Makin' Bacon

I love bacon.  Over the last few years I've also learned to love making bacon.  It's actually very easy and you get to be creative in the flavors you add.  I made a big batch of what I consider basic bacon a while back and my family loved it.  It's just a little bland for me.  It tastes great, but if you're going to go through the trouble of making bacon, shouldn't you make it special?  I think so.  With that in mind, I made a new batch today and went back to some of the bolder flavors I've used in the past.  In many ways the flavors in this batch of bacon will echo the best home made panchetta, without the juniper berry taste I don't care for.  The pork I'm using is a full slab of skin off belly from a Berkshire that was pasture raised in Iowa without hormones, antibiotics, etc.  

 This is half the slab, trimmed and ready for the cure.

 Same piece with the cut side showing.  It may not look like much meat, but wait

until this has cured and been smoked, then look at it and it will be the meatiest

bacon you have ever seen; certainly far meatier than store bought.
Look at some of the past posts and you can see thefinished product
 (I will also post pics of these when they are done).  It amazes

me how much meatier they look after the cure.

 This is the pink salt.  It's what makes cured meat taste like cured meat.  It's also 

what keeps the meat pink instead of grey and kills all the little nasty things.  It takes very 

little.  This is four teaspoons for 10 lbs of meat.  It, along with all the other flavors, are

rubbed over the meat and it cures for a week in the fridge.  After that it is rinsed very well
and air dried before smoking.

 This is the rest of the flavorings.  There is salt, brown sugar, molassas, 

lemon tyme, bay leaves, garlic and pepper.

 Mix it all into a paste and spread evenly over the meat.

 I use two gallon zip lock bags for the curing.  

It keeps everything clean and contained.

This is what it looks like after you have spread it all over.  

Off to the fridge for a week.