Description
This Homemade Bacon recipe is adapted from The Smoking Bacon & Hog Cookbook by Bill Gillespie (which I highly recommend). I reduced the amount of salt. FYI, Korobuta pork is considered to be equal in status to Kobe Beef and comes from purebred Berkshire hogs.
Ingredients
Scale
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ cup very strong brewed coffee or espresso
- 2 tbsp coffee grounds
- 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tsp curing salt (prague powder)
- 3–4 lb pork belly, skin off
- 3–4 chunks hickory oak wood
- You will also need a gallon ziplock back.
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients (except Pork of course!) in a bowl to make a slather.
- Next, put the pork belly in a gallon ziplock back fatside up.
- Rub the slather all over the pork belly, keeping in mind to put 2/3 of the rub on the meat (no fat) side.
- Seal the bag and place on a cookie sheet and place in the refrigerator to cure for 7 days. Remember to turn the pork belly over every day! I suggest setting an alarm on your phone or a calendar reminder. Trust me you will forget! On the 7th day, remove the pork belly from the fridge and rinse the rub off.
- Now soak the pork belly in the fridge for an hour before cooking it so it’s not too salty.
- For this recipe I used my Big Green Egg, but any smoker will do. Set your smoker to 225 degrees and then add your wood chips before adding the pork belly (I used Hickory but use what you like! I believe apply wood would be amazing!).
- Cook the pork belly fat side down. Smoke the pork belly until it reaches an internal temp of 150 degrees (use an internal read thermometer such as the Thermapen). This only took me about 2-5 hours but it could take you longer. Expect 3 hours on your smoker, give or take.
- Let the pork belly cool. You can slice it up and cook it or keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
- I ate a LOT of bacon the week I made this. IN fact, I took the smoked pork belly and ground it in with burger meat to make extra-bacony bacon burgers! OMG!
- Prep Time: 7 days- one week
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: curing, cured meat, homemade bacon
- Method: cured bacon, cure your own bacon,
- Cuisine: Bacon, American