Is there any pork product so widely lauded as bacon? Hell no! And guess what? It's dead simple to make, no shit...
This is appropriately the second post for two reasons: 1) Bacon is by far the most popular smoked meat and 2) I just made some, and took this picture of what's in store for you brave souls should you take up this charge.
Bacon, in it's purest form (and that's what I'll deal with here) is but four ingredients:
The first, and of foremost importance is pork belly. You're going to get out what you put in, so buy the best belly you can find. As a fortunate Torontonian, I have no problem getting my hands on a good one. I like to buy my bellies from Wayne's Meats or Town & Country Farms Inc. at the St. Lawrence North Market (Saturdays only.) It kind of works out perfect because it takes about seven days to cure a belly and in seven days it'll be Saturday again, leaving you with ample time to get that smoker smokin'.
The second is salt. Plain old sea salt or Kosher salt - not table salt (none of us in the fine First World need to worry about an iodine deficiency.)
The third is sugar. I'm not picky about this one. Some like to use dextrose (like Michael Rhulman, the author of the original recipe.) Others, well I don't know. I just know that brown sugar gives it a sweeter taste, which is not to my liking. Pure Quebecois sirop d'erable makes maple bacon, so that's cool.
Forth, and I'd say second most important is pink salt. You know why they call it pink salt? Because it's pink sometimes, and the rest of the time it's white. Chemically, it's comprised of 93.75% salt and 6.25% sodium nitrite. The sodium nitrite is what gives cured meats that nice pink hue (think corned beef or salami) and it helps prevent botulism. It goes by a few names; Prague Powder #1, Curing Salt, Ready Cure and I'm sure a few more. It's not easy to track down with all the 'ask your local pharmacist' bullshit floating around on the internet. I asked three separate pharmacies about this and not one knew what the hell I was talking about. So, I suggest tracking down a meat processing supply company, like Canada Compound. I picked up a bag that will last me a lifetime for about $6.
That's it. Oh, and you have to smoke it. Well, you don't have to but you really should. I use apple wood because I find it's smokey but not overpowering. Stay away from mesquite and go easy on the hickory. Personally, I think a nice fruit wood is best. I'm not going to get into the actual recipe because an abridged version can be found here, on The Paupered Chef. The original recipe can be found in Michael Rhulman's book Charcuterie.
The only thing I have to stress is don't just bake it in the oven, it's not much more work to smoke it and god-damn does it ever taste better. How do I know? I don't. It's a bold assumption based on this simple fact: Slow-smoked barbecue ribs are much better than braised ribs. Amen.
