Home Cured Bacon - salt

Method

• Crush the juniper berries and bay leaves with a tablespoon of the salt in a mortar and pestle.
• Mix all the cure ingredients together.
• Trim your pork belly, if needed.
• Remove any hairs and nipples.
• (I know, kinda gross, but most butchers will do it for you unless you prefer things on the more rustic side.)
• Take a few handfuls of your cure and liberally rub the pork belly so its covered in the mixture.
• Place in a tupperware container or any other non-metallic container and place in the fridge for 24 hours.
• After 24 hours, remove from the fridge and drain the liquid the salt has forced from the meat.
• Add a few more handfuls of cure.
• Repeat this for two more days.
• On the fourth day, remove the bacon from the fridge and rinse all traces of the cure and spices.
• At this point, you can cut slices or you can hang it for 24-72 hours in a cool dark place.
• Since I favour instant gratification, I skip this step and slice the sucker up.
• Mmmm.
• You can experiment with the spices and sweet agent.
• Add maple syrup if you want, or smoked paprika if you like a smoked taste.
• Maybe some cumin or cayenne if you want to spice things up a bit.
• The world is your oyster ...
• I mean piglet.