I make bacon all the time we havent bought store bought bacon in a couple years. That said my recipe is very simple, 2% plain salt by weight, rub it on the meat, place it in a ziplock and stick it in the fridge, cure it 1 day per 1/4" of thickness, rinse pat dry and smoke

Have you tried utube? lots of stuff on there on bacon. Nitrates or not.
just

I make bacon all the time we havent bought store bought bacon in a couple years. That said my recipe is very simple, 2% plain salt by weight, rub it on the meat, place it in a ziplock and stick it in the fridge, cure it 1 day per 1/4" of thickness, rinse pat dry and smoke

Yes curing is just salt, and as far as smoking goes, that'll depend on your smoker, i've got my rig fugured out at, one stick of maple, and half a chimney of charcoal, and just let it go till it goes out, but thats my smoker , just smoke it on the cooler side until it gets a nice mahogany bark and you'll be pleased

Before you smoke anything without using nitrates for cure, look up botulism and how it works. Nitrates the goats blood you put above the door so death passes you by.

Before you smoke anything without using nitrates for cure, look up botulism and how it works. Nitrates the goats blood you put above the door so death passes you by.

I’m pretty sure ADC has done bacon like that.

An alternative viewpoint.........so do these articles that claim nitrate is good as long as the source is vegan and not meat............do they claim or prove that botulism spores don't go active in warm, moist anaerobic conditions found in hot and cold smokers? Or that nitrate does not prevent botulism spores from going active?

https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-making/meat-safety/botulism#google_vignette

Per 5#
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup kosher salt. Mix both together. I saved an old parmesan cheese shaker to apply.
Cut meat into sizes that will fit into 1-2 gallon ziplock bags. Coat all sides of the meat with mixture. Place in ziplock bags and rotate daily for 6-7 days. Take out and rinse. Leave overnight in fridge to dry and smoke the next day. I run the smoker around 200 deg until internal of 150 deg.

Apparently you can get the same results as nitrates by using celery or carrot juice.
Saw that on utube.
just

It might work.....since those vegetables have about 50X more nitrate in them than cured meat does.

Before I'd go too far down the road of smoking meats without cure, I'd suggest one ought to get a copy of this book and see what author has to say about smoking meats without cure........all 25+ pages of it. Botulism toxin.......the most potent form of food poison known to man?

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Sausage-Recipes-Curing-Fourth/dp/0578275228