Home cured bacon recipe

Home cured bacon by Nick W

A low-salt bacon cure which you can add your own flavourings to.

Serves: 8 or more
Prep time: over an hour (3 days in the fridge)
Cooking time: less than 15 mins

Ingredients:

1 kg joint belly/loin of pork
900 ml cold water
100 g cooking salt
1 tsp muscavado sugar
3 tsp maple syrup

Preparation:

Dissolve the salt, muscavado sugar and maple syrup in the water in a non-metallic dish.

Immerse the pork in the brine, weight it if needed to keep it submerged and leave in the fridge for 3 days.

Remove from the brine, pat dry and return to the fridge for an hour or so to firm up.

Using a sharp knife, slice as thinly as you like, (I prefer not to be able to see the pattern of the plate through my bacon!)

The bacon will keep better as a block in the fridge, but not for as long as commercially prepared bacon as it contains no preservatives and much less salt.

If you’re not going to use it all in a week or two, (you will), it can be sliced and frozen as separate rashers and then cooked from frozen.

Other recipes you might enjoy:

1. American style pancake recipe
2. Cassoulet recipe
3. Green Pork Chilli recipe