I’m not a fan of most manufactured chemical cured bacon, most of the supermarket we can get here is tasteless and pumped with that much water it sticks to the pan when you cook it!

Bacon isn’t hard to make yourself and it gives you a real sense of achievement to make your own.

Before the widespread commercial use of nitrate cures, bacon was simply cured with salt, or salt and sugar, the result was grey when cooked, more like cooked pork, I don’t mind that at all. It also won’t last as long in the fridge as nitrate cured.

A number of vegetables contain nitrate, one of the richest is celery. So lately I’ve been adding celery juice to my bacon salt/sugar cure to increase shelf life a little and bring some of that characteristic pink colour into the game, why not!

Supplies

Pork Belly

2 cups salt

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon of Juniper Berries

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Lemon rind

1 teaspoon mustard seed

Handful of fresh parsley

1 cup celery Juice

Step 1: Curing the Belly

2 cups salt

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon of Juniper Berries

2 garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Lemon rind

1 teaspoon mustard seed

Handful of fresh parsley

1 cup celery Juice

Blend all the ingredients in a blender to form a wet textured cure

Cover the pork belly in the cure mix and refrigerate for5-7 days, turn the pork once a day.

Quite a bit of liquid is extracted from the pork during the curing, this is exactly what you want to happen, this makes the bacon firm and it fries better, too much moisture steams the bacon as it fries, anything that helps make bacon crisp is a good thing!

Step 2: Purge

Rinse the pork belly thoroughly to remove the cure.

Cut and fry a small piece, this is to test for saltiness, if it is too salty, soak in clean water for a few hours to leech some of the salt out. Test it again!

If need be you can soak the cured belly in clean water for a day or two.

After this I will run a little Gin or Scotch onto the surface to dry off the water, use whatever alcohol you prefer.

Step 3: Smoke

Allow the pork to air dry in the fridge overnight, this forms a pellicle which helps the smoke stick.

Smoke and cook the pork belly gently till the bacon is 60°C, I’m using my Gas smoker box, but a small pile of charcoal in a kettle with a couple of chunks of hickory or some other flavour wood would do the job as well.