Uncured Bacon and The Cure

Local Farms Sell Uncured Bacon, What Do You Do With It?

We cooked the uncured bacon for breakfast, it tasted like a pork chop. NOT what we are used to having for breakfast.

I searched the internet for how to cure bacon at home, and couldn’t find any simple recipes.

So, I finally broke down and asked Stanley Fishman, the author of Tender Grassfed Meat cookbook to help me out with a recipe for curing my own bacon. This is what he came up with, and it works like gangbusters!

The Cure for Blah Bacon –Apple Garlic Brine

3 cups water

1 cup apple juice (I used cider) or 1 cup peeled apples, liquified in a blender

3 TBL Coarse Sea Salt (I use 2 now, because this came out a little too salty for our taste)

4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed (my farmers market garlic was two potent, so I cut back to 3 here)

1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed

Stir above together until the salt dissolves. Pour over bacon slices in a deep casserole dish. Let marinate overnight.

Bacon in the Brine

You can marinate the bacon at room temperature (which is what I did), which is the old fashioned way, or you can refrigerate it.

When you are ready to cook, remove a few slices for each person and place on several layers of paper towels on a dinner plate, cover with more paper towels and dry thoroughly.

Heat the frying pan to medium high, add bacon. Turn heat down to low. Cook the bacon slices on low heat until until done, turning often. I found if I cook the bacon too rapidly it burns easily

I leave the rest of the bacon in the brine, cover it with plastic and refrigerate it. I then have bacon ready for the next few breakfasts!

Home Cured Bacon, Eggs and Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

To learn more about cooking grassfed meats, please check out my review of Stanley Fishman’s wonderful cookbook, Tender Grassfed Meat.

This post is part of the Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival the place to search for more tantalizing recipes and menu ideas!