Posted on by Gav

Make Your Own Bacon

If you haven’t tried curing your own bacon, a kit is a good place to start. We got this one from The Smokey Carter who kindly shared their instructions with us. There are a number of other companies who make bacon kits in a variety of flavours

I normally cold smoke my bacon in the winter but as it is too warm due to the summer months I thought I would start with the smokey hickory bacon cure.

The Smokey Carter Bacon Cure kits are available from here

Make Your Own Bacon

    Ingredients

    • The bacon curing kit contains enough cure to make 4kg of bacon and has two different flavours.
    • The following recipe is based on making 1kg of bacon at a time, so you will only require half a pot of cure (40g) per 1kg of pork.

    Curing Kit Contents

    • Curing Time: 7 Days
    • Make Your Own Bacon with bacon Hone Curing Kit
    • Curing Kit Contents
    • 1 x 80g Fennel & Lemon Pepper Bacon Cure
    • 1 x 80g Smokey Hickory Bacon Cure
    • 2 x 60cm of muslin mutton cloth
    • 2 x curing bags
    • 4 x plastic gloves

    What you will need in addition to the kit (not included)

    • 4 x 1kg of pork. Only 1kg of pork is required per batch. Use belly pork for streaky or pork loin for back bacon.
    • Sharp knife
    • Kitchen roll
    • Wire rack

    Method

    Home Curing Instructions

    1

    You can visit your local butcher for your pork, although even supermarket pork makes great bacon.

    2

    You need 1kg of either belly pork or pork loin, depending on the type of bacon you want to make. Belly makes streaky and loin makes back bacon.

    3

    Wash your hands thoroughly, put on a glove and place the pork into a plastic curing bag.

    4

    Pour in 40g (half a pot) of your chosen cure and massage into the meat to ensure the cure has covered the whole piece of meat. Seal the bag ensuring that there is no air left in the bag.

    5

    Place the bag in the fridge and leave undisturbed for two days.

    6

    Turn the bag over and leave for a further two days in the fridge.

    7

    After four days in the cure you will notice the meat will have slightly firmed up. Put on a glove, remove from the bag and rinse the pork under a cold running tap. Discard the plastic bag.

    8

    Dry the meat with a few pieces of kitchen towel, ensuring most of the moisture is soaked up.

    9

    Take a piece of the mutton cloth and place the meat inside, folding the edges underneath.

    10

    Place a wire wrack on a shelf in the fridge and place the wrapped pork on the rack. Leave undisturbed in the fridge for three days.

    11

    Unwrap the mutton cloth and slice off the required amount of bacon with a sharp knife. Cook and enjoy. Congratulations, you’ve made bacon!

    12

    Re-wrap the remaining bacon in the muslin and keep in the fridge for 4-6 days. Slice as you go.

    13

    You can also slice the bacon and freeze to use at your convenience.

    Share this recipe

    Tips
    If you like your bacon more salty you can leave it in the cure for an extra day.
    The mutton cloth can be cleaned in the washing machine and re-used to make another batch with the remaining cure.