It's been seven years now since Brandon Sheard of Farmstead Meatsmith came to visit our (then) farm and taught us how to properly kill, clean, cut, wrap, and cure our own pork. During those days, I remember feeling like it was the greatest thing I'd ever learned. Like climbing the Mount Everest of homesteading skills. Raising and butchering a pig is no small thing.
We're not currently raising our own pigs here on the farm – after spending years chasing them through orchards and out of gardens, we figured we'd better wait until we'd built a new structure that better keeps them in. We also tend to favor red meat – choosing to raise a calf and lambs each year. Frankly, it just made more sense to buy the few pieces of pork that we'd need each year from Brandon (who until recently lived fairly close to us).
Bacon is the obvious exception. Bacon is life.
Did you know that homemade bacon is as simple as salt, sugar, and 7 days in the refrigerator? Your only real job is to source some good, local, high-quality pork belly. After that, it's simply a matter of letting the magic happen.
Here's how to do it:
Wow! Thank you SO much! I tried making bacon once and had dismal results. But now I see all the things I did wrong. I will try again with these new instructions!
Hmmm I love the idea of doing this. I live in the UK and I cook with an Aga which is on most of the year, it airs the washing, keeps the kitchen warm etc. If I was to do this the obvious place to hang it would be over the Aga but I’m guessing it would be too warm. Often when I cook, I am not just cooking for the family so I think I would be even more anxious in case I made someone sick. I imagine waking at 3am and feeling tragic!
Also did you ever read ‘Jude the obscure’ re. pigs?
Not sure if we can use our bacon or not. We took our pig to have it processed. When we received it back all bacon was sliced however, not smoked – the butcher we used, last minute, doesn’t smoke/cure. What can we do? Can we put this in our smoker all sliced? Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks!
Thank you for this video. I buy my sausage already made from a local butcher and the I can it in pint jars. The outcome is delicious and so convenient. I will ask my butcher about getting a pork belly . What are other options do I have if my butcher can not supply me with one? Thank you!
Could a similar process be done to make pancetta which I use for pastas, soups and snacking?
Is that something you could post later?
Spot on recipe, you can also do this with shoulder roasts – it’s called Buckboard bacon and is very good! We butcher 2 hogs a year for our family of 8 and of course go through the bacon and jowls quickly, was very happy when we learned about Buckboard bacon a few years ago. We cut the bones out first and then do a dry brine for 6 to 7 days, then cold smoke for a day, put one in the fridge and freeze the rest. So Good!