Winner Smoked Cured Bacon Recipe

Well this recipe is a winner for sure. I followed Kutas’ recipe pretty closely. For 16 pounds I used the following cure: 1 1/2 cup kosher salt approx 100 grams of cure #1 3 cups honey The taste is a little more “hammy” than the maple cure, which I like. It was just a tad too salty for my taste. You may cut back a little. Just a word of warning: cook it on lower heat than you would store-bought, it will burn. But cooked slow, you will get a wonderful aroma and it renders well. I love the taste of this bacon and will do it again and tweak until I get it perfect for me. A keeper!

Ingredients

16 pounds of Pork Belly

For the Cure

1 1/2 cup kosher salt
approx 100 grams of cure #1
3 cups honey

Directions

1. Rinse the cure off after 6 days in the fridge and let it sit at room temp for about 40 minutes.
2. Dry it in the Bradley for 1 hour at 140 F (60C),  then apply Hickory smoke until it gets to an IT of 127 F (52.7C) (about 3.5 hours).
3. Turn the temp down to 120 F (48.9C) and let it smoke for another half hour.
4. The taste is a little more “hammy” than the maple cure, which I like.  It was just a tad too salty for my taste but not much. Next time I’ll cut back a little. I like this recipe and will do it again and try to dial it down to perfection in the future.