Home-made bacon is insanely better than store-bought. This time, I made wet cured, hickory smoked peppered bacon. (Recipe in picture description.)

Vacuum sealed for freshness ?

20lb pork belly with rib

Side view

Skin cut off

Divided in three

Wet cure for 5lb slab- 2 cups water( enough to reach past the tip of your bacon ), 1 teaspoon of cure, 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoon red pepper flake, 4 tablespoon black pepper, 1/4 cup shopped garlic. The meat must be flipped daily, and should sit in the cure for 5-7 days.

1/2 hour water bath for excess salt removal

Heavily pepper both sides.

Smoker at 250F for 2.5 hours or to internal temp of 150F. I put two rounds of hickory wood to smoke during this time.

Take out of smoker and chill, hard to cut bacon when its warm.

4mm thick is perfect for thick cut bacon

We got 18 1/2 lb (around, can't be exact) cut packages out of this!