon.

8. Chill the bacon well before slicing thick or thin, whatever your preference. Any bacon that doesn’t slice easily may be cut into chunks and used for starting a pot of beans or a soup — or — you can render the fat and fry up tiny pieces for additional flavor to a tasty pasta dish like Carbonara.

NOTE: Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped again in plastic film or aluminum foil — in a clean ziplock bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator — in a clean freezer ziplock bag, up to three months in the freezer. But it won’t last that long. You’ll eat it.

Updated 2020-04-27

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