My father bought half a hog and decided to get the pork belly fresh and smoke it for himself.  He had a hard time keeping it lit.

Just kidding here is a picture of the Honey and Maple Bacon he cured and smoked.

Honey Bacon

Maple Bacon

The bacon was excellent!

When you make bacon without nitrites or nitrates or buy no-nitrate bacon the color looks different.  Nitrate or Nitrites by law have to have pink coloring added to them so they are not mistaken for table salt.  A very small amount is fatal in adults. This is true for hams also.  The pink or red color in the meat is one of the things they add.  This is true for yellow butter and orange cheeses etc.

Don’t be alarmed if you’re eating real food and it looks different!  It’s because it is.  If the food you eat doesn’t have a shelf life or go bad that’s a good indicator it has been altered in some way.

We don’t have a slicer so we ended up cutting it thick and frying it up.  Our kids like the bacon cut into bits and served with scrambled eggs.

You can’t go wrong with bacon.