Has anyone tried curing their own bacon?

[Cycling Naturalist]

It looks pretty simple, and I'd be tempted to dispense with the saltpetre. Any reports?

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Mine is beyond help

 

[TheDoctor]

Simplicity itself. I did a dry cure, a half-arsed smoke in a barbie and it's delicious.

 

[stephec]

As long as it's illness isn't incurable it should be ok, have you tried penicillin?

 

[vernon]

It looks pretty simple, and I'd be tempted to dispense with the saltpetre. Any reports?

Give me the saltpetre. It's good for bombs, explosives and fireworks.

 

[winjim]

With the recent health scare over processed meat, some wag remarked that smoking causes cancer, bacon causes cancer, but smoking bacon cures it.

 

[stephec]

The only thing I've cured is my craving for pies.......by eating three for lunch.

Feeding an addiction isn't curing it.

 

[vernon]

You could try curing bacon by rubbing oinkment on it.

 

[Fnaar]

I tried smoking some bacon, but the rizlas kept getting wet

 

[TheDoctor]

OK, now I'm on something other than a phone...
I used a half kilo slab of belly pork, skinned. 20 g of salt, 5g of sugar, a few dried herbs and a bit of black pepper. Rub it into the piggywig, and put in the fridge in a largeish container - I used a Tupperware type thing with a lid. Turned it over whenever I remembered, and gave it three days in all. Rinse well, hang up overnight to dry a bit, then I lit three briquettes in the barbie, added some damp applewood prunings, and smoked the bacon for about 30 minutes with the lid on and all the vents shut. Let it cool, then slice into rashers. Fantastic!
It doesn't save any money, but it's not more expensive either, and it's no great effort. Well worth a go.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It looks pretty simple, and I'd be tempted to dispense with the saltpetre. Any reports?

You NEED the saltpetre .... it's won't be 'cured' otherwise.

 

[Andy_R]

You NEED the saltpetre .... it's won't be 'cured' otherwise.

Not so. You can cure without nitrates. They do, however, help to kill off bacteria. Think of them as presevative agents, not curing agents.

 

[Fnaar]

There's actually a Guardian guide here
The secrets of home-curing your own bacon

http://gu.com/p/2nnn4?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

[srw]

OK, now I'm on something other than a phone...
I used a half kilo slab of belly pork, skinned. 20 g of salt, 5g of sugar, a few dried herbs and a bit of black pepper. Rub it into the piggywig, and put in the fridge in a largeish container - I used a Tupperware type thing with a lid. Turned it over whenever I remembered, and gave it three days in all. Rinse well, hang up overnight to dry a bit, then I lit three briquettes in the barbie, added some damp applewood prunings, and smoked the bacon for about 30 minutes with the lid on and all the vents shut. Let it cool, then slice into rashers. Fantastic!
It doesn't save any money, but it's not more expensive either, and it's no great effort. Well worth a go.

I can't remember whether there's any belly pork left from the half-pig we got a couple of year's back, but I'd vaguely intended to try this with a bit.

@rvw - you're going up to the apple farm again soon.....

 

[Aperitif]

"Does Anyone Like Making Bacon?" would have been a rasher title for the post. Shrink wrapping the finished product must be a pig of a job...a right arse or worse.
I thought 'bacon' was the 'cured' product of pork.

With the recent health scare over processed meat, some wag remarked that smoking causes cancer, bacon causes cancer, but smoking bacon cures it.

That'll be 'The Marie Cure'.