Home Cured Bacon

Crush the juniper berries and bay leaves with a tablespoon of the salt in a mortar and pestle. Mix all the cure ingredients together.

Trim your pork belly, if needed. Remove any hairs and nipples. (I know, kinda gross, but most butchers will do it for you unless you prefer things on the more rustic side.)

Take a few handfuls of your cure and liberally rub the pork belly so it’s covered in the mixture.

Place in a tupperware container or any other non-metallic container and place in the fridge for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, remove from the fridge and drain the liquid the salt has forced from the meat. Add a few more handfuls of cure.

Repeat this for two more days.

On the fourth day, remove the bacon from the fridge and rinse all traces of the cure and spices.

At this point, you can cut slices or you can hang it for 24-72 hours in a cool dark place. Since I favour instant gratification, I skip this step and slice the sucker up. Mmmm.

You can experiment with the spices and sweet agent. Add maple syrup if you want, or smoked paprika if you like a smoked taste. Maybe some cumin or cayenne if you want to spice things up a bit. The world is your oyster … I mean piglet.