🍖Smoker BBQ
Home-Cured Smoked Bacon
Cure your own pork belly, then smoke it for streaky bacon with a depth no shop pack can match.
30 min
Prep
6 hr
Cook
Involved
Difficulty
7
Ingredients
6
Steps
Ingredients
Servings
- 1 kg pork belly, skin removed
- 25 g sea salt
- 15 g brown sugar
- 3 g curing salt (Prague Powder #1 / pink cure)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp juniper berries, crushed (optional)
- Hickory or maple bisquettes
Method
- 1
Mix the salt, sugar, curing salt and spices. Rub all over the pork belly.
- 2
Seal in a bag or covered dish and refrigerate for 7 days, turning daily, until firm throughout.
- 3
Rinse well, pat dry, and rest uncovered on a rack in the fridge for to form a pellicle.
- 4
Smoke in the Bradley at 65–80°C (150–175°F) over hickory or maple until the internal temperature reaches 65°C (150°F) — about 4–.
- 5
Cool completely, then chill before slicing — it firms up and slices far more cleanly cold.
- 6
Fry as normal to serve.
Notes
- The curing salt (Prague Powder #1) is essential for safe smoking at low temperatures — do not omit it.
- Weigh the cure accurately; this is food safety, not seasoning to taste.
- Slices freeze well in portions.