Homemade Maple Brown Sugar Smoked Bacon

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Homemade Maple Brown Sugar Smoked Bacon

Author: Lisa Zapatka

The smell alone is worth making it from scratch.

Ingredients

• 5 pound pork belly
• 5 1/2 Tbs kosher salt
• 5 1/2 Tbs light brown sugar
• 4 Tbs maple syrup
• 3 Tbs cracked black pepper (+ 2 tsp reserved for later)
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Combine all of the ingredients (reserving 2 tsp black pepper for later)
2. Slather the curing mixture over the pork belly. Seal in a very large zip lock bag.
3. Flip and massage it daily for 7 days.
4. Gently rinse to remove curing mixture.
5. Place on a rack on top of a baking sheet.
6. Pat dry and season with remaining 2 tsp of black pepper.
7. Place in fridge uncovered for 12-24 hours.
8. Preheat smoker to 160-170 degrees.
9. Place pork belly in smoker and smoke for about 2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.
10. If you don't have a smoker you can cook the pork belly in the oven on a wire rack over a baking sheet at 225 until it reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees.
11. Let cool. Slice into smaller slabs. Wrap well in plastic wrap. Place all of them into a large zip lock bag and freeze.
12. Defrost individual slabs as you need them. Slice and cook how you normally cook bacon. We cook it on a large parchment paper lined baking sheet at 400 degrees about 30 minutes, flipping occasionally until it reaches desired doneness.