Cooking with Jonny69: Home cured bacon

[Jonny69]

Recently one of my friends had a crack at some home cured bacon and I was so impressed with the way it came out and how simple it is to do, I wondered why I'd never done this before. The curing process is quite simple: you take a slab of meat, rub it with salt and sugar and leave it to cure. You repeat this a few times over the course of a few days and then it's done.

I started with a nice chunk of free range belly of pork from the supermarket. This piece is about 600g and cost just over £3:





The rub is quite a simple mix, two parts salt to one part dark brown sugar and for extra flavour I've added ground peppercorns and a little coriander seed. You can also use juniper berries, honey or whatever takes your fancy. Here is about 6 tablespoons of salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar and teaspoon each of peppercorns and coriander seed ground together:



In a non metallic container (I've used a roasting dish) rub the meat generously on the skin side:



Flip it over and repeat on the bottom and sides:



Leave it skin side down, cover and put it in the fridge:



Tomorrow I will come back to this when I repeat the rub. This first cure should draw liquid out the meat which I will tip away and repeat the rubbing, then after 3-4 rubs it's ready to dry off and it'll keep for a few weeks in the fridge