Charcuterie_ The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing - Michael Ruhlman [17]
Variations on the cure are simple. Add maple syrup or maple sugar for sweeter bacon (see below). Or, if you like a more savory bacon, add smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, and plenty of cracked black pepper. Go a little further in the savory direction with juniper berries, herbs, and nutmeg, and you’ll have pancetta on your hands (see the recipe following this one). Generally, if you intend to slice your bacon and cook it in strips, the sweeter cure is better. If you intend to use the bacon for a variety of other preparations (lardons in a coq au vin or frisée salad, chunks in a tomato sauce, julienne in a carbonara), you may want to take your cure in the more savory direction.
A final note: This recipe calls for dredging the belly in the salt cure so that all sides are evenly and well coated, no matter what the shape or weight of the belly is. If your belly weighs between 3 and 5 pounds/1.5 and 2.25 kilograms, it’s fine to simplify the method by placing the belly in the Ziploc bag, adding 1⁄4 cup/30 grams of dry cure along with whatever additional sugar and seasonings of your choice, closing the bag and shaking it to distribute the ingredients. It’s no more complicated than that.
One 3- to 5-pound/1.5- to 2.25-kilogram slab pork belly, skin on
Basic Dry Cure (page 39) as necessary for dredging (about 1⁄4 cup/50 grams)
OPTIONAL
For sweeter bacon, add 1⁄2 cup/125 milliliters maple syrup or 1⁄2 cup/125 grams maple sugar or packed dark brown sugar; for more savory bacon, add 5 smashed cloves of garlic, 3 crushed bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon/10 grams black peppercorns, partially cracked with the bottom of a heavy pan or side of a knife
1. Trim the belly so that its edges are neat and square. Spread the dry cure on a baking sheet or in a container large enough to accommodate the belly. Press all sides of the belly into the cure to give it a thick uniform coating over the entire surface.
2. Place the belly in a 2-gallon/8-liter Ziploc bag or a covered nonreactive container just large enough to hold it. The pork will release a lot of liquid as it cures, and it’s important that the meat and the container are a good fit so that the cure remains in contact with the meat. The salty cure liquid that will be released, water leached from the pork by the salt, must be allowed to surround the meat for continuous curing. The plastic bag allows you to redistribute the cure (technically called overhauling) without touching the meat, which is cleaner and easier. Refrigerate the belly for 7 days, flipping the bag or meat to redistribute the cure liquid every other day.
3. After 7 days, check the belly for firmness. If it feels firm at its thickest point, it’s cured. One week should be enough time to cure the bacon, but if it still feels squishy, refrigerate it for up to 2 more days. (Belly from a factory-raised hog may be thin, only an inch/2.5 centimeters or so; belly from a farm-raised hog, always preferable, may be as thick as 3 inches/7.5 centimeters.) The thicker the belly, the longer it will take to cure.
4. Remove the belly from the cure, rinse it thoroughly, and pat it dry with paper towels; discard the curing liquid. It can rest in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3 days at this point.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F./93º degrees C.
6. Put the belly in a roasting pan, preferably on a rack for even cooking, and roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F./65 degrees C., about 2 hours; begin taking its temperature after 11⁄2 hours. It will have an appealing roasted appearance and good aroma, and it will feel firm to the