Curing and smoking your own bacon from pork belly is incredibly satisfying, but not always practical for the home cook. When you get your hands on pre-sliced pork belly, you may wonder if you can still transform it into bacon without having to cure a whole slab The answer is yes! With a few simple ingredients and steps, you can cure sliced pork belly into delicious homemade bacon
Benefits of Curing Sliced Pork Belly
Curing sliced pork belly offers a few advantages
- Smaller quantities are more manageable
- Uniform slices cure evenly
- No need for meat slicer after curing
- Ready to use slices are more convenient
- Ability to customize flavors
You have full control over ingredients when curing sliced pork belly yourself. The smaller quantities also mean you can experiment with flavors more easily.
Tips for Curing Sliced Pork Belly
Follow these tips for the best results when curing sliced pork belly
- Choosethick slices – at least 1/4 inch thick
- Cure in a single stack or layer – rub cure mix between each slice
- Cure for 7-10 days to allow salt to penetrate
- Rinse well and pat dry after curing
- Air dry uncovered in fridge for 1 day before using
- Fry a test slice to check saltiness before cooking the rest
Thicker slices ensure the cured bacon retains some chew after cooking. Curing in a tight stack helps the salt penetrate evenly. Rinsing gets rid of extra cure mix, and drying helps make a pellicle that helps the meat cook evenly.
Curing Process Step-By-Step
Curing sliced pork belly into bacon takes about 2 weeks total but is fairly hands-off. Here is the full process:
1. Prepare Cure Mix
A basic cure mix contains:
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp pink curing salt
Process the ingredients in a food processor until combined. Store in an airtight container.
2. Stack and Cure the Pork Belly
Arrange pork belly slices in a single stack on a baking sheet or plate. Rub about half of the cure mix evenly over the slices, making sure to coat both sides.
Tightly wrap the stack in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped pork belly in a rimmed dish or pan to catch any drips. Refrigerate 7-10 days, flipping occasionally.
3. Rinse and Dry
After curing, unwrap the pork belly and rinse under cold water to remove cure mix. Pat slices very dry with paper towels.
Lay pork belly slices in a single layer on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Refrigerate uncovered for 24 hours.
4. Fry and Store
Fry a test slice to check for saltiness before cooking the rest. Fry remaining slices as needed and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
The finished bacon is ready to cook and enjoy! Make blts, baked potatoes, eggs, salads and more.
Flavoring Your Bacon
The basic cure mix serves as a starting point for endless flavor options. Consider adding any of the following:
- Brown sugar or maple sugar
- Minced garlic or garlic powder
- Onion powder or flakes
- Cayenne or chipotle powder
- Lemon or orange zest
- Bourbon
- Coriander
- Sage
- Molasses
Mix and match to create your own signature flavor combinations. Just maintain the basic salt and sugar proportions while experimenting.
Smoked Bacon Variation
For an added layer of flavor, you can also smoke cured pork belly:
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After curing and drying, smoke pork belly at 200°F for 2-3 hours using apple, cherry, hickory, or other wood chips/chunks to impart flavor.
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Monitor temperature and smoke until bacon reaches 150°F internally.
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Cool, slice, and cook as usual.
Smoking infuses even more flavor and takes the bacon to the next level!
With a simple dry cure and slice pork belly, you can easily make flavorful bacon at home. Adjust the ingredients to suit your taste. Curing sliced pork belly eliminates many big hurdles to bacon making. The smaller quantities also encourage creativity. In just 2 weeks, you can have seasoned, smoked bacon ready to sizzle in the pan!
Grass-fed beef, pastured pork, pastured chicken, pastured eggs, pastured turkey.
The title of this recipe is a slight misnomer. Our process described below does not actually cure the bacon. Cured bacon is seasoned or marinated and then left to cure before it is smoked, sliced, packed, and sold. Preservatives, nitrates/nitrites, or high-nitrate celery salt were added during processing, which is why it lasts for a long time. Our bacon is just meat–no seasonings, no salt, no chemicals. Technically, it’s just fresh pork.
We sell two different forms of pasture-raised bacon, but neither is processed in any way. We sell regular sliced bacon and slabs of pork belly. The only difference is that pork belly can be cured and smoked in the traditional way, while our sliced bacon is just pork belly that has been cut into thin slices. You can’t really cure or smoke it because it’s already been sliced, but you can season it so that it tastes like cured bacon. The great thing about that is it contains no chemicals–only the seasonings you choose to add.
You can simply fry the bacon and add salt to enjoy the natural porkiness of uncured bacon. Or you can make it taste like what your brain tells you bacon tastes like. Here’s how….
To “Home-Cure” one pound of sliced pork belly (“bacon”):
Mix 2 Tbs sugar and 1 Tbs salt in 1 pint warm water. Add 1 or 2 shakes of Liquid Smoke. (Optional–this is what gives it a smokey flavor. ).
Place bacon in deep glass container and cover with water mixture. Separate bacon strips so that each is fully exposed to the solution. Add a little water to cover if necessary. Cover with lid, place in refrigerator overnight.
To cook:
Remove strips of bacon from water mixture and pat dry. Fry on cast iron skillet to desired crispness–hotter for squishier bacon; cooler and slower for more crisp bacon. Or use in recipes that call for bacon or salt pork.
**Tip: reserve the bacon fat for frying veggies or eggs or making biscuits. It will impart a lovely baconey flavor to whatever you fry in it!.
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How To Make The Best Homemade Bacon
FAQ
Can you use sliced pork belly for bacon?
How long to cure sliced pork belly?
How do you cure pork belly for bacon without a smoker?
Why do you cure pork belly for bacon?
How do you cook a pork belly with bacon?
Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. Season the top with the tablespoon of fresh cracked black pepper. Place the peppered bacon in the fridge (while still on the rack) and leave uncovered for at least 12 or up to 24 hours. This step helps develop a tacky coating called a pellicle on the exterior of the bacon. Smoke the bacon.
How to treat pain in the belly button or upper abdomen due to stomach ulcers?
Pain in the belly button or upper abdomen from stomach ulcers can be managed with medical treatment. Your doctor may prescribe antacids, acid-reducing medications, and antibiotics if the ulcer is caused by Helicobacter pylori infection. Avoid spicy, acidic, and irritating foods. Stress management can also help.
How do you cook a cured pork belly?
Remove your chilled pork belly from the fridge. To keep your kitchen surfaces clean, place it on a rimmed baking sheet. Coat the meat with your cure recipe. Then massage the cure into the meat all over, doing your best to spread the cure over and into the pork belly as evenly as you can for consistent flavor. Refrigerate the pork belly.
How do you remove skin from pork belly?
Remove the skin. The bottom of a pork belly usually comes with skin (rind), which will be tougher than the rest of the bacon. (It also blocks the absorption of the cure and smoke flavors.) Commercial smokehouses remove it using a slicing machine. At home, you’ll have to work a bit harder.