Making your own bacon can seem intimidating, but I assure you that you don’t need any professional skills to produce authentic, smokey bacon. I must warn you though- once you do this, there’s no going back. Store bought bacon will pale in comparison to the hearty strips of awesome that is your homemade bacon; you’ll yearn for that smokey aroma to fill your kitchen again. The satisfaction you once derived from tossing pre-packaged pig strips into your grocery cart will…
It’s been said there are only two types of people in the world: people who love it…and people who love it but won’t admit it; it’s meat candy, the gateway meat for vegetarians, dogs beg for it, you either like it- or you’re wrong. Yup, it’s bacon. We live in a bacon nation, and if you don’t eat bacon, you’re a terrorist.
Sodium Nitrates and Nitrites are used in the curing and preserving of meat. Most commonly you’ll find them in bacon, sausages, and hot dogs. It has long been known that salt acts a preservative for meat, killing off certain bacteria as it reduces moisture in meat, thus making it harder for bacteria to grow. A natural form of sodium nitrate, saltpeter, was used (it is still used used today, but not as often) to preserve meat as early as Homer’s…