Homemade Bacon That Will BLOW YOUR MIND! | Homemade Whisky Bacon
Homemade bacon is cheaper and better tasting than store bought. Also, you control the flavor and the thickness. Today, we make Apple Whisky Bacon, Honey-Blackberry Whisky Bacon, Smoked Pecan and Praline Whisky Bacon, Salted Caramel Whisky Bacon, Chipotle Whisky Bacon and Mule Kick Whisky Bacon (Jalapeño – Garlic – Black Peppercorn). This episode includes 14 Bacon Makin’ Pro Tips and an extra bonus Life Pro Tip!
Ingredients:
NOTE: This recipe is for a 5 lb pork belly. If you have a different weight, use the calculator at AmazingRibs.com to get the right amounts for your brine, then just substitute the water with your favorite flavored whisky!
5 pounds raw, skin off pork belly unsliced, about 1 1/2″ thick and 6 to 8″ wide across the grain
1 1/4 cup of your favorite flavored whisky
10 T dark brown sugar
2 1/3 T Morton coarse kosher salt
2 1/3 T ground black pepper
.83 t Prague Powder #1
Options If you are using a Jalapeño flavored whisky, or just want to add a jalapeño flavor to your bacon, add 2 dices jalapeños The same idea with dices chipotles in adobo. Add a tablespoon or two Experiment! As long as you get the first 6 ingredients correct, scaled for the size of your pork belly piece, the sky is the limit for customizing your own bacon.
1. Mix together the brine ingredients until the salt and brown sugar disolves.
2. Pour the brine into an appropriate sized Ziplock bag and add the pork belly.
3. Chuck that bag into the refrigerator and leave it for 5 days, agitating the bag and flipping it over each day.
4. The day before you some the bacon, remove the bag from the refrigerator, discard the brine and place the brined pork belly into a new ziplock bag and add enough distilled water to cover the pork belly. Place the bag back into the refrigerator for 1 hour.
5. Remove the bag from the fridge, pour out the water and replace with fresh water.
6. After another hour, remove the bag from the fridge, discard the water and place the brined pork belly on a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath and return it to the refrigerator until the next day.
7. Preheat your smoker to 210F.
8. Place the slabs of pork belly in the smoker and smoke until they hit an internal temperature of 165F (about 2-3 hours depending on your smoker and the outside temperature).
9. Remove the pork belly (now glorious bacon) from the smoker, allow to cool, then slice into strips the thickness you desire.
10. You now have your homemade bacon. Cook is as you would store bought. There will be much less grease popping than you are used to because you did not pump water into the pork belly to increase the weight. ENJOY!
Equipment used:
Yoder YS640 Smoker
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