Once a year, we buy a slab of pork belly at Costco and ask our friend Lawrence to turn it into bacon. He learned to cure and smoke bacon at his mother’s side in Georgia and has taken the art of cured meats to the next level with all sorts of exotic charcuterie he makes at home. But for us, it’s the bacon. Lawrence Bacon.
This week, he finished a 24 hour cold smoke on meat that had been cured in 1.5% brine with an “old fashioned” spice blend featuring Tellicherry pepper. I went over and picked it up yesterday, and had a nice long chat at his kitchen table, sharing recipes and gardening tips and bitching about the state of the world.
We ended up with a couple kilos of meat. It’s not very useful in its slab form, so we process it for our convenience. The slabs go in the freezer for a short while to make it easier to handle. We cut it all in one session on the old slicer that Lawrence gave us when he upgraded. I portion the slices into 100g & 200g packs for the freezer. The end bits that the machine won’t cut get turned into lardons for recipes.
2026 Lawrence Bacon is ready for consumption. Yum! Thank you, Lawrence!
