Curing bacon at home
Some reasons for home-curing bacon are: 1) industrial-processed store-bought bacon, like any processed food, should come under scrutiny; 2) store-bought bacon contains sugar; 3) home-cured bacon is made in one piece, and so can be cut for different purposes (e.g. cubed in a casserole); 4) home-cured bacon is not water-logged like store-bought (it will be dry-cured) and; 5) the whole process is under the user’s control.
For the curing salt, I use Prague Powder #1 (interchangeable with Insta Cure #1), both of which contain sodium nitrite (emphasising the second ‘i’) as the active ingredient (they can be sourced online, e.g. here or here if in Australia). Note — don’t use salts labelled #2, they contain sodium nitrate (‘a’) which is not suited to this application. Sodium nitrite should make up 6.25% (by weight) of the curing salt (check the label). If not, it will be necessary to adjust the quantity used in the following method. Often, these curing salts are tinted pink to avoid confusion with table salt itself.
The following ‘recipe’ is for 1kg of pork belly (for simplicity). Scale (according to the given percentages) as needed.
Pork belly: Look for a piece that is nicely streaky and thick (best to source from a butcher). If it has bones, score along each bone (on the bone) with a sharp knife. After the cooking step, the bones will cleanly lift out (or ask the butcher to debone). I leave the skin on (it becomes soft and gelatinous during the sous vide stage).
Table salt: 25 g (i.e. 2.5% of weight of pork belly). Often a granular salt like kosher salt is recommended, rather than fine/flakey table/sea salt. It doesn’t matter so long as you add the salt by weight and not by volume.
Curing salt: 6 g (i.e 0.6% by weight of pork). Be as exact as your scales allow with this weight.
Flavouring spices: As desired (e.g. from among: coarsely-ground pepper, coriander seeds, chilli flakes, star anise…). Or, none.
Sugar: If you prefer to use sugar, add ~20g or a bit less (~2%). This could be a pedantic omission, 2% by weight is not that much. It depends on your goals. I omit the sugar.
Method: Mix the ingredients and rub all over the pork (use kitchen gloves), vacuum-pack and refrigerate for up to 5 days, but at least 2, turning over each day if necessary. If a vacuum machine (such as a food saver) is not available, place in a covered container in the fridge (it will be more important to turn over daily in this case).
If spices etc were added to the cure, take the pork out of the bag/container after curing and wash off the cure. Repack in a bag for cooking sous vide.
Cook souse vide at 60C for 2 days. Cool on the benchtop for an hour or so, still in the bag (allowing the belly to re-absorb some of the juices — I’m not sure if this actually happens but I do it anyway). Lift out the bones (if necessary) while the belly is still warm.
If you want a smoky flavour (and have a smoker) the cooked and cooled belly can be cold-smoked, or the uncooked belly can be hot-smoked (and the sous-vide step skipped). Follow the directions with your smoker. A hot-smoke might be 77C, 60% relative humidity, 7h. Alternatively, repack the belly with some liquid smoke, or add some smoke powder to the cure instead.
I have given sous vide instructions because this is the most controllable method. However, the belly can be slow-cooked in the oven.
Once cold, the belly can be sliced as needed, and fried (or put under a grill) with high heat to crisp.