Hand Coding

I was browsing through Ask MetaFilter and came across a thread on the weirdness of non-American pork (at least, in from the poster’s perspective). The thread is interesting in itself in some ways, but then about halfway in, a guy who goes by “obiwanwasabi ” busts out with a make-your-own bacon recipe:

Make your own bacon — it’s dead easy. Buy a couple of pounds of pork belly. Rub the pork all over with salt, sugar/dextrose and sodium nitrite (pink salt), then put it in a ziploc bag for a while. The liquid comes out of the pork, making a brine that cures the meat. When it feels firm in the centre (about a week), pop it in a low oven til it reaches an internal temp of 150°F / 65°C. Take it out of the oven, remove the skin while it's hot, chill it &mdsah; voila, bacon. I can post a more detailed recipe from this book tonight if you like, along with a couple of recipes for sausage.

Bacon is tasty, to be sure, but it does seem suspiciously easy to make. I don’t think I’m courageous enough to try this, but I could see some of my meat-adept friends giving this a try (yes, this means you, Ru & Roger).