Smoked bacon - 1st attempt

Once upon a time I was a vegetarian, fed up with the way that animals were being treated. Eventually I went back to the dark side, tempted all the way by smoked bacon. It's the one thing that I couldn't resist. Many years later and it's time to cure and smoke my own bacon!

In short I dry cured some belly pork for 7 days in the fridge in a freezer bag. Once the curing time was up I wiped off any remaining cure and left it to dry overnight on a rack in the fridge. Drying allows a sticky layer to form on the surface and smoke sticks to it like .... to a blanket.  As fridges circulates air it's a great way to dry meat.

The bacon was then smoked for 8 hours using whiskey oak before being placed back in the fridge for a couple of days inside a freezer bag to 'rest'.

The picture shows the bacon, some cheese that I did for a friend and some haddock.