Michael Ruhlman

Bacon Cured Using Percentages

Preparation info
    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in
From Scratch: 10 Meals, 175 Recipes, and Dozens of Techniques You Will Use Over and Over
From Scratch

By Michael Ruhlman

Published 2019

  • About

This is the most accurate way of curing bacon and ensures that it’s always consistently seasoned and cured. For this preparation, you will need a scale.

Ingredients

  • 1 pork belly, preferably skin-on
  • Kosher salt
  • Brown sugar
  • Pink curing salt
  • Garlic cloves

Method

Weigh the pork belly in grams and record its weight. Calculate 2 percent of that weight, and measure that weight in kosher salt. For example, if your belly weighs 2,000 grams (close to 4½ pounds), you’ll weigh out 40 grams salt, which is about 2⅔ tablespoons. Weigh out half the weight of the kosher salt in brown sugar (20 grams, or about 4 teaspoons, in the example above). Weigh out 0.25 percen