So I got an itch to make my own bacon the other week. I looked up a whole bunch of recipes and what not and finally broke down and bought this book called charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. This book is awesome! If you do any processing/preserving you should check this book out.

Anyways, the first pic is my belly trimmed up and putting a rub that eventually turns into a brine. (Salt, pink salt/prauge powder no 1, sugar, and black pepper). It had to brine for about a week, although now that it's all done I wish that I had done it for a little less, Maybe 6 days? Lesson learned, I'll be trying again!



The next pic is it going on a smoker at about 200-225 for roughly two hours (I was waiting for the internal to hit 150)


This one is when it came off. I was disappointed in myself because I turned my back for a little too long after I first put it on and the temp climbed to about 315 before I could choke it down. Thats what the scorch marks are from.


And finally the end result! Man it is super good bacon. I ended up with about 10 lbs and my only complaint is that it tends to be a little on the salty side for my tastes. That's why I'm thinking that next time I'll try the 6 days instead of the full week.


Hope you guys enjoy! Let me know what you think, and check out that book.

That looks darn tasty. Where'd you get the belly?

Okay, so that's DEFINITELY going to be my next project. I know it's pork belly but when you're skinning a pig, where does that cut come from?
I really wanted to try that with the last pig I shot but honestly had no idea what I was doing in terms of where to get the correct cut from.

I have not had a chance to shoot a pig this year, and honestly I've never tried to keep the belly meat off a wild pig so I cant help a lot there. I'm not an expert but the cut comes from the side of the belly kinda from under the ribs down to the underside (there should be two "pork bellies" on a whole hog). I ended up buying mine from central market in Dallas when we were over that way a few weekends ago.

how much was the pork belly at the meat market?

I'd just use less salt instead of cutting the curing time down. The cure needs time to penetrate throughout the meat. If you cure for less time, it may not make it all the way "in".

I agree. I'd rather use a longer cure with a little less salt than take a chance on it not curing completely.

Ruhlman's 'Charcuterie' is an excellent resource.

Good looking bacon there

Thanks guys I'll try using less salt next time. I got the belly at central market for about 50. I think it was 3.99/lb and it was just shy of 12 lbs. The best part of everything was I saved the ends and brined them as well and then rendered everything so I have plenty of bacon fat for cooking!