Your bacon curing kit contains enough cure to make 4kg of bacon. The following recipe is based on making 1kg of bacon at a time, so you will only require half a pot of cure (40g) per batch.
Preparation Time: Approx 30 minutes
Curing Time: 7 Days
Curing Kit Contents
1 x 80g Fennel & Lemon Pepper Bacon Cure
1 x 80g Smokey Hickory Bacon Cure
2 x 60cm of muslin mutton cloth
2 x curing bags
4 x plastic gloves
What you will need in addition to the kit (not included)
4 x 1kg of pork. Only 1kg of pork is required per batch. Use belly pork for streaky or pork loin for back bacon.
Sharp knife
Kitchen roll
Wire rack
Home Curing Instructions
Visit your local butcher for 1kg of either belly pork or pork loin, depending on the type of bacon you want to make. Preferably with the bones and rind removed. If you let them know its for making bacon they should be able to find you the right piece.
Wash your hands thoroughly, put on a glove and place the pork into a plastic curing bag. Pour in 40g (half a pot) of your chosen cure and massage into the meat to ensure the cure has covered the whole piece of meat. Seal the bag ensuring that there is no air left in the bag.
Place the bag in the fridge and leave undisturbed for two days. Turn the bag over and leave for a further two days in the fridge.
After four days in the cure you will notice the meat will have slightly firmed up. Put on a glove, remove from the bag and rinse the pork under a cold running tap. Discard the plastic bag.
Dry the meat with a few pieces of kitchen towel, ensuring most of the moisture is soaked up.
Take a piece of the mutton cloth and place the meat inside, folding the edges underneath.
Place a wire wrack on a shelf in the fridge and place the wrapped pork on the rack. Leave undisturbed in the fridge for three days.
Unwrap the mutton cloth and slice off the required amount of bacon with a sharp knife. Cook and enjoy. Congratulations, you’ve made bacon!
Re-wrap the remaining bacon in the muslin and keep in the fridge for 4-6 days. Slice as you go. You can also slice the bacon and freeze to use at your convenience.
Tips
If you like your bacon more salty you can leave it in the cure for an extra day.
The mutton cloth can be cleaned in the washing machine and re-used to make another batch with the remaining cure.
If the cure is ingested directly from the pot, please seek medical advice straight away.
Store out of reach of children.
FAQ’S
Q. Does the kit include pork?
A. No, you will require 1kg of pork belly or pork loin per 40g of bacon cure.
Q. How much bacon can I make from the cures provided with the tube.
A. Our ‘Make Your Own Bacon Home Curing Tube’ contains 2 x 80g of cure. Each 80g tub is enough for 2kg of bacon. Instructions provided are based on producing 1kg of bacon per batch.
Q. There is enough cure for four x 1kg batches of bacon, but only two curing bags and two pieces of muslin mutton cloth?
A. We’ve provided everything you need to get started and make a batch of each flavour cure. The muslin mutton cloth can be washed in the washing machine on a low temperature and reused. The curing bags can also be thoroughly washed and reused.
Q. Bacon is easier to make than I thought! Do you sell the cures on their own?
A. Potassium Nitrate is used in the majority of curing salts to preserve meats such as salami, sausage, chorizo and bacon.
Experiment
Once you are confident with the basic bacon curing process you can experiment a little.
We have previously left the meat in the cure for an extra couple of days and added black treacle into the mix for the extra 2 days (see image on the left).
You can also do the same with marmite which will give the bacon an rich umami flavour. The darker colour of the treacle or marmite penetrate the meat and start to colour it.
