Need a Good Recipe for making Bacon from Pork Belly

There are quite a few bacon threads on here. Search for one by bearcarver, it's nicely layed out step by step.

TM, morning....  You are asking the billion dollar question......  everyone here has their own personal preference... rubs, brines, seasonings, temps, times etc...

I have rubbed and brined BBB and canadian.....  never done a belly.... I've used salt/sugar and also heavy spice rubs.... each has its own flavor profile...

I haven't found bellies to purchase here, as of yet... 

A rub and long cold smoke (days and days) will give an old world type slab bacon product...... 

A brine / injection and short smoke to 155*F or so, will give a bacon that is ready to eat.....

Adding sugar may cause the bacon to burn in the fry pan so you have to be careful adding sugar....

Spices and herbs add another dimension to the finished product....

If the belly has the hide attached, I would recommend a salt / cure# 1 rub,  weigh both to add the proper amount per pound of meat you are curing..... for bacon, I add 10 grams pickling salt per pound..... a little sugar is OK too....

The original chart was incorrect for bacon

http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-recipes/cure-calculator

There is a cure calculator on this site..... It uses excel... since I can't run excel, I am including this other calculator...

It is a very usefull tool... the big plus is you can change the ppm you desire by clicking on it and inserting new numbers....

be aware of the different types of cure their calculator prompts....

The following is proper nitrite amounts for bacon:

Regardless of the curing method used, restricted ingredient calculations for bacon are based on

the green weight of the skinless belly. For rind-on bacon, e.g., where the skin is sold as part of

the finished product, a restricted ingredient conversion calculation is necessary. Nitrate is no

longer permitted in any curing method for bacon.

! Ingredient Limits  these are maximums allowable

< Dry Cured Bacon (rind-off): A maximum of 200 ppm of nitrite or equivalent of

potassium nitrite (246 ppm) can be used in dry cured bacon.

< Immersion Cured Bacon (rind-off): A maximum of 120 ppm of nitrite or

equivalent of potassium nitrite (148 ppm) can be used in immersion cured bacon.

< Pumped and/or Massaged Bacon (rind-off): An amount of 120 ppm sodium

nitrite (or 148 ppm potassium nitrite), ingoing, is required in pumped and/or massaged bacon,

except that 100 ppm sodium nitrite (or 123 ppm potassium nitrite) is permitted with an

appropriate partial quality control program, and except that 40 - 80 ppm sodium nitrite (or 49 -

99 ppm potassium nitrite) is permitted if sugar and a lactic acid starter culture are used.

 

< Pumped, Massaged, Immersion Cured, or Dry Cured Bacon (rind-on): The

maximum limit for ingoing nitrite and sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate must be adjusted if

bacon is prepared from pork bellies with attached skin (rind-on). A pork belly's weight is

comprised of approximately 10 percent skin. Since the skin retains practically no cure solution or

cure agent, the maximum ingoing nitrite and sodium ascorbate or erythorbate limits must be

reduced by 10 percent.

 

Zip bag the meat and turn daily... 1 day for every 1/4" thickness plus 2 days... A 2" thick belly should be in the refer 10 days using a dry rub.....  If you cut the belly into hunks that fit the bags, weigh each chunk and add the appropriat amount of cure/salt to each piece...  the original cure/salt mix can be made in advance and apportioned accordingly to the size of the hunk of meat....

If I forgot something or screwed this up....  fix it please.....  Dave

Here are some bacon recipes others have posted.... 

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/2165/bacon

The first of the month I put 8lbs of Pork Belly in Pops Brine for 12 Days then Cold Smoked with Hickory Pellets in an AMNPS for 10 hours. The only changes I made to the original recipe was I used 1/2C Salt and all Brown Sugar (2Cups). For me it was very good but my family thought it too smokey. I will defineately make it again with a few changes. I think it could be Saltier so I will bump the Salt to to 3/4Cup and cut the Brown Sugar down to 1Cup. While I did not have burning problems, it was a touch sweet for my taste. Additionally I will try a more mild flavor of Todds Pellets, either the new Pitmaster Blend or Oak. Pops Brine gives a Bacon that is much better but similar to common Store bought Bacon. If you are looking for something more regional or international, add some Herbs and/or Spices to the Brine and as some as a Rub...JJ

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/pops-wet-curing-brine