I got hands on ultra-fresh and beautiful pork belly lately and decided to make cured an smoked bacon again. Didn’t do that for what feels like an eternity and I’m really up for it. I have time at the moment and I can do everything the most relaxed way – finally some cooking fun again 🙂

The pork belly slab was about 1.5 kg and I cut it into two chunks for easier handling and storage. With my trusty old Farcyde’s standard meat curing formula slightly updated (more sugar, more thyme) and tightly vacuumed, it sat in the fridge for nearly four weeks now. I’ve read a lot about curing * lately and along the way I learned that an overcuring in vacuum is virtually impossible unless you overdo it massively. 

After drying for 12 hrs., it got beechwood and cherry smoke two times for ~5 hrs. each. Now they’ll be resting wrapped up in paper for another week – cool, dark and not too dry – then the feast begins.

* Edit: Some noteworthy wikipedia entries on the subject (aside from the usual curing/smoking/BBQ recipe pages):
Food preservation | Curing | Curing Salt | Salting | Smoking