All meat lovers love bacon, right? So why not learn how to make your own bacon from home! To have your favorite flavors and the thickness you enjoy the most, all while saving money in the long run. Yes, this may take up some extra space in your fridge and freezer but I would have to say it’s worth it.
Where we got our meat
We got our 9lb pork belly from Costco. At the time it was under 30$ but this does vary. You do want to buy the skin off pork belly unless you want to make your own pork rinds, then that’s a perfect thing to use later on if you are wanting to be more creative with your cooking.
Prepping the meat
I did trim some of the fat off if you desire to, I didn’t take too much off of ours but we did take a little off. And if you did decide to get some with skin on, this is where you would take off the skin. Some local butchers do leave the skin on or you can request it left on.
I cut it into thirds to try different flavors to see which one me and my family enjoyed the most.
I weighed out each one using my large Cabela’s food scale. You can buy a similar scale on Amazon here.
I got three 3lbs of pork belly after cutting and separating.
TUFFIOM Scale 220lbs.
Nicewell Food Scale 22lbs.
LEVIN Food Scale 33lbs.
Sausage Meat maker
We ordered the variety pack but you can order singles and or bigger tubs and decide which flavors are your favorites.
I did the dry rub but you can cure it using the same cure in a liquid brine if you so desired.
I weighed each flavor out on my small food scale. I rubbed the cure on the slabs evenly and made sure I used all the seasoning. I pre-measured the amounts for each meat.
Curing The Meat
Put them in a 1-gallon zip lock bag or any other airtight container to help prevent leaks. I left them in the fridge and flipped the bag’s bottom side up once daily rubbing the meat through the bag for 4-5 days. Seeing liquid in the bottom of the bag is normal. Remember you are drawing the moisture out of the meat with the cure. And the meat should start becoming more firm as the days go on.
I did leave mine in 7 days because my family and I had gotten so busy. But directions do say 4-5 days. This could be the reasoning behind some of the extra saltiness to some of the flavors but not sure yet.
On the last day, I took it out of the bags and rinsed it thoroughly, scrubbing off any salty residue. Put the meat in non-chlorinated water for 6-12 hours. I personally did 12.
After the 12 hours were up, I pulled it out of the water, dried it, and let it sit on the counter for around an hour. At this point, you should add any extra seasoning you may want, honey, maple, black pepper, or any other seasonings.
The Cooking Of The Meat
I pre-heated my Bradly Smoker up to 120 degrees and used alternating smoke wood pucks between hickory and apple and then I smoked it for 2 hours. And then bumped it up to 130 for 2 hours and bumped it up again to 140 and then moderated until the internal temp reached 125, which for me was about 6 and a half hours total. So another 2 and half hours or so.
Then pulled it off and cooled it off by letting it sit on the counter and had to slice some up to pan fry and finish cooking for me and my family to sample! A quarter-inch thick is how we like it but you can cut it to the thickness of choice.
Ending Thoughts For Cooking Bacon From Home
Please note* While it has been smoked, it is not fully cooked. So you still need to cook it like any other store-bought bacon. But this one tastes better!
At this point, if you did not slice it up to eat it you can vacuum seal it and freeze it to make it last longer. In the refrigerator, it should last up to 2-3 weeks.
The Honey flavor is our family’s favorite, it did turn out to be the least salty.
So overall I would rate making bacon at home well worth the time and everyone who tasted it said the flavor is well above store-bought bacon. More fresh, more flavorful. And I personally like knowing what’s in my bacon and all my food for that matter.
So please consider taking the time and making your own fresh smoked bacon from home!
We were a little apprehensive at first when our daughter came home and informed us that she needed to pick a project for earth day. I am the type of dad that wants to come up with something totally awesome without having it be too difficult. We tossed around ideas such as recycling and having a more eco friendly house. At the time we were juicing fruits and vegetables and we had a ton of pulp left over from the process. That is when we asked the question, “How can we get rid of these scraps in an eco friendly way?” Then it hit us, composting kitchen waste with worms! We had to at least give it a try. One quick Google search and we were in business! Ordering was a breeze and I don’t know if there is anything as fun as getting worms in the mail! I was a little skeptical at first how this was going to work. In my brain I was still trying to figure out all the details such as housing, bedding, feeding and were they going to smell?!
Composting worms easier than we thought!
As it turned out it was super straightforward and surprisingly easy composting with worms. Using a few common household items we had a worm haven in a little over an hour. All we needed were 2 Rubbermaid containers for housing, a common household lamp, some old news paper for bedding and some common table scraps for food. Done right, you can get rid off all your table scraps and never leave the house! We have long cold winters and short summers here in Colorado and a year round outdoor compost pile is harder to manage. By starting a worm compost indoors it saves on space in your garbage can and the product the worms produce is great to help fertilize plants and give them extra nutrients. The worms quickly adapt to the amount of food you feed them. They will grow in numbers as you feed them over time. Let’s get this show on the road so we can get your worms coming!!!
Items Needed
–Two Rubbermaid containers– one shallow tub ( the kind you slide under your bed, and one taller Rubbermaid container with a lid that is roughly 18 gallons. You can always adjust your tub size to accommodate the space in your house. You just have to make sure the tall tub fits inside the shallow tub.
Bricks– We used 4 bricks but this will depend on your compost size. You are going to place the bricks under your tall tub in the shallow tub.
A drill– We will be drilling some holes in the tall Rubbermaid.
Shredded Newspapers– We shredded ours with a paper shredder we owned but you can cut your paper with scissors or get it from a friend or business around where you live.
Spray Bottle– This is only needed to spray the newspaper to get it damp before placing the worms.
Leaves or dry grass– We mixed a little organic matter in with the newspaper so the worms had a variety of wet and dry food.
Compost – We used all of our left over fruit and veggie scraps.
First we took the tall Rubbermaid and drilled holes in the sides and bottom. Approx. 3-4 holes per side and 6-8 on the bottom depending on your tub size. ( We drilled too many holes in ours)
Add your newspaper and organic matter (i.e. leaves, dry grass) to the tub.
Use spray bottle to wet the mixture until it is very damp but not wet or too soggy.
Once they arrived we let them acclimate for two days then added food under the news paper (I feel that it works better if you use a layer of dirt to cover the paper, we didn’t do this the first time, but after that we did and it worked much better. It also helps eliminate smells and insects). Then you mentally divide the box in small sections to do a seven day food rotation. Start in one corner placing food in only one “plot” of the container per day. If you get back to the first plot after seven days and can still make out what kind of food is there, you should hold off on feeding them for a couple of days. If, on the other hand, you can’t tell what is in there, continue to add more food.
Type’s of food for the worms.
Any carbon based material such as newspaper (not the slick paper with adds and lots of ink), card board, regular printer paper (all that shredded paper work can now be composted), and even wood shavings.
Most kitchen scraps are good especially fruit and vegetable prep scraps. Avoid meats, and high acidic food (orange and lemon rinds).
After sixty to ninety days all the bedding and the food to that point should be ready to be used in the garden.
The migration of worms is a little more in depth, and can be done in a few ways. The way we did it was to feed them in one spot. Then pick them out the best we could. You want get them all but they repopulate pretty quickly. The other way is with stackable trays. You can purchase cool ones on Amazon or you could build one with the kids.
Our Experience with Composting with Worms
Overall, composting with worms was easy and really enjoyable. It is my favorite way to compost so far. We have a outside compost pile as well. But to keep the carbon and nitrogen ratio right and keep it working all winter is hard for me.
Do you have a fun way to compost? let me know! -Ky
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