Smoked Bacon with Morton Tender Quick Cure

gbrigham

Pork Belly (skinned)

Peppered Bacon Cure (per pound of belly)

1 Tbsp Morton Tender Quick

1 Tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp cracked black pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

After the bacon is cured and rinsed, rub with an additional tablespoon of cracked black pepper.

Maple Bacon Cure (per pound of pork belly)

1 Tbsp Morton Tender Quick

1 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cracked black pepper

Cut pork bellies to fit gallon zip top bags.

Rub cure on all sides of pork belly.

Cure bacon 7 days for every inch of thickness.

Flip your pork belly over in the cure and massage once a day. When you hit the 7-day mark, you can test your bacon by slicing through the middle to be sure the pork belly is pink all the way through with no gray left at all. If it isn’t pink through, put it back in the cure for another day and test again. The texture should also feel like a well-done steak when it is done curing.

After the cure, the pork belly needs to be rinsed and returned to the fridge to develop a sticky skin called a pellicle. Place the pork belly on a wire cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet before returning to the fridge. You need to leave your bacon in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.

Fold up a large square of aluminum foil into a pouch around the hardwood chips. Use a knife to punch a bunch of holes in the top of the pouch. Turn on one of your grill’s burners to High and place the pouch over the burner. Once your wood starts to smoke, turn the temperature down to medium.

Place the cured pork belly on the unlit side of the grill and close the lid. Keep the temperature as low as possible (around 165 degrees). Allow the wood chips to smoke and smolder until the internal temperature of the bacon reaches 155 degrees, about 6 hours. You may need to add a new pouch of wood chips if your first burns out before you get your bacon up to temperature.

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