Turtle Rock Farm

Hey folks, Farm Daddy here. This is my first post and it’s about something most of us love. Bacon! Back in 2014 or so we were stationed in Monterey California with the Army. As you might imagine, things were significantly more expensive there than in other parts of the country. We were at the store one day and I was looking for bacon, you see, I have an unappologetic weakness for breakfast meats. Everything I looked at was at least $5 or $6 per pound. That seemed excessive to me but they had pork belly on sale for $2 a pound. My brain saw that as a win. How hard could this be afterall… Suffice it to say that my first ever bacon was so salty it made the dog throw up when I let her taste a small piece. I’ve honed my skills significantly since that first batch and I’m happy to say that today I’d rather have my bacon than any other. The store-bought stuff tastes almost plasticy and it shrinks down to nothing when you cook it. The downside of making your own bacon is when we run out and we did a while back. So I did what any pork fiend would do and found a butcher that carried pork belly or fresh side as you may call it. The store is about an hour away and I was planning to drive but the person I spoke with when I called them mentioned that they deliver to my local stores and could deliver to me as well at no extra charge. Score! Sidenote, before all this Covid-19 madness my sister was planning a spring break visit with her boys and she had asked if I could make her some bacon to take home so when I called the butcher I bought four bellies. They are about ten pounds each and were pretty good looking cuts of meat. The box I received was actually 42 pounds and the driver assured me that they were so fresh they had been walking around the day prior.

So you’re probably wondering about how I make my bacon or maybe you’re not. Either way, I’m going to go through my process because I love bacon.

I start with fresh belly but you can use other cuts too. I also like boneless shoulder though it’s leaner and takes more time. There is a lot of debate over the use of nitrates. I’m not a doctor or a scientist but what I’ve read says that you’ll be fine as long as you don’t burn them. You can make bacon without nitrates but it’s grey, not pink. I don’t want grey bacon so I use Pink curing salt (nitrates) in my cure. My cure also has kosher salt and brown sugar. This basic cure of salt, sugar and pink curing salt works for all kinds of meats. If you want, you can experiment with maple syrup or any number of spices to change flavors. I weigh each cut and then measure out 1 tbsp + 1 and 1/4 tsp per pound of meat. I coat the meat on all sides and then close it in a large storage container and put it in the refrigerator. I leave the bacon in the fridge for a week and I flip it on day 3 or 4. The most important step and the one I skipped that made my first batch so terribly salty is soaking the bacon. You should rinse the bacon and then place it in a sink full of cold, clean water for 45 minutes to an hour. This doesn’t hurt the flavor but it does draw out a lot of the salt.

Next you’ll dry the belly and then smoke it until the internal temp is 140°F.

Afterwards you’ll put it in the fridge to cool and then slice it (across the grain) however thick you want. That’s it. Bacon isn’t hard to do but it is time consuming. If you want more details shoot us a message. I hope you’ve enjoyed my first post and I hope you love bacon.

One last thing, my recipe has changed some over time but the basic dry cure is from a book called Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated). It consists of 1 pound kosher salt, 8 ounces of sugar and 8 teaspoons of pink curing salt. They use white sugar but I prefer brown. It’s really all about preference. Go make some bacon!