Bacon

I've started to make my own home-cured bacon. The first batch came out great, but too salty. Looking it up online, many people recommend soaking the pork belly in water for half hour increments until test pieces taste not too salty. I didn't know to do this. It still came out great, butnlesson learned!

I just put my second pork belly in the fridge with a cure. It was an 8 lb portion this time. I forgot to bookmark the website I used the first time for a recipe, so I'm starting with a new one to use as my base for experimentation. I used this recipe, doubled for the 8 lb belly: http://blog.americanspice.com/index.php/home-cured-brown-sugar-and-black-pepper-bacon/

I bought the cure #1 from Bass Pro in their jerkey and sausage making section. It was cheaper online, but I don't use much each time and it was worth the extra few bucks buying locally.