Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire If its BIG and doesn't STINK make BACON!

The last two pigs I've shot have been pretty good sized. The bellies were really thick and I am curing some bacon in my fridge right now. For those of you who've never made bacon, you really should give it a go. I explain each of these a little more over at my silly blog, but here are the basic tools you need to make bacon:

1. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman.
2. Coarse Kosher Salt
3. Pink Salt (6.25% sodium nitrite)
4. Dextrose
5. Pork
6. An Electronic Scale
7. 2 gallon Zip lock bags
8. Refridgerator
9. Smoker
10. Fresh Spices

Its such an easy process, I hate to think of all the fine pork belly ground into sausage. Or worse left lying.

Here is some of the last batch, (smoked with orange wood) I cut into lardons to add to a pot of pinto beans:


For those of you who've made bacon before, can you add to the tools above?

Only one tool required...

Andy I just use Morton's Sugar Cure it has the nitrite in it already. The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/4 teaspoons per pound of meat. Rub into the meat well then place in a ziploc refrigerate at 38 to 40 degrees turning over daily for 7 to 9 days. Rinse well and soak in fresh water to get some salt out. Pat it dry and refrigerate overnight then smoke to 160 degrees. cool and slice. Easiest good eating you can get.
Bill

Cool. Thanks Bill. I'm going to try drying the next batch overnight. Do you hang it to dry or just on a tray or something.

Even though I was joking (sort of) the topic is interesting.

Is wild hog bacon leaner than store bought bacon?

Depends on the pig of course. The last two I've dropped were really fatty.

Nothing better than home cured bacon

In East Texas we have two different types of "wild" hogs (actually three).

First is the so-called "Piney Woods Rooter" that is sort of native (been here for at least 200 years). These are smaller (mostly less than 200 pounds....and often 125-150 pounds when full grown) and very lean. Almost no fat at all and a very "prickly" disposition. These are the hogs I grew up with. Very tasty, but absolutely no chance of bacon as they are as lean as a deer.

The rarest type of wild hog in East Texas has been introduced in the last 50 years or so. This is the true "Russian" bloodline. These hogs are HUGE with exceptional boars going as much as 500 pounds and commonly weighing upward of 300 pounds. This weight is NOT because they are fat.....they are simply BIG. All muscle and little fat, they offer no chance at all for the production of bacon. These beasts are very uncommon, but do exist. If the "Piney Woods Rooter" is "prickly".....the Russians are downright evil in temperament. Thank god they are uncommon.

The third and most commonly encountered wild hog is the domestic hog that has gone wild. These are "blooded" hogs with their roots in the barnyard. After a few generations in the wild these hogs begin to show more and more "wild" traits (longer hair, large "tushes" and longer, leaner bodies), but still retain the bred in traits of barnyard stock and generally can be identified by color. While Russians are basically all black and Rooters are black or grizzled brown, the blooded hogs show all sorts of colors. Some are calico, some are white and even a few will show "classic" barnyard colors of Polland China stock with a white band over a black body. These are your choice for bacon.

The "blooded" hogs will have layers of fat that is the key to good bacon. This is particularly true if someone has been "working" hogs in the woods. Not common nowdays, but sometimes seen is the practice of capturing the young pigs and "cutting" the males. Without balls, the entire energy gained by neating goes to producing fat.....and thus BACON!!

Sows are good, but a certain amount of their "energy" goes to suckling and raising their young. The BEST candidates for bacon are the cut boars....the "worked" hogs. These have the "wild" taste common to hogs raised in the woods.....with the added benifit of the fat content that makes great bacon.
Wild hogs can make the very best bacon....but you have to choose your hog carefully.

Andy I just lay it on a tray. It kind of sets up s little. There is a technical term for it I thimk they call it forming a pellicule. I ain't real technical I usually say it lets it skin over abit

I have heard Morton's Tender Quick works well to but never tried it. I did make bacon out of a pork shoulder I boned the blade out of.Man I got slices of bacon 5 inches wide. I have meant to take a loin and make Canadian bacon but Just never got around to doing it.Sometime in the next couple of weeks the neighbor has 11 hogs we are going to get together and butcher. We this a couple of times a year,I enjoy the cold weather butchering because we stuff a bunch into casings and run it through his smoke house. Last march I think I stuffed close to 500 lb with my fatherinlaw's old cast iron stuffer. We will build a fire and boil all the meat off the bones then add gornmeal and flour to make mush. Some of his Amish frioends allways come and hel;p. This year they are bringing the stuff to make a big batch of Apple Butter. It is always a good time
Bill

Rick we get excited to see a "color phase" pig because of the better blood lines. Good info.

Bill you and your neighbor sound like fun. I love apple butter. I think i saw mush being made on the food network a while back.