Much of this is taken from Rytek Kutas book, but there were a few things that he left out. This is the way I do my bacon. I had a request from one of our members so I thought I would share How I make my bacon.
Dennis
Honey -Cured Bacon
1 Cup of non idionized salt
4 Tb, Insta cure#1
2 Cups of Honey, or sugar substitute
The above formula will cure about 1 slab of bacon (my guess is between 11 to 14 Lbs). Mix the instacure#1 and the salt and then thoroughly rubb into the bacon. After rubbing, pour the honey on the bacon and distribute evenly. wrap the bacon in a good plastic lined (freezer wrap) butcher paper, and seal well with a plastic wrap such as serwan wrap, as to keep it from leaking. You could also vac seal it, which is the way I do mine. (just make sure you don't draw the juces into your foodsaver)
Place in a 34 - 38 ° F refrigerator for a period of 5 to 7 days. Turn and rotate daily.
After this period remove the bacon from the refrigerator and wash off excess honey and cure with lukewarm water.
Now here is the important part. Soak the bacon in a fair amount of water for about 1 hour. slice a small piece, and test fry for taste. If its too salty, change out water and soak for another hour. Keep doing this till you get it to your taste. I found that if I soak in a larger volume of water, I only need to change out the water once or twice at the most. This is the one thing that Kutas does not mention in his recipe!
When suited to your taste, let the bacon dry at room temperture for about 30 minutes. After room dry, move your bacon to your smoker/smokehouse and hold in smokehouse with dampers wide open untill bacon is dry keep temp of smokehouse lower than 135 ° F during this drying phase. When bacon is dry then close the dampers to 1/4 and apply heavy smoke and hold untill the internal temp reaches no more than 127 ° F. I personally use Hickory with a very heavy smoke and I smoke for at least 6 to 8 hours at about 100 - 115 ° external. Do not exceed 127 ° internal, or else the fat will start to melt. Due to the fat content in bacon, the smoke will only take to the meat, so heavy smoke isn't a problem as with other meats. Then of course us Pennsylvania Dutch like our home smoked hams with a little hickory kick to them!
This is really extremely easy to make, and as Kutas says it has a taste that cannot be compaired to any commercial bacon
Dennis
Honey -Cured Bacon
1 Cup of non idionized salt
4 Tb, Insta cure#1
2 Cups of Honey, or sugar substitute
The above formula will cure about 1 slab of bacon (my guess is between 11 to 14 Lbs). Mix the instacure#1 and the salt and then thoroughly rubb into the bacon. After rubbing, pour the honey on the bacon and distribute evenly. wrap the bacon in a good plastic lined (freezer wrap) butcher paper, and seal well with a plastic wrap such as serwan wrap, as to keep it from leaking. You could also vac seal it, which is the way I do mine. (just make sure you don't draw the juces into your foodsaver)
Place in a 34 - 38 ° F refrigerator for a period of 5 to 7 days. Turn and rotate daily.
After this period remove the bacon from the refrigerator and wash off excess honey and cure with lukewarm water.
Now here is the important part. Soak the bacon in a fair amount of water for about 1 hour. slice a small piece, and test fry for taste. If its too salty, change out water and soak for another hour. Keep doing this till you get it to your taste. I found that if I soak in a larger volume of water, I only need to change out the water once or twice at the most. This is the one thing that Kutas does not mention in his recipe!
When suited to your taste, let the bacon dry at room temperture for about 30 minutes. After room dry, move your bacon to your smoker/smokehouse and hold in smokehouse with dampers wide open untill bacon is dry keep temp of smokehouse lower than 135 ° F during this drying phase. When bacon is dry then close the dampers to 1/4 and apply heavy smoke and hold untill the internal temp reaches no more than 127 ° F. I personally use Hickory with a very heavy smoke and I smoke for at least 6 to 8 hours at about 100 - 115 ° external. Do not exceed 127 ° internal, or else the fat will start to melt. Due to the fat content in bacon, the smoke will only take to the meat, so heavy smoke isn't a problem as with other meats. Then of course us Pennsylvania Dutch like our home smoked hams with a little hickory kick to them!
This is really extremely easy to make, and as Kutas says it has a taste that cannot be compaired to any commercial bacon
