Name: Jerk Bacon
Yield: Makes about 3½ pounds (1.6 kg)
Ingredients: 2 heads garlic, roasted; 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped; 2 recipes Jerk Rub; 2 teaspoons pink curing salt (aka Instacure #1); Soaked and drained apple, hickory, or cherry wood chips or chunks, or pellets or sawdust (amount recommended by your smoker manufacturer); ½ cup (120 ml) fresh lime juice (from about 7 limes); 1 large Spanish onion, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) slices, grilled until very dark and burnt; 3 habanero peppers, stems removed; 1 (5-pound/2.3-kg) pork belly, skin removed and saved for another use (see, step 2); 3 quarts (2.8 L) cold water

Preparation info

Makes about
3½ pounds

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Bacon Bible

By Peter Sherman and Stephanie Banyas

Published 2019

About

One of the oldest recipes I have is a jerk spice recipe. I got it from a woman I used to work with, and have cherished it ever since. It was obviously meant for chicken, but on pork belly it really is something special. Pork, like chicken, can take on a lot of flavor, but unlike chicken, the pork belly won’t dry out. And, because you are smoking the meat at a low temperature, the spices in the dry rub won’t burn like they would on chicken grilled over fire.