Curing bacon

Last month we ate brunch at Balliceaux, which has a gorgeous interior with buttery leather seating and themes of nature running through an otherwise repurposed urban industrial space that makes me want to reconsider my decorating philosophy, but I digress.  Most importantly, they have a bacon menu.

They house-cure all their bacon and serve each slice with accompaniments. Applewood smoked bacon with nutella. Chinese five spice with orange marmalade. Garlic cured with olive oil.  Oh man, it's really good.

On Saturday I needed some bacon. At the farmer's market I checked in on the Root Force collective farm and they were selling unsliced, uncured bacon and I was feeling inspired to give curing a try.

I loosely followed this recipe for the rub, but chose a combination of salt, brown sugar, rosemary, garlic, cinnamon, and pepper.

I generously coated two pounds of bacon with the rub and then dropped the whole thing into a weck jar where it will sit for 7 days, until step two.

Have you ever cured your own bacon?