Making bacon
I got given a bacon making kits for Christmas. A quick word with G&S Organics secured me a substantial piece of belly pork (about 5lbs). This is mostly pictures because the process was very simple.
Bonus: you get to make pork scratchings too!
You will need
- A great chunk of belly pork
- A bacon making kits
- A cold smoke generator (if you want smoked bacon)
Do
- Cut the pork into a size you can fit in a tight fitting plastic bag
- Rub the cure and marinade into both sides of the pork
- Bag it
- Fridge it for a week, turning each day*
- Cold smoke for a few hours
- Bake in the oven at 80oC for 2 hours
- Let is cool and then fridge for a couple of hours
- I halved the piece to make it easier to work with
- Slice, bag and freeze
- Treat yourself to a sandwich with the offcuts
At this point I should point out my mistake: leaving the skin on. Real pig skin is tough as leather, especially after a couple of hours smoking and baking. The first piece was so hard to slice I blistered my hand. If you slice off the skin you get to crisp it in the oven afterwards too to make pork scratchings.
A photo diary
