How to Make Bacon: Maple Cured Bacon, With or Without a Smoker! (2024)

Learn how to make bacon from scratch in a smoker, oven, or grill. Curing bacon at home is a great way to make bacon better than ever with this maple bacon recipe.

How to Cure and Smoke Bacon at Home

Is it possible to make bacon even better? That might seem like a ridiculous question, but homemade bacon is indeed superior to the already delicious store-bought stuff! And while waiting out the curing takes some patience, I think you’ll find the overall process to be surprisingly simple.

It Starts with Pork Belly

The first step in your bacon journey is getting your hands on some pork belly. While it’s not a common ingredient, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. If your grocery store doesn’t have it, your butcher definitely should. Pork belly is also common in Asian dishes, so check out your local Asian market if necessary.

Pork belly is sometimes sold with the hard outer skin on, but you’ll want a piece without the skin. It’s not too difficult to remove, but definitely ask your butcher to slice it off if possible. Not only is it more convenient that way, but you won’t be paying for the weight of the skin.

A Note on Pink Curing Salt

The first of our two major steps is curing, and this calls for pink curing salt, also known as Prague Powder #1. Curing salt (which is not the same as pink Himalayan salt) keeps fat from going rancid and protects against bacteria like botulism.

However, many people hesitate to use curing salt because it contains nitrates, which produce nitrites during the curing process. Nitrites have been linked to cancer by some studies. I can’t speak on the safety of consuming cured meats, but I will point out that my recipe below includes only a very small amount of curing salt - less than 1 teaspoon.

If you would like to omit pink curing salt, that’s definitely okay. After all, your bacon will be hot smoked to a safe temperature rather than cold smoked. As long as you refrigerate and freeze it just as you would any other meat, it will be perfectly fine. Just note that your bacon won’t be the typical pink color without it, and will instead be more dull and gray (imagine the color of a cooked pork loin, for example).

How to Smoke Bacon Without a Dedicated Smoker

So, you really want some homemade bacon, but you don’t have a smoker. No worries, where there’s a will, there’s a way! Here are a few alternatives:

1. If you’ve got a charcoal grill, you can set it up for indirect heat. This is done by positioning your hot coals and wood opposite of your meat.
2. You can also set up a gas grill for indirect smoking, so long as it has multiple burners.
3. While using an oven is not traditional and you will miss out on that authentic smoked flavor and color, I’m sure the final product would still be delicious. You can use a small amount of liquid smoke or even smoked salt to make up for the real thing.

Whatever you do, don’t try to finish your bacon at a high temperature. You don’t want to render away the fat, nor do you want a charred or heavily cooked exterior. Low-n-slow smoking will give a nice mahogany color and maintain that delicious fat.

Maple Bacon Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 lb. slab of pork belly, without skin
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 teaspoon pink curing salt (Prague Powder #1)
• 1/2 cup distilled water

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients other than pork belly in a bowl and mix together.
2. Pour mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and add the pork belly. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing, then mix around the liquid so that the belly is completely covered.
3. Place the bag on a baking dish to catch possible leaks, and allow it to cure in the refrigerator for 1 week, flipping it over and moving around the liquid each day.
4. After bacon is done curing, remove it from the bag, give it a rinse to remove excess salt, and pat it dry.
5. Smoke at 200-225° F until bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150° F. This should take 2-3 hours depending on your smoker’s temperature and the thickness of the pork belly.
6. Refrigerate bacon to cool completely before slicing.

I really hope you’ll give this recipe a go. It’s a great introduction to both curing and smoking meat without being overly complicated. And you might just make the best bacon you’ve had in your life!

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