Making Off Off-Grid Bacon

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4/13/2012 - 6th Day - Morning.  Preparation of the Sabbath. Greetings friends. I had several requests to post how I make bacon (in an off off-grid way), so I thought I'd do that very thing. If you're like me, you love to read about the "old-timey" ways of doing things, and you study preserving foods in a more traditional, pre-Industrial way. However, I'm forever frustrated that almost every cook book, website, etc. that deals with food preservation immediately turns to refrigeration or freezing throughout the process, as if those methods were always available in the days before the ubiquitous use of electricity. The very fact that we are here and breathing air on earth bears witness to the fact that our forefathers were able to produce, preserve, and store food without electricity. Even canning is now considered a "must" in homestead food preservation, when in fact canning is a very new phenomenon, and it is (in the long run) an unsustainable practice. For the Off Off-Grid homesteader, we need to know how to do things in the ways that they were done for millennia before the onslaught of industrialism and readily available (and soul-deadening, and mind crippling) electricity. So here is a way to make bacon like your ancestors likely did (***Disclaimer: If you are one of those people who thinks that we shouldn't eat bacon, or that it is forbidden, then bypass the rest of this.  Here is a link just for you***): Bacon cure (per 5 lbs. of bacon): 4 oz. sea salt  4 tsp. of pink salt 1 tsp. of Saltpetre (we buy it at a local drug store but it can be made at home... with urine) 4 tbs black pepper 2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 cup sucanat or brown sugar (regular sugar or honey will work too) 20 sprigs of thyme Start with some fresh pork belly. When you butcher, this is the part that basically covers up the belly. There are plenty of resources online that tell you how to cut up a pig, but here is a primer: I'm no expert butcher, but I can get parts and make them into bacon. And in fact, the method shown here is good for turning ANY part of the pig into bacon. You can take big chunks of the loin, ham, or shoulder and make "Canadian Bacon" out of them, using this same process. This isn't pretty butchering, but it is gorgeous meat A close up of the deliciousness If you are going to try to keep your bacon without refrigeration, go ahead and add the 1 tsp of Saltpetre at the beginning. Put all of this into a deep pan and coat your bacon liberally with it. Get it in all of the nooks and crannies. This is the "cure", and that is what you call it. Coat every surface liberally.  Get it into every nook and cranny You can see here that I've tried to use every bit of the cure Cover and Store it in a cool place for 1 week. The cooler the better. But don't panic, like modern books try to make you do. If you can keep it fairly cool (root cellar temps) for a week, then you'll be fine. After the week, rinse it off thoroughly with cool water and let it soak in cool water for 24 hours. Then dry it off well and let it sit in a cool place for another 24 hours. This is the equalization period, when the cure is equalized throughout the meat. The next step is to cold smoke it for 7 days or longer depending on how dry and smoked you want it. I recommend up to two weeks if you want to store it really long term.  If you want to ship it from England to America, smoke/dry it for a month or more before packing it in salt. Beautiful meat smoking in our beautiful smokehouse If you want this bacon for long term preservation without refrigeration, pack the finished bacon in salt.  When you are ready to use it, pull it from the salt, rinse it off, slice it, soak it for 24 hours in cool water to get rid of some of the saltiness, and then fry it up! The finished product will be beautiful and pink and very tempting Slice it to the thickness you desire and you are ready to go! It's really a pretty simple process, and this bacon will store for a very long time if it is checked regularly and maintained. There are other ways to preserve it for long-term storage. If you have a generator, you can shrink wrap it, put it in a sealed container and store it in your root cellar. You can also "lard" it, by putting each slab one-at-a-time into a crock and then covering it with melted and rendered lard. When it is time to cook your bacon, you pull it out of the lard, scrape off the excess and wipe it down, then slice it and cook it. Always remember, if you store your bacon in salt, you will need to soak it for a good long time to reduce the saltiness before you slice it and eat it. I look forward to hearing your comments and do let us know when you make your own. Your servant in Christ Jesus, Michael Bunker Addendum:  In an emergency or "off off-grid" situation, it may be that you do not have "pink salt" or curing salt.  For centuries regular salt, sea salt, or whatever salt was at hand would be used, and worked fine.  You can make saltpetre several different ways at home, so do some research online.

