Indeed! The other time bacon has been known to skyrocket in price is after E. coli outbreaks. (I can’t find a cite as any meat and food poison search goes to the hysteria and not the economics. But I heard it in a discussion at a food processing conference panel discussion.) Restaurants (and people) will increase their temperatures of beef cooking and more bacon will be added for flavoring which decreases the overall bacon supply.
Just got back from the grocery store. Oscar Mayer was $8.95, generic store brand was $4.99, the rest range between the two. I’ve tried 2-3 other brands and haven’t liked them so I stick with Oscar Mayer, but I’m not paying $9 for it so I go baconless (blasphemy, I know) until I happen to be shopping at a different store and see it for less.
Please share your techniques… I have a new cabinet smoker and I’m looking for more things to try.
It’s fairly straightforward. Here’s a basic dry cure recipe. Follow that, slap it on some pork belly (5% of weight of cure to belly), wait a week or so, and then smoke it to an internal temp of 150 degrees. This is for hot-smoked bacon, the easiest kind to do. If you want to cold-smoke bacon (which is the type of bacon you usually buy at the store), you need to keep your smoker temps under 120 degrees, and smoke for about 6-8 hours or so, and then the cooking finishes when you fry it in the pan. Unless you have yourself set up for cold-smoking, most likely you will want to go the hot smoke method. It produces a different kind of bacon than cold-smoked, but still delicious. Also, look into this book.
the people over at the smoking meat forum are the experts http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/ They have an entire forum devoted to bacon (told you it was a great place 
)
Anyway so far I have been doing a dry cures. There is a very popular wet cure (you soak the bacon in the cure) there call Pop’s brine. I have not dune this yet.
Anyway, I have been doing a dry cure usingthis calculator to figure out the proportions for salt, sugar and pink salt.
Here is what you will need to cure your own bacon:
Pork bellies 5-6 lb pieces are easy to work with
scale(s) (one to measure the weight of the meat, and depending on it accuracy a second scale for the spices). I bought a second scale for about $8 at Amazon for the spices. The guys at SMF are big on being exact on your measurements
Plastic bags, either zip lock or food saver. I use food saver bags.
Salt
Sugar
Pink Salt (cure) You can get it from Amazon, but I bought from Butcher-packer.com Here is the direct link. Warning, this is not for direct consumption, it is for curing, that is why it is colored pink.
Other spices as you wish. (bay leaf rocks bacon)
Here is an excellent overview of the entire process.
In a nutshell
Weigh meat
Calculate amounts for cure
mix salt, sugar, and pink salt plus any other spice together
Sprinkle cure onto meat
Put meat into bag along with any cure that fell off and seal without air
flip every day or so until ready to smoke
smoke ( I have been cold smoking 10-20 hours, and this stuff rocks)
slice
cook
Nirvana
It is actually much easier than it sounds. 20-30 minutes to prep 12-20 lbs of bellies, wait a week, then a night or 2 of over night smoking.
Well worth the effort.
If you have any questions, either post them here, or PM me.
Rick
What’s your cold smoking set-up? I haven’t cold smoked since I had access to a big ol’ shed where you’d just light a small fire in the middle of it and let it go for up to a few days. I’ve been wanting to set something up, but I haven’t decided on how to do it. I guess the easiest way would be to have a smoke box and run some ductwork or similar to the cooking area?
I second the ends and pieces. They don’t look very pretty but they taste every bit as good as the regular stuff at a fraction of the price.
My first cold smoking rig was an old (broken/free) freezer that I added a vent to and some thermometers. It was the best smoking setup I’ve ever used. At the time, I used to get my supplies from Allied-Kenko, a butcher supply store geared to the home butcher. Why do I bring this up? Allied-Kenko was the only source of hickory ***sawdust ***that I was able to find. Sawdust is far different than hickory chunks or chips.
Simplicity itself. I have an A-maze-n pellet smoke generator. http://www.amazenproducts.com/mobile/default.aspx#P37360
I fill it with pellets put it in my Weber kettle where the charcoal should go and place the bacon above. Burns for about 10 hours unattended.
Start it about 10 hours before I plan to get up in the AM. When I get up it is smoked.
I highly recommend this as well. I’m down to my last pound of this recipe, and will need to visit the butcher again soon to order another belly. My last one started as a 14# slab, and after skin removal, curing and smoking, ended up as a 11# slab of amazing bacon.
The hardest part is keeping that much pork cool enough while curing. I made mine in the winter, so inside was too warm, outside too cold. I went through a lot of ice packs in my cooler.
Damn you Rick! I have very little spare time already, now I have to make some bacon.
Sorry…
(Not really)
Sweet. I’ll have to look into get myself one of those. Been meaning to cold smoke some sausage and that seems like the easiest way to do it. Thanks!