Making Bacon from Scratch

It was only a matter of time before I went ahead and made my own bacon. I mean I’ve been extolling the virtues of bacon for years and had long-declared that “everything tastes better with bacon” long before the phrase was a part of our vernacular.  My primary bacon used to be whatever was on sale at the supermarket.  In more recent years I graduated to great local bacon from Culinarium and now buy my bacon from various butchers across the city. If I happen to be in Stratford I’m a fan of the bacon from The Best Little Pork Shoppe.

A few months ago Darryl of Buster Rhino’s tweeted about making bacon. He then posted the recipe on his site. After reading I realized that making bacon is pretty darned easy! Despite this realization it took me a few months before I got my act together to make me some bacon.

When it did come time to make bacon the first obstacle to cross was obtaining the ingredients. I planned on curing my bacon and needed to obtain curing salts or pink salts (not to be confused with those fancy Himalayan pink salts). I had no idea where to even begin looking for the stuff so I turned to and Chowhound for answers. The ever-knowledgeable David of Food With Legs piped up with some suggestions and links to a few posts that he’s done on the subject (at the bottom of this post). I ultimately ended up buying the curing salts from Bass Pro Shops. I paid under $3 for a pack that should last me for YEARS. The other option was ordering online but shipping charges ran high.

I was a bit conflicted about using the curing salts.  Part of why I wanted to make bacon was to avoid some of the chemicals found in commercial bacon.  I also had this idea in my head that I should really avoid the nitrates/nitrites commonly found in bacon.  I could have made the bacon without curing salts but the bacon wouldn’t have had that lovely pink colour and the shelf life would’ve been shorter.  So basically I got over being afraid of nitrates/nitrites because it’s not like I’d be using that much anyhow.

The other thing to obtain was pork belly, of course. Luckily pork belly is easy to find in Toronto. My local No Frills carries it in the butcher case and it’s readily available at Asian markets and at the butcher in Kensington. This time around I bought my belly at Fiesta Farms.  They always have great looking pork belly and the price is decent.

Making bacon requires the patience of a saint, in my opinion.  First it took me a few days to figure out where to source the ingredients and then, once you have everything, the belly has to cure for at least 7 days.  That’s a long time when all you’ve been thinking about for DAYS is homemade bacon.  Honestly, my mind was consumed with thoughts of making bacon for days.

I decided to make two kinds of bacon.  The first was a traditional maple bacon (courtesy of Buster Rhino’s) and the second was for a savory bacon courtesy of Michael Ruhlman (recipes to follow).  A few posts had cautioned that your first foray into bacon should be simple – not to go with a crazy flavour.  Because I’m  bit ambitious I figured I’d make a regular bacon and a fancy all at the same time.

Bacon fresh out of the oven

After the seven days of curing in my fridge it was time to rinse off the cure and turn this belly into bacon.  Darryl gives several options on his site including using a smoker.  I contemplated making a smoker in my apartment but was advised that it probably wasn’t the wisest idea.  One day I will make a faux smoker.  I finished my belly in the oven for a few hours at 200 degrees.  I immediately sliced off the skin and then let the bacon cool down so that I could slice it.  Slicing it thinly with a regular knife is no easy feat.  I sharpened my knife prior to slicing but even then my bacon was a bit thicker than thick-sliced bacon.  I will have to stop myself from buying .

I’ve tried my bacon in a few different applications thus far. I’ve fried up little hunks for snacking, fried up slices to eat with scrambled eggs and used some in a pasta with Alfredo sauce. Pretty divine.

So is homemade bacon worth the fuss?  First of all, the fuss is minimal.  And secondly, um, OF COURSE!  Homemade bacon is so much better than the stuff you buy at the supermarket.  The bacon has a much more pronounced pork flavour to it and when you fry it up it loses a lot  less bulk.  The only downside is that I found the first few slices a bit on the salty side.  Next time I’d be more diligent about rinsing of the cure.  I thought I had done a good job but would probably run it under the water for a little while longer.

Now I’m pretty much enamored with the idea of making my own bacon. Will I exclusively make my own bacon? Not yet, if I had a meat slicer that might change. I do think that this is something I’ll do fairly regularly throughout the year.

Here are some links that helped me along the way…
Buster Rhino’s – A recipe for maple bacon
NY Times – Michael Ruhlman’s recipe for savoury bacon
Food With Legs – David’s experience making bacon and links to his subsequent efforts
The Paupered Chef – Another great account of first-time bacon making