Bacon Cure Recipe

Add some sizzle to your homestead.

By LeeAnne Zwinkel
Updated on July 10, 2024
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by Adobestock/fudio

Add some sizzle to your homestead with a bacon cure recipe, bacon brine recipe, and ham brine recipe for smoking farm-raised pigs.

When we moved from a 16,000-square-foot lot to a 6-acre piece of property several years ago, one of the first things we decided to do was keep pigs.

We raise seasonal pigs, meaning we buy feeder piglets from a farmer and raise them for meat. We get Hampshires and Blue Butts, a Hampshire cross. They’re generally quite friendly and interested in people, and they dispose of food waste like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Raising our own pigs has allowed us to bring home the bacon, so to speak. I do, however, understand that raising pigs isn’t for everyone. Fortunately, people who want to make their own bacon without pig-rearing can buy slabs of reasonably priced pork belly at the grocery store.

The Brine

My own adventure into the world of home-cured bacon began many years ago with a cookbook a friend gave me: an entire book of bacon recipes, beginning with making your own bacon. The recipe called for rubbing the salts, sugars, and spices into the pork belly. You then put the belly into a sealable bag and into the refrigerator.

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