Best Pink Peppercorn Bacon Recipes

SMYE'S LIGHTLY PEPPERED BACON

Smye's Lightly Peppered Bacon image

Bacon, what's not to love? How about the incredibly high salt content, cost, inconsistent flavor, and oft-questionable quality of the meat prior to the cure? Well folks, here's the solution, home-cured, home-smoked bacon from scratch. It's absolutely incredible and less than 1/3 the cost of storebought.

Provided by Smye Sarrel

Categories Meat and Poultry Recipes Pork

Time P1DT3h15m

Yield 40

Number Of Ingredients 11

Ingredients

5 pounds skinless pork belly
¼ cup brown sugar
3 ¾ tablespoons non-iodized salt
3 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons pink curing salt
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 ½ tablespoons maple syrup
applewood chunks
hickory wood chunk

Steps:

Rinse pork belly and pat dry. Mix brown sugar, salt, paprika, red pepper flakes, black pepper, curing salt, and cumin seeds together. Add maple syrup. Spread the cure mixture evenly over pork belly.
Vacuum-seal the pork belly or place it into a resealable plastic bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Refrigerate for 7 to 10 days.
Remove pork belly from bag and rinse thoroughly. Pat dry and refrigerate while preheating your smoker to 220 degrees F (105 degrees C) according to manufacturers' instructions.
Place pork belly, fat-side down, onto the wire rack. Place the rack into the smoker. Add 1 fist-sized chunk of applewood and 1 chunk of hickory wood to the smoke pan according to manufacturer's directions. Smoke for 1 1/2 hours; add 2 more chunks of applewood. Continue smoking until pork belly reaches an internal temperature of about 150 degrees F (66 degrees C), about 1 1/2 hours more.
Remove pork belly from smoker and slice as desired. Store in the refrigerator for roughly 30 days. You can also portion out the finished bacon and freeze whatever you don't plan to consume right away, as you would any other meat product. To use, simply thaw in the refrigerator and you're good to go with little loss of texture.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 114.5 calories, Carbohydrate 3.4 g, Cholesterol 20.6 mg, Fat 8 g, Fiber 0.5 g, Protein 7.1 g, SaturatedFat 2.6 g, Sodium 1213.2 mg, Sugar 2.2 g

HOMEMADE BACON

Homemade Bacon image

Provided by Michael Symon : Food Network

Time 3h30m

Yield 3 1/2 pounds bacon

Number Of Ingredients 8

Ingredients

5 pounds pork belly, skin on
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 teaspoons pink curing salt
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey (preferably chestnut honey)
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons smoked sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Steps:

Rinse the pork belly and pat dry. Transfer to a resealable 2-gallon plastic bag. To make the spice rub, mix the kosher salt, pink salt, brown sugar, honey, red pepper flakes, paprika and cumin in a bowl. Coat the pork belly all over with the mixture.
Close the bag and refrigerate 7 to 10 days, flipping once a day, until the pork belly feels firm. It should take 7 days for a thin belly that is about 11/2 inches thick, longer for a belly that's 2 to 3 inches thick.
Remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. Refrigerate the belly on a rack, uncovered, 48 hours.
Set up your smoker according to the manufacturer's instructions using applewood chips, and set to 200 degrees F. Smoke the pork belly 3 hours, or until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F.
Remove the rind (optional), then slice and cook as desired. To store, wrap the bacon in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 2 months.
Pink curing salt is a mix of salt and sodium nitrite. It keeps the meat pink and protects it from bacteria. You can find it at specialty food stores or online.