Traditional Bacon Curing: No Nitrates - Just Salt

By viewer request, I made this video to show how I cure bacon without using any ingredients except pork belly and salt. I learned this skill from reading Farmstead Meatsmith's "The Butcher's Salt" Bacon precept 2 years ago.

#bacon

[thekennys]

I made this but mixed brown sugar with the salt. Absolutely fantastic results! Commercial bacon gives me a terrible headache, so this is life-changing for me! Today I ate bacon for the first time in a year. Thank you!

[markhall]

For all of you decrying this young man as "hipster", pay attention. I work with, train and try to instill a work ethic into young men
of today, to minimal degrees of success. Be very happy someone his age is doing this. Very very happy. There is a load of "dead from the ears up" folks that are doing good to microwave bacon or buy it pre-cooked, much less cure it.

[PecanCorner]

Thank you for this method with only salt, no sugar or spice! I actually came looking for a way to make real old-fashioned "Dry Salt" pork, as we used to call it. The "salt pork" in the stores now is not the same as we used to have and has hardly any salt in it, which changes the flavor. The old kind, my grandparents would slice in a skillet, and cover with water and bring to a boil to remove some of the salt, then drain and fry it slowly until it was very very crisp. A little went a long way. So delicious, and the rind was like jerky :-) Tina

[texasplumr]

We're all different and hopefully open to new things and methods. My dad was a butcher and most of the rest of our family are farmers so I was raised with the absolute best meat in the world and curing was one of my dad's specialties. He salted pork belly just like this but that was for mom, she used that in her beans and black eyed peas. he used different recipes for bacon and ham but they'd always be 50/50 salt and sugar to start and then he'd add real maple syrup or molasses or some other flavor that somebody requested. Sadly, Pop died in 1972 when I was just 19 and I didn't get a chance to learn the trade from him. Although, I did learn to sharpen a knife and I'm more than a little anal about it. And I do cure my own bacon and ham and use the same 50/50 with a little maple added that I learned from him. I also smoke it and I've built many smokers over the years since I'm a welder. But man, you can easily build a smoker for cured meat out of a few sheets of plywood just tacked together. Get a metal bucket and get some coals going in it and put it in the lean to with your cured meat hung up. You're not trying to cook it, you're just smoking it to add the flavor and it's well worth adding in my opinion! You don't want a heavy smoke because that'll taste bitter, just a light smoke for a few hours can make a huge difference. Anyway, thanks for the video! I enjoyed it.

[onlyonetruth]

Thank you for learning a life preserving skill and passing it on to the next generation, good man.

[Platypus]

More salt to start. You don't ever want the standing liquid under or on the pork because it actually starts to absorb back into the meat. More salt equals less salty flavor at the end. Thanks for you video!

[blackstorm]

Great video.

A suggestion: When you cook your bacon, put it on a rack (like a cooling rack) then put it in the pan. The bacon cooks and the fat drips away from the bacon. It's less greasy and the rendered fat is cleaner, in case you save it to cook with it.

[makeminefreedom]

Salt and grease are my favorites. Thanks for doing it naturally.

[BareFootDuck]

I salt the meat once, (only salt), then leave it in the fridge for a week, then after I wash the excess salt off I soak it in a container of fresh water for an hour or 2 ( gets any excess salt out) then back into the fridge to dry properly.

[yukey]

Thanks for the simple recipe, and the update below. I have been making Italian cured meats (like pancetta) for some time now. This is dead easy! And who doesn't love bacon, in whatever form it takes?

[cynthiaweathers]

This is the first correct old style way to cure bacon video that I have seen yet. The purpose of salt is to draw out the liquid and infuse the salt in to keep bacteria cfrom spoiling. Then smoke. When you are ready to use the bacon, soak it maybe two times to take out the salt. Enjoy.

[martinwarner]

Did this a few ago, after watching your video, and it was brilliant bacon. I'm sick of shop bacon, I've come back to check the method. Peace and goodwill.

[LeoLCDT]

You sound like you still writing your dream journal.

[chickenfriedbobcat]

3 pounds brown sugar to 1 pound salt, and 1/2 cup molasses. Mix into a paste, rub vigorously onto the pork belly. Let sit in a cool room for 4 days. Remove from tub and rinse well. Slice and fry a small piece to check for saltiness, if too salty then soak in clean water for an hour or so until you are satisfied. Put in a cold smoke House for 5 hours. Cool and slice. Then comment back and thank me for this simple and delicious recipe.

[jeffstorm]

It is a Salt Pork.... Bacon is cured, salt pork is salted Pork but it is the best stuff in the world to make Green Beans or Pork-n-beans.... That way the saltiness isn't an issue, it becomes a seasoning for whatever you add it to. If you home can green beans, add a small piece of salt pork to each jar, you'll be glad you did!

[chuckgraham]

Nice to see a young man actually learning something and executing it. Too many of our youth are just sitting around and think everything comes from a store. Get up, learn to do something, be that farmer, mason, builder, electrician... all of these skill need to be refreshed, and you can make a very good living. All you need to invest is your time and effort, just like this young man in the video.

[TwelveFrames]

I can hear the angels sigh as the bacon is being cooked. Thank you!

[samlienhard]

Look up "cold smoke mazes" on Amazon. They're very low temp smoking options and you can even use a cardboard box as a smoke chamber. I'm building my own chamber out of reclaimed wood but it's a good option that doesn't require an entire hot smoker setup.

[pedrolavigne]

I got an organic pasture raised porc belly that I litterally covered with coarse grey salt and left it sit all in one piece in a large plastic bag. I left it in the fridge one full week and flipped it daily. On the seventh day, I gave it a good rinse to remove excess salt, surface dried it with a towel than smoked it for about 8 hours on low heat. On the last hour I raised the smoker heat such that the piece of belly got an internal temperature of 150 F. The best bacon I ever had and absolutely not over salted. My butcher recommended this method and it worked perfectly. prepared this way, the porck belly does not get stiff at the end of seven days and much less salt is required. Once smoked fat side up on my smoker and refrigerated, it becomes stiff and looks and feel like the store bought bacon after slicing. I figure the excess water evaporates while smoking.

[dianalivingconsciously]

The kid's appearance and his remark made me smile. :)