Two words: SMOKE BACON. Do I have your attention?

Smoke bacon yourself and your life will change.The view from the top of a mountain on a cloudless day. A soaring eagle. A slab of bacon. These are beautiful things.

And, now that I have personally cured and smoked my own, I consider myself more of a man.

My quest began simply enough. It started with an initial recipe for braising pork belly.

On his show, the “F-word,” Gordon Ramsay made a piece of skin-on pork belly, braised slowly in the oven, pressed and chilled under a weight, and then pan seared to produce a crackly fatty porky mound of love.

I had to make this.

There was no other option.

So, I called the grocery store and ordered one pork belly. Well, maybe because I was a restaurant owner, the store ordered me not one pork belly, but rather one case of pork bellies.

That is about 6 whole 12 pound sides. Yikes. I would either have to braise enough pork belly to feed a battalion of Marines, or figure out what to do with all of this pig.

Simple, I would cure and smoke bacon! (I did make the braised belly and served it on top of white beans with sage pesto- it was terrific.)

Curing and smoking bacon is relatively simple: you first cure the pork for about a week in salt and seasonings, and then cold-smoke it as you would European style lox.

Having recently swooned through Martin Picard’s book from his restaurant Au Pied du Cochon, I knew that I must marry the pork with maple syrup somehow. (No kidding. this book is like pork and foie gras porn. It is now my life quest to eat at this shrine.)

I recently received a bottle of genuine Vermont Maple syrup as a gift, and incorporated this into the cure.

The cure can either be dry or wet- floating in water and salt or rubbed on and left to sit. I chose a dry brine or cure sealed with a vacuum sealer. Rather than measure out sodium nitrate and salt, I just picked up a bag of Morton’s Tender Quick at the store.

To this I added maple syrup, brown sugar, and black pepper. (see the recipe below) After 7 days, you remove the pork belly, rinse and dry and leave to dry further overnight in the refrigerator. Now it’s time to smoke bacon. This is really the only difficult part as I said the pork bellies must be cold-smoked with the temperature not climbing past about 80 degrees or so, rather then the hot-smoking technique this site primarily deals with.

To do this, the fire needs to be offset enough from the smoking chamber.

I use and old refrigerator with a hole cut near the bottom of one of the sides.

Next I put some ventilation pipe into the hole and I run it to an old flower pot where I put smoking chips.

Typically, a dense meat like pork belly should smoke about 6 hours.

After 6 hours or so, remove the meat, and rub it with a damp cloth to remove some of the smoke residue (creosote).

Next, cut into sections, wrap and freeze. You will need to remove the skin before cooking, and slice by hand. To make this easier, I recommend slicing and skinning the bacon when it is partially frozen. It is much sturdier at this point and easier to slice.

You now have something that is pork love. And, you made it yourself, knowing that is has not been injected with water or chemicals or artificial flavoring.

So what do you do with it now? How about fettuccine carbonara? Or bucatini amatricana replacing the tesa or pancetta with bacon? Bacon wrapped salmon filets? An amazing BLT? Or just with eggs and pancakes?

In fact, one of my favorite dinner parties is to invite friends over and make breakfast. This way you can imbibe with your breakfast and eat your fill without being loaded down all day.

If you choose to simply cook yours for eating with eggs or blt’s, forego the skillet and put the sliced bacon in a sheet pan and pop it in the oven at 375 for a half an hour or so depending on thickness.

It is much less messy and provides more even heat.

Dry Brine Recipe:

For approx 10-12lb pork belly

6 oz Morton’s Tender Quick (available at grocery stores)

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup coarse ground black pepper

Grated nutmeg (to taste)

Ground allspice (to taste)

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