Dry-cured streaky Bacon
Ingredients
- for the bacon
- 2kg free-range pork belly, in one piece, skin on, flat rib bones intact
- for the cure
- 500g salt
- 500g demerara sugar
- a few bay leaves
- about 20 juniper berries
- 25g black peppercorns, freshly, coarsly, ground
Method
- day one - If the pork belly meat side is still covered in flare fat, remove by pulling away and keep for other purposes. Place the cure ingredients in a rounded bowl (dont use a stainless steel one) and mix well. Place a handful of the cure mix on the bottom of a food standard box or tray big enough to hold the piece of pork. You could use the salad box of the fridge. Add the belly pork in the tray, skin side down and scatter a handful of cure over the surface. You should use about a fifth of the cure mix this first day. You dont have to massage it it, but do make sure every part is coated. Put in the fridge, covered witha cloth for 24 hours.
- day two - There will be a pool of liquid sludge at the bottom of the tray. Lift out the belly pork and pour the sludge away. Put a handful of cure on the bottom of tray, return pork and sprinkle another handful of the cure mix over the top - using another fifth of the original amount. Return to freezer for 24 hours
- days three, four and five - Repeat day two.
- after five days curing - Take the bacon out of the tray and rinse in cold water. Clean the surface of the meat with a cloth soaked in malt vinegar. It now needs to hang for 5 days. You could just put it back in the fridge for 5 days. Better is to hang in a cool, well ventilated place - I used a spare bedroom in winter with the heating off and the windows slightly open so the temperature was 12-15℃.
- after five days hanging - The bacon is now ready. However, it is probably far too salty. Check the saltiness by slicing some bacon and frying up. If it is too salty, put in a tray and cover with cold water and leave for an hour or so, max two hours. Take out, dry and slice and test another rasher. If still to salty, repeat. The bacon will keep hanging, or in the fridge for 3 months, slowly getting drier and harder. More practical is to slice the whole lot, removing th bones first, and freeze in batches.
Curing & Smoking - River Cottage Handbook no.13 Steven Lamb
Bacon - home made