How to Make Hickory Maple Pepper Bacon From Scratch

The only thing that’s better than bacon is HOMEMADE bacon! You need only a few ingredients, time to cure it, and an oven!

This post is being sponsored by my friends at Hoosier Hill Farm featuring their amazing Prague Powder No.1 (Pink Curing Salt) and Hickory Smoke Powder. As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting partnerships with brands I trust and believe in.

Bacon Makes Everything Better

Bacon is one of those things that most of us love. It’s salty, crunchy, and pretty much goes with every food group.

I read a quote once that I found true, “bacon is the duct tape of food.” whoever said it first, is 100% correct!

Grab Your Ingredients

This recipe is super simple and really only requires a few ingredients but 2 of the ingredients are specific and you can’t skip them.

• Pork Belly – skin removed
• Hoosier Hill Pink Curing Salt
• Hoosier Hill Hickory Smoke Powder (as we’re making this in a home oven)
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper (please use fresh cracked)
• Light Brown Sugar
• Maple Syrup

2 Must-Use Ingredients

Prague Powder No.1 (Pink Curing Salt) and Hickory Smoke Powder are an absolute must in this recipe.

• Pink curing salt – this is an essential food preservative used for curing meats that use a wet-cure process. Prague Powder No. 1 is used not only in curing bacon but also in sausages, fish, jerky, ham, pastrami and so forth.
• Hickory Smoke Powder – Because we are making this in the oven, you need to add this to give it that smoked flavor that we all love about bacon. This stuff is bold in flavor and truly so versatile. You’d use this anywhere you’d use liquid smoke flavoring. You get an amazing natural smoke flavor.

Prep The Pork Belly

1. In a bowl, whisk together the seasoning mixture. Slice the pork belly in half (so it’s small enough to fit into two separate 2-gallon size sealed plastic bags.
2. Coat the pork belly on all sides, seal up the bags, place the bags in a rimmed dish/container, and place it in the fridge for 7 days.
3. Each day, flip the bags over, massage the mixture around, and place it back in the fridge.

Rinse & Return To The Fridge

After Day 7, you’ll want to open up the bags, rinse the pork belly underwater, and then pat them dry. The next step will require you to place the cured pork belly onto a rimmed baking pan with a cooling rack placed inside. This whole thing, uncovered will go back into the fridge for 24-48 hours.

You want to develop the pellicle. This is when the surface of the pork belly turns tacky. It’s essentially a skin or coating of proteins that allows smoke to better adhere to meat during the smoking process. It’s not so much relevant in this recipe UNLESS you’re following my smoking directions below

To The Oven

Most bacon is made in a smoker but you can make equally amazing bacon at home, using your home oven IF you use this recipe and the ingredients used.

After 24-48 hours, turn on your home oven, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the belly, and pop the whole thing into the oven. You want to cook it until the internal temp reads 155.

Remove it from the oven, cool completely, vacuum seal the pork belly (or place it in airtight plastic bags), and place it into the fridge overnight. Now you don’t have to do this part if you are planning on cooking it all right away.

Personally, I find it a million times easier to chill or even partially freeze the meat before slicing. I used a carving blade but I do plan on buying a small meat slicer to get more even and uniform cuts.

Smoker Instructions

To make your bacon in the smoker, follow all of the recipe instructions but stop at the part where it talks about putting it in the oven.

1. After it’s rested for 24 hours in the fridge, heat the smoker to 200F with a fruity wood.
2. Place the pork belly on the top rack with the fat cap up (place a tin pan underneath it to catch the fat/drippings to help with clean up.
3. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part and smoke until the internal temp reaches 155F.
4. Remove from the smoker, cool it completely before placing in a vacuum-sealed bag/airtight plastic bag to chill in the fridge overnight.

How to Make Hickory Maple Pepper Bacon From Scratch

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The only thing that’s better than bacon is HOMEMADE bacon! You need only a few ingredients, time to cure it, and an oven!

• Author: Lori
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 2-3 hours
• Total Time: 3 hours
• Yield: about 100 slices of bacon
• Category: curing meat, homemade bacon, bacon in the oven
• Method: oven, smoker
• Cuisine: bacon, appetizer, pork

Ingredients

• 10 pounds pork belly, skin removed
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup sea salt
• 2 Tablespoons freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 1/4 teaspoons Hoosier Hill Pink Curing Salt
• 1 teaspoon Hoosier Hill Hickory Smoke Powder
• 1/3 cup real maple syrup, divided

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Instructions

1. In a bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar, sea salt, pepper, pink curing salt, and hickory smoke powder. Slice the pork belly in half (so it’s small enough to fit into two separate 2-gallon-sized sealed plastic bags.
2. Place the pork belly on a rimmed baking sheet and evenly divide the seasoning mix so it coats all sides of the pork belly. Place each pork belly into a plastic bag and pour half of the maple syrup into each bag. Seal the bags tight and give them a few rubs to ensure that the maple syrup is coating it.
3.  Place the bags in a rimmed dish/container and place it in the fridge for 7 days. Each day, flip the bags over, massage the mixture around, and place it back in the fridge.
4. On day 7, remove the bags from the fridge, remove from the bags and rinse with water. Pat each dry and place them on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a cooling rack back in the fridge for 24 hours. Make sure it’s uncovered.
5. The next day, preheat the oven to 225. Remove the bacon and pan from the fridge, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat, and place directly in the oven. Bake until the internal temp reads 155F. This should take ~2-3 hours.
6. Remove from the oven, remove the meat thermometer, and allow to cool completely. If you have one, place each pork belly into a vacuum-sealed bag and place them into the fridge to chill overnight. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, you can just place it into a clean plastic bag that seals shut.
7. The next day, slice up your bacon (it’s best if it’s ice cold to slice by hand), cook what you want, and freeze the rest.

Notes

*The yield of your bacon will vary with how thick/thin you slice your bacon. On average you will get 10-20 slices of bacon per pound

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