For years I have been researching about the history and the process of naturally curing pork, and I have done a lot of experimenting as well. My family has been happy to be my guinea pigs. One of the problems with our naturally cured bacon in the past was the fact that it was way too salty. We like salty bacon, but this was too much even for us. Lately I have really been praying for wisdom in this, and I believe that recently my eyes were opened to the fact that, thanks to freezers, I don’t have to hang this bacon from the ceiling when it’s done like they did in the old days. In other words we don’t have to get all the moisture out to prevent mold and spoilage due to room temperature storage. We can treat it like a fresh meat. This allows me to shorten up the cure time. Actually instead of cure, let’s simply call it an old-fashioned, salted pork belly, because technically we can’t call anything cured unless it uses commercial nitrates/nitrites. Even celery powder, a natural source of nitrites is not considered a “cure.” For most of history these commercial cures weren’t even used, but that’s a story for another day.

You might be thinking, “What about the risk of botulism? Isn’t that why we use the nitrites?” I have done a lot of research on this too, and I’m not convinced of the risk, but this is my own personal conviction. The owner of the Farmstead Meatsmith said something like this, I have never found a case of someone dying of botulism from meat. You can check him out here. He has a little different process that results in a saltier product, but many people love it. I do want to confess that I’m not an expert in this. I’m simply sharing what we do and why we do it. We live in a fallen world and there’s going to be risks with anything we produce or buy. I must only encourage you to pray and do your own research.

While we all need to weigh the risks/benefits of what we do, I’m comfortable with this process, because I’m not breaking any rules. First my fresh meat is kept in the refrigerator for five days, which is an acceptable time frame for fresh meat. Second, I either smoked this while it was cold like a refrigerator outside for several hours or in my commercial smoker which cooked the meat, or at least it did until my commercial smoker caught on fire (a little too much multi-tasking on my part). You can see our recent set-up in the picture below. We used dry maple wood. You definitely want to use a fruit wood or something that won’t make the product toxic if you are using your own wood.

The last bacon that I made for my family turned out fantastic, and I have to say that I found out today that it’s really important to follow all the recommendations in order to have an easy and delightful product. Leaving it even for a day too long or not freezing it long enough before slicing it could cause the bacon to be too salty or give you a headache as you fight to slice the belly. The process of making bacon naturally, taught me that having a good plan in place, and establishing a good routine helped the process to become easier each time. It also taught me that I don’t need expensive equipment to do this. The bacon that turned out the best was done over our fire pit and the belly was held up by several green mulberry sticks. While it does make it easier to have a meat slicer, many people use a knife. I plan to share more of this knowledge with you as time permits. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Have you made your own bacon?