Double Crack Bacon

“Everyone loves bacon, but the grail of bacon is the kind you make yourself,” says Matthew Ridgway, chef/co-owner of The Pass in Rosemont. “You have to build a kind of contraption, and it takes seven days, but the results are worth it.”

Tools

2 6-inch hotel pans
1 2-inch grill rack
10 pieces charcoal
2 lbs cherry wood chips, soaked in water overnight
Disposable pie tin
Charcoal or gas grill
Meat thermometer
Freezer paper, plastic wrap or disposable plastic bag

Ingredients

1 cup coarse sea salt
4 tbs Instacure #1 (pink salt)
2 cups dark brown sugar
½ cup black strap molasses
1 small finger of ginger, peeled and grated
2 pieces garlic, crushed and chopped
1 pork belly, roughly 13-15 pounds

Method

1. Thoroughly mix salt and Instacure. Then add brown sugar.
2. Make sure pork belly is between 38-40 degrees. Cover both sides of the meat with the dry mixture. Let sit 10 minutes, until the pork juices start to flow and the salt and sugar start to dissolve.
3. Rub the molasses, grated ginger and garlic on both sides of the belly.
4. Wrap the belly in plastic or freezer paper. Place in a disposable plastic bag in a hotel pan and refrigerate.
5. During the next 6 or 7 days, flip the package twice. Natural brine will form. Keep checking the firmness of the pork. It will begin to firm up after it starts to lose water weight.
6. After 7 days, unwrap the belly parcel, wipe off the excess cure and rinse lightly under warm water. Let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes.
7. To smoke the belly, put the charcoal in the disposable pie tin and heat over an open flame or with a butane torch until the charcoal turns ashy and white. (Don’t use lighter fluid; it will spoil the taste.)
8. Put one of the hotel pans face up on the grill. Put the hot charcoal in the pan and place soaked wood chips on top of the charcoal, essentially smothering the charcoal.
9. Place a grill rack over the charcoal and place the belly on the rack.
10. Invert the second pan on top of the rack. Smoke the meat for one hour.
11. Remove the belly from the smoker and place in a 250-degree oven.
12. Slow cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees.
13. Cool the belly overnight in a 34-40 degree cooler. Then slice.

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