For those of you who cure and slice your own bacon, how do you go about doing it. We will be cutting up a hog this weekend, thanks

I use tenderquick curing salt/sugar lay out your bacon slabs and cut so they fit In
Oversized zip lock 2 gallon somewhat loose. Cover with 1/8 inch of the curing salt one side
Flip over and repeat. I then lightly heat honey until it pours somewhat easily.
Pour a nice layer on 1/2 cup to 1 cup and slide in the bag then on the non honey side
Sprinkle in a 1/2 cup brown sugar. Zip tight and flip it around when you remember for about 7 days
Rinse it all off with cool water pat it dry and add pepper or garlic or whatever you like. I prefer
Just some pepper. Let it sit in the fridge over night so it forms a dry exterior set out get smoker going and smoke it at 180 until
It reaches around 145-155 internal for me it takes usually around 2.5- 3 hours. Don’t get it too hot
As you don’t want to render the fat out if it.

You can substitute the honey for maple syrup or just use Straight brown sugar.
Smoke as heavy as possible the first hour or so. I have found hickory about the best with
Bacon

Thanks for the response NE, sounds delicious

I make my own cure, typically cure for 7-10 days depending on thickness of meat, rinse, coat in pepper, and smoke. We make around 500 pounds sausage and several hundred pounds of bacon each year. We make different forms of bacon, using mainly the shoulders & loins. Shoulders and loins we pick up on sale and make buckboard or Canadian bacon. Bellies have been stupid expensive lately, so we use what we can get. I mix up my bulk cure and store it in a jar so I always have it on hand.

27 pounds of buckboard bacon with a thick layer of black pepper.

1 Gallon water, 1 cup plain non iodized salt, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 heaping TBS of #1 curing salt/instacure. Dissolve, no heat needed.

Trim the skin off about 15lb of belly and cut into about 4 inch slabs. Put in this brine for 2 weeks. It will want to float so i put a sealed bag of water on a plate to hold it under the brine. Place on a drying rack in a fridge overnight when you take it out of the brine. low temp smoke for a few hours. oak will give a very smoky flavor and smell. if you don't want that go with something less strong like a fruit wood. cool completely in fridge before slicing.

it's twice as good as any bacon i've ever bought. I still buy bacon but nothing compares to this recipe. make about 25 lbs a year. vacuum seal in small bags and it will be good for many months.

What's better than bacon? MORE BACON!

Very cool. What is your cure recipe?

Equal parts of salt and sugar. ( any salt / any sugar )
Slab of bacon trimmed to an equal thickness and good size to cut up
Pack the salt and sugar onto all sides of the bacon slab and put it in a zip lock bag or tuperware for 10 das- if it is thicker than and inch leave it for 14 days. when it gets hard / stiff it is cured.
Was off the salt and sugar that is left and slice it and fry it up. After you wash it you can hang it somewhere cool and dry and it will keep a couple months.

People add all kinds of things to the salt and sugar. I like regular table salt and brown sugar. I have some I put a cup of molasses in last week. It will be done next week. Flip it over every other day when it is curing. You don't have to smoke it but it tastes better. Liquid smoke is not as good as the real thing. It's super easy. Try it. A slicer is a big help - the bacon should be firm and it should slice easy. Apple is my favorite wood for smoking.

That buckboard bacon looks awsome!

Pintail that’s a lot of bacon and sausage

Big that does sound good, thanks!

Larry that sounds good too

Thanks ADC

I prefer no heat to smoke bacon. it will get cooked again anyway. leave it smoking for 4-5 hours

Put a little charcoal in the bottom of a metal container. Let it burn till white. put some wood in. after an hour or so light a little more in another can. when it gets white it will be about time to add it to your smoking bucket. very little heat and not much wood needed

This is my bulk cure recipe. I've been using it for many years, and it has never failed to provide amazing results.

BULK DRY CURE:
600g Kosher Salt
200g sugar
60g Prague Powder Cure #1

Mix and store in a mason jar. This is enough to cure several batches of bacon. Debone and trim your meat. I prefer my meat to be around 3" thick as this takes less time to cure. Take your pork (belly, shoulder, or loin) weigh in grams. I prefer a 2.5% cure, as for us it's not too salty. So, multiply the weight of the meat by .025 to get your 2.5% cure in grams. Rub into the meat. At this time, you add other spices. I almost always add 2-4 Tablespoons of brown sugar and enough black pepper to coat. Seal in a ziplock bag, and store in the fridge for 7-10 days (longer for larger pieces of meat). I turn the bags of bacon every day to help get a more even cure.
After the appropriate time in the cure, rinse off the excess cure in cold water and pat the meat dry. I suggest slicing off a piece and test frying to see if it's too salty for your taste. If it's too salty, soak in cold water for 1hr. I reapply a layer of black pepper and allow the meat to rest to form a pellicle. Smoke with whatever wood you choose (I like apple and maple). Enjoy!

Pintail what kind of vacuum sealer do you have

food saver. I use the cheaper vac seal bags off amazon because they are cheaper.

Pintail, that bacon looks good, when's breakfeast?

If I can't have bacon, I'll take steak!