# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  Homemade no nitrite bacon

## gordy

Bacon bought from the stores can have some nasty cancer causing preservatives in them as with hams.
So to avoid those nasties, you can easily make your own, better tasting healthier bacon yourself.

Get your butcher to cut you a 2.5 kilo (5lbs) of pork belly slab with skin on.

Rub in a third of a cup of salt (rubbing salt or kosher) into the meat side with the skin side down.
Put the pork belly into a glass baking dish with a bamboo mat suspending it off the bottom of the dish.
The bacon slab will release it's water as it cures in the fridge, so it needs to be suspended above the moisture.
You can flavor the bacon with herbs, treacle, maple syrup, the flavors will absorb into the meat as it cures.

Cover the meat and put in the fridge, check each day, rub a little more salt, and drain of water from the bottom of the dish.

After four days rinse off excess salt, slow cook the meat at 100C or 200 F for 2.5 hours. If you have a smoker, smoke it with some hickory.

Smoked meat can be unhealthy too, so the alternative is just oven cooking with smoke flavoring.
This home made bacon tastes better than that slimy store bought bacon, and it's healthier.

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## LowKey

Most true bacon is cold smoked, not cooked. Your method cooks the pork belly.
You also want to cure the whole thing, skin side too.
You can use a non-nitrite cure in cold smoke for bacon but you better do it when the weather is chilly enough to keep the meat from spoiling in the smoker but warm enough it doesn't freeze. After cold smoking, you have to freeze it to keep it. I've done this with salt and brown sugar as a cure, finished with an 8 hour cold maple smoke. It was a long time ago though.

edit: actually maybe more than 8 hours. It was a loooong time ago.

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## crashdive123

I like bacon just fine the way I buy it.  I do not share your concerns regarding preservatives.  If it weren't for all of the preservatives I've ingested, I might have spoiled a long time ago.

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## Rick

I, too, ascribe to the two basic food groups; sweets and preservatives.

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## rwc1969

I like the idea of no nitrites, my sausage and jerky book prescribes against their use.

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## gordy

> I like bacon just fine the way I buy it.  I do not share your concerns regarding preservatives.  If it weren't for all of the preservatives I've ingested, I might have spoiled a long time ago.


Well when your prostate pokes it's head out and grows a cancer, eat some more nitrite bacon, it's delicious.

You deserve all the nitrite bacon you can eat.  :dissolve: 

But for all those who have an open mind and would like another bacon alternative, this thread is for you.

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## crashdive123

> Well when your prostate pokes it's head out and grows a cancer, eat some more nitrite bacon, it's delicious.
> 
> You deserve all the nitrite bacon you can eat. 
> 
> But for all those who have an open mind and would like another bacon alternative, this thread is for you.


Wow - pretty pissy when somebody disagrees with you huh?

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## Rick

I've been checking on this (and need I remind anyone I'm Minister of Science) and I'll need a source on that prostate head thingie. If my prostate has a head I don't think bacon is going to be much of a concern. 

My brother is going to have a heyday with this one. 

"This is my brother Rick and this is my other brother Rick." 

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## gordy

> I like the idea of no nitrites, my sausage and jerky book prescribes against their use.


There's a lot of new studies that are against nitrites, simply because of the very high carcinogenic ranking they have.

People are returning to the older more natural preserving methods, which makes sense.

This method is easy and doesn't have nitrites, and tastes way superior to store bought bacon IMHO.

It is cheaper as well.

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## gordy

> Wow - pretty pissy when somebody disagrees with you huh?


Yeah, I did put some pi$$ on that reply crash, sorry man.

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## Rick

You are right, Gordy. Nitrates and bacon have been linked for some time and the problems nitrates can cause are also pretty well researched. But.......it's bacon (sob).

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## theswimmer

I have not eaten commercial bacon or ham in many years.
My grandfather taught me to cure and smoke meat (among many other things) when I was a kid.
I picked up a few tricks from my moms 90+yo neighbor along the way. Mom lives in the outback of Georgia.....
I now have a brick smoker that you can stand upright inside of.
I make bacon and ham from the pigs my friends shoot and we all share.
California has a bad wild pig problem so we are never short for 'The other white meat'.
I can't eat store ham, it is just plain nasty.

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## Cousin-IT

........my doctor said i can't eat any bacon anymore, and i haven't for 6 months...... so shut up! >.<

.........now how exactly do you "cold smoke"? and how long does the stuff last?

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## 1stimestar

Nitrates also cause problems for those affected with gout.

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## tipacanoe

In New England, Hannaford sells a nitrate free bacon, it is thick sliced and is the only bacon that we have found that my wife can eat and not have problems after eating it, with her breathing.  It is about $5.50 for 12 ounces, and darn tasty.

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## LowKey

Get yourself a "Putting Foods By" book. There's a whole chapter on cold smoking in there from prepping the meat to building the smoker.

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## hunter63

> Nitrates also cause problems for those affected with gout.


You are correct, but as a practicing gout avoid-er (if I can), kinda coming back from a round now....seems to be more of a matter of moderation.
There are so many foods on the "do not eat list" seems the only safe foods are oatmeal and Snicker's bars, which I mentioned in jest to my DR, and she agreed.

Local store out here at 'The Place" had some nitrate free bacon, and man it sucked.....I'm thinking it was just "Raw" not cured, but anyway it sucked.

So moderation is my Mantra

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