Hey, Rat Rock Nation. Carl Craft here. Every now and then I drop a line or two on air that might have tipped you off to the fact that I love smoking stuff on my smoker on the back porch. Lately, I learned how to make bacon at home. Turns out, it’s delicious. While the process is time consuming, it’s really not that hard. And the finished product is light years better than store bought bacon. Anyone can make bacon at home if they have the tools and time. Here’s how I did it.
How You Can Make Bacon At Home
A few simple things are required to make bacon at home. The process does require one very important thing as well. The important thing is some kind of grill or smoker on which you can maintain a low temperature. A while ago I bought a pellet smoker and I use that for all my low-and-slow smoking. You could make bacon on a BBQ grill using briquets or a offset smoker. Just make sure that, whatever you use, you can keep the temp low for the cooking and smoking of the bacon.
Other than that piece of equipment, you’ll need some, “Prague Powder No. 1” and something to seal the stuff as it sits in your fridge. Some people use zip lock bags for that process, but I use a vacuum sealer from a company called Food Saver. As a single dad, I use my Food Saver multiple times a week when I buy in bulk and freeze things for later use. It works great for making bacon at home so I was pretty stoked to use it for this awesome project.
All the other stuff that went into making the bacon came out of my pantry: sugar, paprika, pepper, salt… that’s pretty much it. Oh, except for that “Prague Powder No. 1”. That’s curing salt. I couldn’t find it in any of my local grocery stores so I had to order it from that A to Z place.
Once you’ve got all your ingredients, including the Prague Powder No. 1 you’re off to the races. Up first, cure the meat in the spice mix for a week or so, then rinse and pat dry. Leave it in the fridge one night and then drop it on the smoker until it it’s 150 degrees or so. Let the smoked meat cool, then pop it in the freezer for ten minutes or so. That will make it easier to slice.
Have a look at the pictures below and let me know if you’ve tried this at home as well!
