Summer 2021 bacon

For the first batch I revisited the Austrian cure recipe from a few years ago.

• 2,583g pork belly
• 65g basic cure
• 13g juniper
• 4 bay leaves
• 22g black peppercorns
• 8g caraway seeds
• 12g granulated garlic
• 6g brown sugar

For all three of the batches here I used the same curing technique: first spread the cure all over the belly, then all of the flavoring spices, in a big zip-closed plastic bag that then goes into the refrigerator (not the freezer — that was a typo!). Every few days I rub the spice around and turn the slab over.

I ended up letting this one cure for about three and a half weeks, instead of just two, due to life happening as it sometimes does. Then I smoked it (just in a Weber grill with a small fire off to the side) up to 160°F.

It's delicious. Right now I've only tasted little trimmings, but I'm really looking forward to having this at breakfast.

It's the time of year for fresh herbs, and they can flavor bacon just as well as winter spices.

• 2,112g pork belly
• 52g basic cure
• 16g fresh sage
• About 5g fresh majoram
• 6g fresh thyme
• 3-4 inches lemongrass stalk
• 3 cardamom pods
• ½ tsp. yellow mustard seed
• ½ tsp. corander seed
• 2 bay leaves

Grind all of the spices together into a paste, and rub it onto the belly after the cure.

The herb flavors would be drowned out by smoke, so instead of smoking I heated this one very gently in the oven: on low heat, door just slightly ajar to let moisture out, up to 180°F for a few hours. I pulled it right when the center reached 180°F.

The fat that leaks out from this one is exceptionally nice, and worth saving for stovetop cooking.

With the parts I trimmed from the two big batches to get them to fit in their bags for curing, I made pancetta.

• 1,377g pork belly
• 34g basic cure
• 20g black peppercorns
• 18g brown sugar
• 11g granulated garlic
• 14 juniper berries
• 4 bay leaves
• ¼ pod nutmeg
• 1-2g dried thyme

Traditionally after curing, pancetta is coated with additional course spices and hung to dry. I don't have a good place for drying — our basement is too dry, so the moisture on the interior would get trapped and rot — so I oven-dried it with the herbed bacon, and left it for a few hours after the herbed bacon had reached 180°F.