When I first saw this in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking, I knew I had to make it. I am fascinated by charcuterie that is outside the Western tradition. Most of us who do charcuterie stick to Italian or French or German traditions, and, less often, Spanish, Eastern European or, maybe, Middle Eastern cured meats.
China is a world unto itself, and, as Dunlop says, there are scores of bacon styles in that pork-loving country, each with its own mixture of spices and aromatic woods. This recipe is a riff off hers, although my method is considerably different.
You will need nitrite for this recipe, which you can buy online or in some good butcher shops. If you don’t use nitrites here, you will need to smoke the bacon at a much higher temperature, closer to 225°F than the 140°F I do. (If you are scared of nitrites, please do yourself a favor and read this excellent essay on meat curing safety by my friend Michael Ruhlman.) You will also need Sichuan peppercorns and Shaoxing wine to make this bacon, although a dry sherry is a fine substitute for the Chinese wine.
You really, really need to smoke this bacon. It’s OK unsmoked, but it takes on something magical when those Asian spices — cinnamon, cloves, star anise — mingle with wood smoke. You can smoke the pork as long or as little as you want, but please do your best to put this puppy in some sort of smoker.
What to serve it with? Anything, really. It’s awesome in braised dishes, like Chinese Red-Braised Pork, in stir-fry, with greens — or hell, just as sliced bacon in the morning with your eggs. It’s bacon, people. You’ll find something to do with it…
You can usually get big slabs of pork belly from local pork producers at your farmer's markets, or any decent butcher can order you one. Once made, this will keep about 2 weeks in the fridge, and indefinitely in the freezer.
- 3 pounds pork belly, skin on or off
- 1/2 cup 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns, ground
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 5 star anise pods, crushed
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Instacure No. 1
- Moisten the pork belly with the Shaoxing wine. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and rub into the meat, making sure all surfaces are coated.
- Put the pork into a large sealable plastic bag, or vacuum seal bag, or just a plastic or glass container just about large enough to contain it. Sprinkle over any remaining cure, seal the container up and put in the fridge.
- Every day for 5 days, turn the bacon over. After 5 days, check to see if the bacon is firm. If it is not firm throughout, give it up to another 2 days in the fridge.
- Take the bacon out, rinse off the cure and pat it dry. Set the bacon out on a rack to dry, preferably in a cool, airy place. Let it sit for 1-3 hours.
Smoke the bacon over the wood of your choice. I try to keep the smoker as cool as possible because you don't want to fully cook this bacon; less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. It is supposed to be very smoky, so go for at least 4 hours. Remove it from the smoker when it's as smoky as you like, then let it cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge or freezing it.
This bacon is really good. The bacon in sweet wheat paste is also excellent; and steaming the resulting bacon then slicing it when chilled makes a great cold cut.
I’m always on the search for new bacon curing recipes. We just bought a live hog and had it slaughtered, giving us about 30lbs in pork belly (287lb cut weight) so I have a lot of curing to do. I will definitely be trying this out!
Where can I find uncured pork belly without having to purchase an entire pig? Local butchershops in Napa do not have it…at least that I have found. I have asked the butchers themselves and they claim they don’t. I don’t mind driving to get it. Been wanting to do bacon for a good while now. Thanks ahead for any info.
To buy uncured pork belly, try checking your local Asian grocer, mine always has it. I usually have decent luck at my Mexican grocer, too.
Hank, quick question on the recipe. After moistening the pork with the wine, is the wine mixed into the rub, or discarded?
@Victor, pretty much every Asian market carries uncured belly. Ranch 99 in El Cerrito definitely does. If you want something a little more special, try Bledsoe pork at the Davis farmer’s market on Saturdays (Sacramento on Sundays). Fatted Calf (http://fattedcalf.com/) could also supply, at a premium.
Hank, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of making this bacon–and then using it for some Hmong-style veg+meat dishes–but am thinking holding a smoker at 140 for that long sounds difficult. (I’m willing to sit nearby with a six-pack and ice-cubes, but I struggle to keep mine below 200, much less 150). What kind of setup are you using?