Daughters Bacon - 2016.06.17

Last night on the way home from work I stopped at the local Costco in Wilsonville Oregon and bought a 10 1/2 lb pork belly and  a twin-pack of Swift Premium pork shoulder roasts.  After dinner I helped my daughter Willow get the pork belly in the cure.  She used the following recipe:

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 1-1/2 tsp pink curing salt
• 1/2 cup coarse Malabar pepper

This was the same recipe we used 3 weeks ago.  She added two  additional things:

• 1/3 cup of Lawry's Sweet Basil, Citrus & Garlic rub
• 1/4 cup minced/dried onions.

She mixed the ingredients in a stainless steel bowl.  She split the pork belly into roughly 3 equal pieces, each placed in a 1 gallon storage bag.  Willow placed 1/4 cup of rub on each side of each piece of pork belly.  She sealed each and double-bagged each piece of pork belly and placed it in the garage refrigerator.  This will will spend the next 6 days curing. 

Prior to smoking the pork to create bacon, I think we will try something a little different.  After rinsing the belly to remove the extreme saltiness, we will mix a brown sugar/pepper dry rub.  We have been trying to create a pepper style bacon.  The flavor of the cure works well but the flavor of the pepper doesn't make it through the process to the meat.