4/13/2012 - 6th Day - Morning.  Preparation of the Sabbath. Greetings friends. I had several requests to post how I make bacon (in an off off-grid way), so I thought I'd do that very thing. If you're like me, you love to read about the "old-timey" ways of doing things, and you study preserving foods in a more traditional, pre-Industrial way. However, I'm forever frustrated that almost every cook book, website, etc. that deals with food preservation immediately turns to refrigeration or freezing throughout the process, as if those methods were always available in the days before the ubiquitous use of electricity. The very fact that we are here and breathing air on earth bears witness to the fact that our forefathers were able to produce, preserve, and store food without electricity. Even canning is now considered a "must" in homestead food preservation, when in fact canning is a very new phenomenon, and it is (in the long run) an unsustainable practice. For the Off Off-Grid homesteader, we need to know how to do things in the ways that they were done for millennia before the onslaught of industrialism and readily available (and soul-deadening, and mind crippling) electricity. So here is a way to make bacon like your ancestors likely did (***Disclaimer: If you are one of those people who thinks that we shouldn't eat bacon, or that it is forbidden, then bypass the rest of this.  Here is a link just for you***):

Bacon cure (per 5 lbs. of bacon):

4 oz. sea salt 

4 tsp. of pink salt

1 tsp. of Saltpetre (we buy it at a local drug store but it can be made at home... with urine)

4 tbs black pepper

2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup sucanat or brown sugar (regular sugar or honey will work too)

20 sprigs of thyme

Start with some fresh pork belly. When you butcher, this is the part that basically covers up the belly. There are plenty of resources online that tell you how to cut up a pig, but here is a primer:

I'm no expert butcher, but I can get parts and make them into bacon. And in fact, the method shown here is good for turning ANY part of the pig into bacon. You can take big chunks of the loin, ham, or shoulder and make "Canadian Bacon" out of them, using this same process.

This isn't pretty butchering, but it is gorgeous meat

A close up of the deliciousness

If you are going to try to keep your bacon without refrigeration, go ahead and add the 1 tsp of Saltpetre at the beginning. Put all of this into a deep pan and coat your bacon liberally with it. Get it in all of the nooks and crannies.

This is the "cure", and that is what you call it.

Coat every surface liberally.  Get it into every nook and cranny

You can see here that I've tried to use every bit of the cure

Cover and Store it in a cool place for 1 week. The cooler the better. But don't panic, like modern books try to make you do. If you can keep it fairly cool (root cellar temps) for a week, then you'll be fine. After the week, rinse it off thoroughly with cool water and let it soak in cool water for 24 hours. Then dry it off well and let it sit in a cool place for another 24 hours. This is the equalization period, when the cure is equalized throughout the meat. The next step is to cold smoke it for 7 days or longer depending on how dry and smoked you want it. I recommend up to two weeks if you want to store it really long term.  If you want to ship it from England to America, smoke/dry it for a month or more before packing it in salt.

Beautiful meat smoking in our beautiful smokehouse

If you want this bacon for long term preservation without refrigeration, pack the finished bacon in salt.  When you are ready to use it, pull it from the salt, rinse it off, slice it, soak it for 24 hours in cool water to get rid of some of the saltiness, and then fry it up!

The finished product will be beautiful and pink and very tempting

Slice it to the thickness you desire and you are ready to go!

It's really a pretty simple process, and this bacon will store for a very long time if it is checked regularly and maintained. There are other ways to preserve it for long-term storage. If you have a generator, you can shrink wrap it, put it in a sealed container and store it in your root cellar. You can also "lard" it, by putting each slab one-at-a-time into a crock and then covering it with melted and rendered lard. When it is time to cook your bacon, you pull it out of the lard, scrape off the excess and wipe it down, then slice it and cook it. Always remember, if you store your bacon in salt, you will need to soak it for a good long time to reduce the saltiness before you slice it and eat it.

I look forward to hearing your comments and do let us know when you make your own.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker


Addendum:  In an emergency or "off off-grid" situation, it may be that you do not have "pink salt" or curing salt.  For centuries regular salt, sea salt, or whatever salt was at hand would be used, and worked fine.  You can make saltpetre several different ways at home, so do some research online.