Years ago I visited a Polish deli and bought a slab of double-smoked pork belly, and I was done for. I sliced that smoked pork into little bits and added it to almost every meal until it ran out. I’ve been wanting to figure out how to make it ever since. One of the drivers for the construction of my cold-smoker was the idea of home-smoked bacon. But before I struck a match I had to learn how to make bacon.
Bacon-making was also a mystery to me, but it didn’t take very long to figure out how to make it. The basic principle is to cure the meat using salt, which will draw out the moisture, then to add some flavour or sweetness in the form of spices, honey or sugar. I’ve experimented with spices and such, but as usual I’ve ended up favouring the basic flavours, especially now that I use pork from pigs that have been raised well. I have a friend who’s a pig farmer and he raises a pig for me each year that I butcher myself. If you want good bacon, invest in an ethical pig farmer. There seems to be no shortage of those these days, which is a real victory for people who give a shit about the way their meat is raised.
A bit of effort goes into lighting the large smokehouse, so it’s best to smoke a bunch of stuff at once. Before I fire up mine, I like to have ready some cured trout, jalapeño chillies, pork belly, sausages, pork loin and even some garlic. It is, after all, the practiculture approach.