Description
We take the bellies off the whole hogs we break down each week, trim them square, and dry-cure them with salt, brown sugar and black pepper for ten days in the walk-in. No injection, no phosphates, no water weight. After the cure they hang overnight to form a pellicle, then go into the cold smoker over post oak for eight hours.
Buy it as a slab and you control the cut. Chill the piece hard for twenty minutes before slicing and you can take clean quarter-inch lardons for beans or a thin breakfast slice off the same block. Start it in a cold dry pan over medium-low heat so the fat renders before the sugar in the cure catches.
Specification
- Made from: pork belly from our own whole-hog breakdown
- Cure: 10 days dry cure, no brine injection
- Smoke: cold-smoked 8 hours over Texas post oak
- Cut: unsliced slab, rind off
- Contains: pork, salt, sugar, black pepper, celery powder
Storage
Keep wrapped in butcher paper in the coldest part of the fridge and use within twelve days of opening. It freezes well for three months if you cut it into meal-size pieces first and wrap each one tight.
Dana R. (verified owner) –
Good product but saltier than I expected coming from a ten day dry cure. I soaked a few slices in water for fifteen minutes and that fixed it for my taste. The smoke level is spot on and I would buy it again knowing that.
Marissa T. (verified owner) –
I have stopped buying supermarket bacon entirely. There is no water in this, so the pan stays dry and the slices actually brown instead of steaming. I cut mine about a quarter inch for breakfast and the rest into lardons for pinto beans. The post oak smoke is present but it does not bully everything else on the plate.
J. Okafor (verified owner) –
Excellent bacon and the fat renders beautifully. My only note is that the slab is genuinely hard to slice evenly without a very sharp knife, so freeze it briefly first. Worth the effort for the price per pound compared to pre-sliced.