re: Making Homemade Bacon *finished product*

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I got over 6 pounds of frozen pork belly at La Morenita. Paid around $20.

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Good price right there.

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I ended up going to Cabela's and getting this bacon cure mix which was salt, sugar and sodium nitrate. I don't know how well it worked, because I had the belly in the fridge for 2 weeks and it didn't cure like in the photos I saw of other homemade bacon. The meat looked pink and fresh, it was firm and didn't have that Silly Putty consistency that it was supposed to get.

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Yes it's very important to have the right amount of salt (kosher, table salt and pink salt - sodium nitrate) .. and you also need, IMO, brown sugar, chopped garlic and bay leaf. It should take about 7-9 days for the pork belly to cure. You need to monitor it every couple of days and add a little more salt mixture if you see it's not getting firm.

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I smoked the pork belly at around 225 for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. (I polished off a 6 pack of Canebrake while I was doing this, so time gets a little fuzzy)

I ended up slicing the pork belly the next day. Some of it went into a pot of chili and the rest we cooked it for a Spanish Town Mardi Gras party. So it was all gone a day later.

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Good stuff

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It turned out pretty good, maybe a little too salty. I'll probably do it again, but I'll order curing salt from Amazon.

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That's a good idea. I think i'll check that out myself. Gotta use the Prime account I got on something!