Homemade bacon is a lot easier to make than you might think. With the right equipment, it’s almost effortless.
I rarely buy bacon from the store. Homemade bacon is far tastier and cheaper than the stuff they have on the shelves.
All you need to make it happen is a little curing salt, some wood chips, a meat thermometer, and a grill that’s big enough to handle two-zone cooking.
One thing we do when making our bacon is to use a more neutral rub and wood for smoking. We also make savory bacon instead of sweet.
We do this so that it’s as versatile as possible.
Sweet maple bacon isn’t a good fit in braises or other dishes like that, and heavy hickory smoke can be overpowering (we use pecan or apple smoke for their clean and mild flavor).
Finally, having a vacuum sealer is very helpful. Our recipe calls for a 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 pound slab of pork belly. We cut this into quarters and vacuum seal it.
After that, we freeze it for long term storage. The USDA suggests that frozen, it can last up to four months in the freezer with no impact on flavor or texture.
Tips For Preparing Your Homemade Bacon
Curing Your Homemade Bacon
When preparing your raw pork belly for curing, it’s easiest to cut it in half, then season it.
I’ve found that a five-pound pork belly cut into halves fits reasonably well into a gallon zip-top bag.
Once you put each seasoned half into its separate bag, use the water displacement method to remove as much air as possible. To do this, fill the sink with plenty of water, then dip the zip-top bags in as deep as possible without allowing water to enter the opened bag. Then, carefully close the top and dry off the bags.
After that, place the bags as close to the back of your refrigerator as possible. This will help them stay colder since the area toward the front of your refrigerator continually heats up and cools down as people open the door throughout the day.
Finally, flip the bags over once a day so that liquid doesn’t pool on just one side of the bacon.
Before Smoking Your Bacon
After your bacon has finished curing in your refrigerator, an important thing to remember is to wash it thoroughly in the sink.
If you skip this step, it’ll be so salty that you’ll have a hard time eating it.
Wash it, then reapply a generous amount of black pepper. We add a fair amount, but not too much if we plan on using it as an ingredient in other recipes.
Special Equipment
This recipe requires that you have some special equipment at home.
First, you need an outdoor grill of some sort. Most any will do.
You’ll need to know how to set your grill up for two-zone cooking. You can learn how to do that here.
You’ll also need a special wireless thermometer for monitoring the pork belly’s internal temperature as well as the temperature of the grill itself.
The thermometer has two temperature probes. You want to insert one into the center of the thickest part of the meat. The second probe should be attached with its provided clip on the coolest side of the grill.
Your goal will be to maintain a temperature of 225 degrees in your grill the entire time you cook. This keeps the outside of the pork belly from overcooking before the inside reaches the proper temperature.
To get that excellent smoky flavor, you will also want to make a wood-chip foil pack. Just take about half a fist-full of wood chips (you can get wood chips at most grocery stores in the charcoal section) and place them on a large rectangle of heavy-duty tin foil. Fold it up loosely and seal around the edges. Stab a bunch of holes in each side with a fork, and you’re ready to go.
TIP: Some websites suggest that you soak the wood chips in water. This is entirely unnecessary and will only make it more challenging to get your wood chips to burn. Just put them in the foil dry.
Now that your grill is set up for two-zone cooking throw your wood-chip pack over the hottest part and let it sit until smoke starts coming out.
I do a lot of smoking on my grill, so I use a smoke tube instead of a foil pack. You can just fill it up with wood pellets, light it up, and it’ll smoke for hours. You can get wood pellets from Amazon or in the barbecue section of many grocery stores.
Either a foil pack or a smoke tube works just fine.
Finally, close the lid and let your grill come up to 225 degrees, and you’re ready to go. When it comes to temperature, your pork belly will go on the coolest part of the grill, next to but not touching the probe that’s attached to the grill. The other temperature probe will be inserted into the thickest part of the pork belly.
Cook to 150 degrees internal temperature. Once finished, let cool for half an hour, cut each portion in half (quarters of the original pork belly), then vacuum seal and freeze until ready to use.
Homemade Bacon
Equipment
- Barbecue pit
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 to 5/12 lbs. pork belly - cut in half
- 2 tbs. kosher salt
- 5 tbs. black pepper - divided
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp. prague powder #1
Instructions
Curing Your Bacon
- Mix all ingredients (only 1 tbs. of the black pepper) in a bowl.
- Cut the pork belly in half and sprinkle the curing blend evenly over all surfaces. Try to get it all on there.
- Place each pork belly half in a separate gallon-sized zip-top bag.
- Remove as much air as possible from the bags prior to sealing them. The water displacement method in the kitchen sink is very helpful here.
- Place in the back of the refrigerator for seven days. (the area in the back of the refrigerator generally stays cooler than the front, due to the door being opened and closed constantly.)
- Once a day during the curing process, flip the zip-top bags over in the fridge so that liquids don't settle in one spot.
Smoking Your Bacon
- Once a day during the curing process, flip the zip-top bags over in the fridge so that liquids don't settle in one spot.
- After 7 days, remove your bacon from the refrigerator, then rinse as much of the cure mixture off of it as you can.
- Dry with paper towels then evenly sprinkle the remaining four tablespoons of black pepper over the pork belly. Use more or less if you like.
- Set your grill for two-zone cooking (see link in notes below for how to do this) and preheat to 225 degrees. Place wood chips (you can get these in the barbecue section at most grocery stores) over the hottest part of the coals and wait until it starts smoking (I like apple or pecan wood on my bacon). Remember, you'll be slicing the bacon and only the outside edge will have smoke, so I encourage you to put a little more smoke on there than normal.
- Place your cured pork belly on the coolest part of your grill.
- Insert your meat thermometer into the thickest part of the pork belly, cover your grill, and cook until the internal temperature hits 150 degrees (you'll need a meat thermometer… see notes).
- Once the internal temperature hits 150 degrees, remove from your smoker and rest for 20-30 minutes. Slice each pork belly half in half again (quarters of the original belly) then vacuum seal. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, you can put each quarter into zip-top bags and remove the air in a sink full of water.
You might want to ask your butcher to remove at least some of the fat from the pork belly. I’ve made bacon a couple of times and I was amazed at how much grease was produced, even from relatively un-fatty organic pork.