Rosemary bacon recipe from the previous post: OUTSTANDING.
A little on the salty side. Next time I will give it a two-minute soak in cold water after rinsing off the cure, to leach out some of the salt. I will edit the recipe in the previous post to reflect that change.
However; there is a clean hint of rosemary flavor throughout the bacon, reminiscent of a good herb-crusted pork roast, and it is very bacony bacon (not ham-like, as the Alton Brown recipe). It tastes very fresh and porky. Scott remarked on the distinct flavor of freshness. It is unmistakeable. No comparison to mass produced chem-bacon, at all. We’re all done with that fakey stuff. Wow.
Also, does anybody know what I should do with these smoked porkbelly skins that I stripped off the bacons after smoking?
I’ll just freeze them for stew enrichment, until I get some good ideas, I guess.
NEXT RECIPE, ON SMOKER NOW:
Savory Bacon, from Ruhlman’s Charcuterie
one 5-lb slab pork belly
4 garlic cloves, minced (I substituted 1/2 a small onion because Scott is allergic to garlic)
2 tsp. pink nitrite salt (cure #1)
3 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp. coarsely ground black pepper
4 crumbled bay leaves
4 or 5 sprigs thyme
Place belly in 3-gallon ziploc bag. Mix all remaining ingredients together, then rub thoroughly all over both sides of belly to coat. Push as much air out of the bag as you can, seal tightly, and place bag in fridge for seven days. The salts will draw liquid out of the meat. This is your curing brine. Turn the bag over every other day so a different side can sit in the brine for a while.
Remove belly from cure, rinse cure off well, and pat dry (you may wish to soak it in cold water for a minute first, to draw out some excess salt). Belly can be refrigerated, covered, for three days if you wish.
Roast (or smoke) at 200 degrees on a rack until 150 degrees internal temp. While fat is hot, slice off rind; save for stocks and stews.
Cool, wrap, and refrigerate.
I’ll review this cure recipe in the next post, with photos.
14 Comments
The Connecticut Brisket Research Center 
For Easter I want to try lamb belly bacon cured with rosemary, tangerine peel, and coriander. Or merely lamb belly cubes marinated in that, and broiled fresh.
Will let you know how that goes, if we do it.
That’s great. I was hoping it wasn’t the hotter smoking temp that was giving you the ham taste. Sounds like you got a winner!
It’s real good, J’Ames. Giving me all kinds of flavor ideas about pork roasts and sausages, too.
I have this overgrown bunch of potted marjoram…lovely stuff for pork.
Will need some cure #2 for sausages though.
No idea where I can find that locally. Just finding ordinary pink salt was like a frickin’ odyssey of being thwarted at every turn, around here.
Guess I need to plan ahead and order online.
I’ve got a pork belly that Imma gonna start on after Christmas. I’ll be gone, so I won’t be able to flip it every day, and I want to do it right. It’ll thaw when I get home, and I’ll put the rub to it.
Sounds like the rub is the way to go, not the brine. But for a pork loin, canadian bacon would be brine bound.
Sam’s Club is gonna like me next week.
Holy SHIT this last recipe is THE BOMB.
We kept it in for 9 days instead of 7…oh, this is so delicious.
Again, too salty for us….I didn’t soak it after rinsing, again. But so mufahkumin delicioso.
This is the recipe. This is the one. We start from here, before we tinker.
My rosemary recipe was light, floral, and mildly sweet. This ‘savory’ recipe is rich, hearty and spicy, like a pastrami.
Question for ya:
If I got through everything, rub, sealed, refrigerated, and suddenly realized that I left out the garlic, would you break everything open and add it? Or just go without?
I vacuum sealed it, so that’s the only reason I ask. If it was a ziploc, I’d bust it open right away.
Add the garlic or onion. It’s absolutely necessary.
I KNEW you were gonna say that.
*sigh
I did one batch with thyme, one with rosemary and thyme, and one with rosemary.
Didn’t have enough dried thyme for the whole thing.
I don’t know what the bay and thyme did for it, honestly. I guess it kind of melds in there somehow. If you used plenty of black pepper and onion (or garlic), you will be pleased. I think I used a bit more than the recipe called for, but I really love black pepper.
Wow, unwrapped that bacon today, and the bag smells AWESOME! Gonna let it dry then smoke it.
Thanks for the tips!
The nose knows. This is gonna be awesome.