I’m trying to catch up with my back log of posts as I’ve mentioned before.

bacon-and-eggs Baconsilog – bacon, itlog (eggs) and sinangag (fried rice)

My sister and I have always wanted to make our own bacon given the fact that we love bacon for breakfast. I found a lot of recipes for making homemade bacon but really didn’t have the inclination to do it at home until I read Marketman’s account on making bacon. Last December, my sister and I set out to make not just one but 4x doing two variations – baked and smoked.

The recipe and procedure is basically from Saveur although I did modify the spices and herbs according to what was in our pantry then.bacon Pork belly and spices

Homemade Bacon

Spice/Herb rub for 1.5 kgs pork belly

2 1/2 tbsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1.5 tsp fennel seeds
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp dried thyme
2 laurel leaves
2 garlic cloves chopped finely
1 tsp paprika

Since I didn’t have a large space for curing the bacon, I chopped the pork belly into three blocks. Mix all the spice/herb rub together and cover the pork belly blocks with mixture. Wrap in plastic bag and refrigerate for a week. Turn over every other day. On the 7th day, wash pork belly and smoke for two hours. Trim edges then cut thinly and store.

To bake, after washing pork belly blocks, bake at 200 F for two hours.

So what do we prefer? I think baking the bacon is better than smoking as the smoke flavor tends to overpower the bacon flavor. In any case, both versions are delicious and will certainly often repeated at home.

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