Smoked back bacon

[manxman]

Back bacon tends to be the bacon of choice in the UK although we do have other cuts such as streaky. Been making this for a few years now fine tuning the recipe to get to what I see as the definitive one. Cure can be altered to suit personnel choice but I get good consistent results with the one mentioned, appreciate this recipe is probably of more interest to UK Bradley users.

Smoked back bacon

1.   Pork loin; suggest ask your local butcher telling them what you are making, conversely supermarkets do have perfectly adequate pork loin available.
2.   Suggest pork loin around 5lb / 2.5 kg as an ideal weight.
3.   Trim the meat taking off the skin leaving a few millimetres thickness of fat.
4.   Wash in cold water then pat dry thoroughly with paper towelling.
5.   Weight pork loin then weigh out Laycock's Sweet Dry Cure (UK supplier: Weschenfelders) at a rate of 7.3%. (e.g. 2.5 kg / 2500 grams pork loin requires 183 grams cure)
6.   Thoroughly rub the cure in to the meat ensuring complete coverage, most goes on the meat side with a smaller amount on the fat side (approx. 75:25 ratio)
7.   Put pork loin fat side down in a food grade plastic sealed container then put in fridge at an angle to allow liquid to drain away.
8.   Dry cure pork loin for 5 – 7 days the longer the cure the dryer the bacon.
9.   Pour off liquid every couple of days and discard.
10.   After 5 – 7 days wash meat thoroughly in several changes of cold water then leave in fresh cold water to soak around 30 minutes. Dry thoroughly.
11.   Cold smoke in Bradley Smoker using oak bisquettes for 4 hours.
12.   Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to allow meat to settle post curing and smoking.
13.   Slice as per requirements, suggest around 3 – 4 mm thickness.
14.   Vacuum seal at around half a dozen rashers per pack.
15.   Vacuum seal the scrag ends, they are great in soups, omelettes and other dishes.
16.   Sealed bacon packs may be kept for up to 4 – 6 weeks, however the original meat must be top quality, fresh and prepared in a sanitary method in order to reach optimum shelf life when vacuum packaged. All perishable food must be refrigerated.
17. Cook before eating.
18. Packs may be frozen in the unlikely event they won't be eaten within a few weeks!