Make your own bacon

[lvdkeyes]

I made bacon for the first time. Six different people have tried it and all agree it is superb; maybe the best bacon any of us have ever tasted.

Homemade Bacon

4 pounds pork belly
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup Kosher or sea salt
¾ tsp pink salt (also called pickling salt, curing salt or Prague powder)
1 tbsp crack black peppercorns

Remove the skin from the pork belly. Combine the cure ingredients and rub on the meat, working it into the meat.
Put into a gallon size Zip-Lock bag.
Refrigerate for 10 days, turning it every day.
Rinse the cure from the pork belly and dry well. Place on a rack and refrigerate overnight uncovered or setting it in front of a fan until thoroughly dry.
Soak wood chips for an hour or more in water. Prepare the smoker.
Smoke the pork belly at 200-225 F for about 2 hours, until the internal temperature is 150 F.
Let the bacon cool then wrap well and refrigerate for several weeks or freeze up to 3 months.
To serve, slice thinly and pan-fry as you usually cook bacon.

[Gaybutton]

How are you doing the smoking part? What kind of wood chips are you using and where do you get it?

And the thin slicing - How are you doing that? Do you have a slicing machine?

[lvdkeyes]

I bought wood chips at True Value. After soaking them, put them on hot charcoals on a Weber grill, but any grill with a cover will work. I have a slicer, but I have been just using a sharp knife

[Gaybutton]

I bought wood chips at True Value.

Are these chips from any particular kind of wood? Back in Florida, most people I knew who did their own smoking always used mesquite chips.

Two more question: How long can the bacon be refrigerated without going bad? Does it freeze well?

[lvdkeyes]

You can use whatever wood chips you like. I believe the ones I used were hickory.

"Let the bacon cool then wrap well and refrigerate for several weeks or freeze up to 3 months" I have never had bacon spoil, it might get a bit of mold on it.