Apartment Bacon
Years ago I took a course with Farmstead Meatsmith and they took away a lot of my fears surrounding curing meat. Since that class I have cured many pieces of pork by hanging them from my apartment ceilings. This time I am lucky to have friends with much more processing space than I have at home making the whole thing a bit easier as I chose to take on a half pig instead of a small piece of pork belly or pig cheek.
Here are the main points that I hold close to me when thinking about curing meat. The danger for bacteria growth in meat comes from air pockets. This is most dangerous when it comes to sausage making. First you grind the pork, which you risk introducing things you don’t want in there and then you have to pack it in a way that guarantees no air in it. To avoid any risk most people use a special curing salt with nitrates to prevent any dangerous bacteria growth. HOWEVER-if you don’t grind and pack your meat you can be certain that there is no air pockets in your meat, and that nothing as been introduced. For this reason, whole muscle cures are my comfort zone where I can use very simple ingredients, regular sea or rock salt and enjoy without any anxiety from risks I might not be able to see.
So here is my recipe for you using pork belly. The recipe is specific to pork belly bacon due to the curing time that I will recommend. If you want more of a detailed look at this approach I highly recommend reading more of the Farmstead Meatsmith’s work or sending me a private message and I’ll lend you my copy of the book!
Ingredients:
1 pork belly
1 part Salt
1 part Sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tsp nutmeg
(other seasoning options, smoked paprika, cloves, sweet paprika)
Instructions:
Mix seasoning in a bowl. Make more or less depending on the size of pork belly you have.
Trim any hanging bits off of the pork belly and make sure it is a nice clean whole pieces of meat with no little flaps.
Cover the pork belly evenly with seasoning.
Set a rack inside of a dish and place pork belly on the rack.
Put into the fridge for 10 days. During the 10 days, flip the belly every other day or so. This process is to make sure all the water comes out of the bacon. If you are curing your pork belly with the skin on, then you do not have to flip it, just leave it skin side up so all the moisture can drain easily.
Remove from the fridge on day 10, rinse off all excess salt and sugar. Pat dry.
It should be a cooler time of year when there are not a lot of flies, however if you do have flies covering your bacon in pepper or paprika can act as a deterrent.
Hang your bacon for a minimum of 3 weeks. By then it should be evenly cured and you can start slicing it and enjoying it as is or fried.
At this point you can choose to leave it hanging, or slice it and refrigerate it. It will last longer if you leave it hanging and cut pieces off as you want them.
