Natural Homemade Bacon (molasses brine, apple wood smoked)

When a man loves a woman, he trolls the earth hoping to find the treasure her heart desires deepest... for me that was pork belly. (and a smoker but we'll save that for later in the story) I called shop after shop, I also even called all of the grocery stores.  Oddly enough even the butchers and meat markets don't sell pork belly. Surprisingly they don't actually sell much fresh-meat at all. (fresh non-frozen and un-processed) You can't find ears, tongues or bits, but what you can find is smoked sausages, lunch meat and chickens ... literally the same exact brands you find at the grocery mart. So what I learned is that if I want to acquire pork belly locally, I have to buy an entire case. Any guesses on how many a case is? I'm sure I'll find out eventually but seriously, wow. So I traveled an hour to Allentown to their farmers market and I purchased the one and only pork belly in the case. The meat man I talked with over the phone was nice and he was equally as kind in person. I snatched up that pork belly and even noticed he had kidneys and other tidbits on hand. The bonus, I now know I can order and get new things (yeah dude, I got the hook-up). The negative, I live an hour away and I'm leery of driving an hour with kidneys in my trunk. Unless I'm planning on going all 007 with an organ transfer cooler, I'm pretty much out of luck. I have a thermos cooler and some ice, thats what I worked with. 

The second part of our adventure was coming up with a smoker. We'd decided if we were going to do this, it had to be done right. The problem was that we agreed the "right" way was cold smoked without chemicals. No pink salt here, no chemical additives or preservatives. So with what I found, the problem with cold smoking is that bacteria can grow and you can end up with botulism. Not pretty, no way, ouch. Maybe we can do it? We looked and looked at rigging up a hillbilly smoker, we spent well over an hour at the hardware store picking and choosing things to make a cold smoker and the final result was $230... Poor man meat got sent back to the store to return all the stuff and he purchased me a $40 smoker I'd had my eye on for a month. 

I'm sorry but jimmy rigging a garbage can to a clay pot should NOT cost that much, the fact that other people do it? Great, but we're not in a position to be wasting money. Our temperatures are finally rising, keeping the smoker cold enough just sounded like it could be a disaster. The pork took an hour long drive, I'm not using pink salt, the risks just stacked up. I'm sure it would have been fine, but you can't be too safe. So this time we hot smoked in a standard smoker with apple wood chips. I referred to Alton Brown's Scrap Iron Chef's Bacon recipe and it was a great success. The molasses wet brine instead of a dry cure gave me a remarkable outcome. The pork belly I scored was not necessarily the highest quality, but beggars can't be choosy. The fat to meat ratio was not the desired 50/50, I would say it wasn't even 80/20. This is merely round one of my bacon adventures. This is just the beginning, we will probably be cold smoking in winter. No matter what you come up with and how you do it, you really can not go wrong. If you find a belly and show it some love you will be rewarded. If you don't have a smoker or a grill it can be done in the oven, if you're skeptical...don't be. This fairy tale romance will always end with a happy ending. You too will be madly deeply in love, with homemade bacon. There is absolutely nothing else like it.

Natural Homemade Bacon- 

Chemical Free, Preservative Free with a molasses brine and smoked with charcoal and apple wood chips. You can make this indoors or out. You can use a standard charcoal grill or a smoker, or purchase an indoor smoker. For more information on indoor smoking check out Charcutepalooza's April Challenge, Hot Smoking. I used an 11 pound portion of pork belly and ended up with 5-ish pounds of bacon. You can easily halve this recipe if you do not have the extra space. 

Alton Browns Scrap Iron Chef Bacon Recipe

Brine: 

1 cup kosher salt

1 cup brown sugar

8 ounces molasses

4 quarts of water

In a large pot combine half of the water with the salt and sugar. Bring to a boil and whisk to dissolve. Remove from heat and combine with remaining water. If you use extra cold water/and or ice it will cool the solution  much faster.

-Pork Belly, I used an 11lb portion, Skin-on

-Fresh Black pepper (about 1/4 cup)

Cut pork belly in half to make it more manageable. Rub pepper liberally onto all sides of the meat. Place into a large zip lock bag. I used a large stock pot and two double bags (one for each piece of belly). If you have a food-safe storage container that is big enough you can use that. Pour brine over top of the pork belly and remove any excess air from the container. Allow to brine for 3-4 days. Flip them over once each night. 

Before smoking remove the brined bellies and pat them dry. Set them on a baking rack to dry out for 4 hours or so. 

Smoking- (you will need charcoal, wood chips and a smoker)

Prepare your smoker, If your using a charcoal grill or other standard hot smoker you will prepare the hot coals and soak wood chips. Place wood chips onto the hot coals. If possible monitor the temperature. Ideally you want it to be under 200 degrees at all times, but not below 140. (140 and below is cold smoking) Smoke bellies 3-4 hours. If your smoker/grill drops too low in temperature you can finish them off in an 180- 200 degree oven. The internal temperature should be about 160 degrees. 

Slicing-

Refrigerate Until Fully Cooled, Once cooled you can freeze for 15-30 minutes.  Remove skin and excess fat. Slice to desired thickness. Achieving perfect thin slices with a knife is near impossible, the best thing you can do is keep it cold. If you have a deli slicer or mandoline this is incredibly useful. 

Extra's, Dare not Waste! (dog treats and "Love Jar")

Dog Treats- The skin I removed was made into dog treats. I do not have a dog and if you don't either, I'm sure you  know someone who has a dog who would LOVE YOU forever. Simply slice the skin into reasonable sized pieces. Scrape off excess fat. (I used the back of a spoon). Dry the skin out in an oven by baking them in a 300 degree oven on a cooling rack. This can take up to an hour. 

Love Jar- The excess fat I melted slowly over medium-low heat in sauce pot until it was melted. I poured it in a jar and voila! I have bacon Love. This can be used just like butter, good for gravy, frying potatoes or even sneak some into your biscuits.

Cooking Bacon, The way I Do It-

I like to cook my bacon in the oven on a sheet pan. Simply pre-heat to 375 or 400 degrees. Layer bacon in a single layer and bake 17-20 minutes.