How To Make Measured Dry Cure Bacon

Making bacon at home... but why? Because home made bacon has great flavour, texture, and you control the ingredients. That's why! This measured dry cure bacon recipe is the foolproof diy bacon recipe.
Ingredients By Weight:
Pork Belly 100%
Salt: 2.5%
Sugar: 1%
Pink Cure #1: .25% (150ppm)

Method:
Weigh your piece of pork belly.
Weigh the rest of the cure components:
Salt is 2.5% of the weight of the pork belly.
Sugar is 1% of the weight of the pork belly.
Pink Cure #1 is 0.25% of the weight of the pork belly.
Mix together the salt, sugar, and pink cure #1.
The above constitutes the ‘cure’.
If you wish to ‘flavour’ the bacon you can layer on as much as you want of almost whatever you want.

Flavour #1:
We added 2% ground black pepper to one belly.

Flavour #2:
Ground black pepper: 2%
Bay leaves: 4-5 / Kg
Juniper berries: 0.5%
Thyme: 0.5%

Leave the skin on the pork belly, and rub the cure all over - ¾ of the amount should be on the side that is skinless.
Don’t forget the sides and ends.

Place on a rack, above a non-reactive dish and place uncovered in a refrigerator for 5-7 days.
Turn the belly daily, and drain off any accumulated liquid.
Don’t let the belly sit in the liquid, the whole idea is that the belly will dry out - this drying inhibits bacterial growth.

After 5-7 days rinse off any ‘cure left on the surface, place on a clean rack and put back in the fridge for 12-24 hours.

We cold smoked the bacon for 2-3 hours, but you could also hot smoke it if that makes you more comfortable.
Cold smoking needs to be done a temperatures below 30ºC (86ºF) - but ideally below 18ºC (65ºF).
We smoke for 2-3 hours depending on the thickness of the belly.

After cold smoking this bacon is ‘shelf stable’ which means you can store it by hanging in a cool area out of sunlight.
But really you could leave it on the kitchen counter…
This is accomplished by proper curing (salt and sugar) and air circulation that removes water from the belly.
The combination of low water content and salt deters any bacterial growth.
The added comfort of Pink Cure ensures safety.