How to make bacon at home

51 Comments

  1. What if I want it sugar-free? Do I simply skip the sugar or is there some other ingredient I should add?

    1. B,

      It is cooked to help it last longer. Ultimately, it’s a bit of a traditional difference—American bacon is almost always hot smoked to finish it. In Britain they cold smoke it and you can too, if you like.

  2. Cook at 200f until 150f in the centre!!!!! I don’t know what you are ‘making’ here chap? But it sure as hell is not bacon as that is ALWAYS cold smoked or green.

    I make proper bacon and you have just bastardised a whole tradition older that any US ‘culture’.

    I assume you are trying to sell one of your funny little gadgets. Leave bacon making to us Brits.

          1. Ah, the Brits with their well known culinary traditions. The #1 places to eat in Britan are French and Indian! I love to make bacon like this!

  3. Any modifications in making chewy bacon other than just cooking it for less time? I prefer chewy to crispy bacon.

    1. Bryan,
      I totally get that! Cutting the bacon thicker will give you more room for chewiness instead of a shatteringly crisp bacon. Plus, yes, cooking it less. Also cooking it at a lower temperature will give you more control over the texture.

    1. Corey,
      A lot of bacon (in the USA) is actually hot smoked. It makes for a product that is even less likely to spoil and is a little easier to handle.

  4. To get even cooking when frying bacon, I save rendered fat from previous frys in the fridge. I melt a large dollop of the saved fat in the frying pan before I start cooking. The melted fat keeps the bacon from contacting (and thus sticking to the hot pan) and distributes the heat very nicely so all parts of the strips cook the same.
    Rendered bacon fat is also useful for many fried dishes (Deep frying or pan frying). It adds those good bacon flavors to all sorts of things

  5. You should also include a recipe for the EQ method of curing. Much more forgiving on curing time and less chance to get overly salty meat.

    1. Jay,
      Equilibrium curing (a wet curing method) is certainly a great option. Maybe we’ll cover that sometime in the future!

  6. You mentioned there is a lot of water rendered out during the curing. Is it better to use a wire rack with the sheet pan to keep the pork above the water?

  7. After curing, cooking, and refrigerating the pork belly, you say to, “Slice the bacon and cook it up in the frying pan or the oven… feel free to freeze IT for up to 3 months.
    Are you suggesting to freeze the cooked or the uncooked bacon slices?

  8. This sounds amazing and is on our smoking agenda for this summer (if it ever comes: Toronto, ya know?) So, thank you!

    Wondering about adding maple syrup to the cure; should I reduce the brown sugar? And should the maple syrup he added from the beginning of the process?

    Many thanks again!

    1. Peg,
      Go for it! Or even better, use pure maple sugar instead of brown sugar. And yes, I think I would add it at the beginning.

  9. Here In Kenya we have a single supplier of bacon and not that great I would like to compete in an area not well covered and have a good market .,as a chef im ok with meat cuts but never cured pork I can understand the process but unsmoked I worry ?? time for cureing is the problem any failsafe operations to ensure a good unsmoked product,?? many thanks ldh

    1. David,
      If I’ve understood you correctly, you want to know how to do this without smoking? Go ahead and cook it in an oven at the same temperature we recommend for the smoker until it reaches the right internal temperature.
      As for timing the cure, one or two rounds of practice will help you know just how you like it. It will be much better than the bad supplier you have!

  10. Can I get the same results of using erythritol instead of granulated sugar?

    1. Marilyn,

      Sugar is not necessary for the curing process, so rather than using an artificial sweetener or sugar alcohol like erythritol, I’d just leave any sweetener out.

      1. Hello, About the “omitting the sugar”, do I need to add more salt or anything else?

        Will not adding sugar affect the curing process?

    1. Sharron,
      I’m not convinced that would work well. It’d probably end up too salty because of the way the cure would be able to penetrate. I’m not thinking it’s a good option.

  11. The instructions at the top say to rinse and dry the bacon after it has been cured and before it is smoked. The recipe that follows omits the rinse and dry steps. Is that an oversight?

    1. Yes, it is an oversight. Thank you for bringing it up! Drying the bacon before smoking will help the smoke to stick to the bacon better.

  12. Okay so I didn’t check the internal temp until the 1 hour 45 min mark and by then the internal temp of the smoked pork belly was around 190F on my Thermoworks Classic, is that not good? I’ll let it cool on the counter before returning to the fridge in a bag.

    1. Frank,
      It’s not great but given the fact that you’re likely going to be frying it and cooking it to an even higher temperature later, I don’t think it’ll matter much.

  13. If you use weight as a measurement for yourself, would it be the same regardless of what brand kosher salt used?
    Also I didn’t find the directions for cooking the bacon an oven , could you explain this method please?
    ThankYou , Ray

    1. If you go by weight, yes it’s all the same. As for the oven cooking, just follow the same temperatures as for the smoker cooking but in your oven.

  14. Better to use a jelly-roll pan or baker’s half-sheet, as pictured in the article, rather than a cooky sheet (as stated in the text), which has no barrier on two of four sides, and which would allow liquids to drip off the two open sides.

  15. Better to use a jelly-roll pan or baker’s half-sheet, as pictured in the article, rather than a cooky sheet (as stated in the text), which has no barrier on two of four sides, and which would allow liquids to drip off the two open sides.

    1. No, the curing affects the proteins before they cook. Once they have denatured in the heat, the curing won’t work anymore.

  16. What if my bacon ends up being too salty in the end, do I rinse again once I have sliced the bacon? Or soak in water for a short time?

    1. Resoaking could work, but you may just have a batch of salty bacon. It’s still useful for plenty of things, but may not be as tasty for breakfast.

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