I chose Pork Loin for this as the belly Pork available at the moment is very fatty and doesn’t look overly appealing. So the end result will be Back Bacon. You need to be pretty precise when using Saltpetre so I reduced to weight to almost exactly 1Kg by taking the rind off and cutting a couple of steaks from one end so that we’ll be able to cut even rasters when it has cured.

Rub ingredients:-

22.5g of Pink Salt
22.5g of Sugar
2G of Saltpetre
1 Tsp of Smoked Paprika
1 Tsp of mixed Herbs
1 Tsp of fresh ground Black Pepper.

Method:-

(1) Trim the Pork Loin to as near to 1Kg as possible.
(2) Mix the rub ingredients in a bowl.
(3) Apply the rub evenly over the entire surface.
(4) Place in a tub in the fridge loosely covered.
(5) Turn daily for 3 weeks.

As the meat cures it will loose about 10% of the water content. This accumulates in the tub and will naturally evaporate in the fridge.

See you all in 3 weeks, hopefully with some outstanding Bacon!