A bacon curing kit takes one modest joint of pork belly and, over about a week in your fridge, turns it into proper dry cure bacon: firmer, more flavourful and far better behaved in the pan than supermarket bacon. No smoker, no shed, no equipment beyond a rolling pin and a fridge shelf. If you have been wondering what actually comes in a bacon making kit, which pork to buy, how the process works and whether it is safe (yes, and we will answer the nitrite question honestly), this guide walks you through the lot.
Why is home-cured bacon better than supermarket bacon?
Bacon is essentially just preserved pork, and the difference lies in how the preserving happens. Most industrially produced bacon is wet cured: a brine of salt and preservatives is injected into the pork belly. It is easy to run at scale, but it trades away texture and flavour, and it is exactly why supermarket bacon leaks water, spits and shrinks the moment it meets a hot pan. You paid for pork, and a good deal of the weight was water.
Artisan producers use a dry cure instead: the pork is cured with salts, then left to air dry, which concentrates the flavour and firms up the texture. That is precisely the method a bacon curing kit uses, with your fridge standing in for a professional drying room. The result crisps up beautifully, keeps its size and tastes emphatically of bacon.
What's inside a bacon curing kit?
If you are comparing what a bacon curing kit in the UK should contain, here is what comes in ours:
- The bacon cure. A traditional dry mix based on salt and sugar. This is what draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it, and it does contain nitrites, which we cover honestly further down.
- Three seasoning sachets: chilli and garlic, juniper and fennel, and pancetta. One kit, three very different rashers, and yes, that third sachet means it quietly doubles as a pancetta kit.
- Grip seal curing bags to hold the pork, cure and spices together while the fridge does its work.
- A cheese cloth of natural unbleached cotton for the air-drying stage. Wash it in warm water and let it air dry before first use, so no loose fibres end up on your bacon.
- Cotton twine and a meat hook for hanging the wrapped joint in your fridge.
- Disposable gloves for mixing the cure into the meat.
Everything, in other words, except the pork. Our Bacon Making Kit makes a 500g batch of bacon at a time, and the whole process takes around a week, most of which is the fridge doing the work while you take the credit.
What pork should you buy?
One whole boneless 500g joint of good quality fresh pork belly per batch. The word to hold onto is whole: do not buy strips of belly, because the cure needs a single joint to work on. You can buy the belly with the skin on or off, but the skin does have to come off before curing, and it is easiest to ask your butcher to remove it for you. Ask for the skin in a bag, though. There is a very good reason coming later in this guide.
How do you cure your own bacon, step by step?
First, crush the spices. Cut a very small corner off your chosen seasoning sachet and crush it thoroughly with a rolling pin. This releases the essential oils from the spices so they can infuse properly into the meat as it cures. It is also strangely satisfying.
Next, bag everything up. Put the pork belly, the crushed spices and two measuring spoons (15g) of the bacon cure into one of the grip seal curing bags. Pull on a glove and give everything a good mix around in the bag, then seal it and close the opened cure sachet with the clip provided.
Then let the fridge take over. The bag cures in the fridge for one day per half inch of the meat's thickness, plus one day. A joint an inch and a half thick, for example, cures for four days. Turn the bag over every two days so the cure works evenly.
Rinse and dry. When the curing time is up, rinse the meat thoroughly and pat it dry with kitchen towels. Do not skip the rinse: it washes off the excess cure and is your main control over how salty the finished bacon tastes.
Finally, hang it. The bacon now air dries for three days to concentrate the flavour and improve the texture. Place the joint in the centre of the cheese cloth, gather the sides tightly into a bunch at the top, tie it with a metre of the cotton twine and hang it in the fridge from the meat hook. The trick we use: hang it from the top shelf so it dangles into the door area where the tall bottles would usually live, the one spot in any fridge with room to spare.
Three days later, on to the good bit.
How do you slice, cook and store homemade bacon?
Unwrap the cloth (hand wash it in hot water with washing up liquid and it is ready for the next batch) and slice with a sharp kitchen knife. Air drying leaves the joint much firmer than raw belly, so it cuts cleanly to whatever thickness you fancy. If you own a meat slicer, we are jealous. Only slice what you need; the rest of the joint keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, though in our experience it rarely survives that long.
Cook it exactly as you would shop-bought bacon, with one non-negotiable: always cook it through before eating. Because it is dry cured, it crisps up beautifully without leaking water or shrinking. For longer storage, freeze it, but slice it first (or cut it into lardons) and spread the pieces out on a baking sheet to freeze before bagging them up. Freeze the joint whole and you will be defrosting the entire thing every time you fancy a sandwich.
And that skin you asked the butcher to bag up? Pork scratchings. Cut it into bite-size pieces, toss with salt and a splash of vinegar, then roast on a wire rack in a hot oven until puffed and crisp, watching closely near the end. The perfect thing to snack on while the next batch cures.
Can you make back bacon with a bacon curing kit?
Yes. The split is simple: streaky bacon is made from pork belly, back bacon from pork loin. The instructions in our bacon making kit use belly because the thinner joint cures faster and more reliably at home, but the same cure and the same recipe work on a 500g pork loin joint with the skin removed, which gives you back bacon. Belly remains our honest recommendation for a first batch.
Does the bacon cure contain nitrites?
Yes, and we would rather tell you plainly than in small print. The cure is a traditional dry mix of salt and sugar with sodium nitrite (E250) and sodium nitrate (E251). In an ideal world we would leave them out, but this is the easiest and safest way to cure meat at home: the nitrites are what protect the meat from harmful bacteria and toxins while it cures, so never reduce the quantities given in the booklet. (Our jerky and biltong recipes, by contrast, use no cure at all, just seasonings.)
Two lines of common sense to go with that. The kit is designed for use by adults only. And the cure is for curing, not tasting: if it is ever swallowed directly from the sachet, seek medical advice immediately.
Bacon curing kit FAQs
How long does it take to cure bacon?
Around a week from butcher to breakfast: one day in the cure per half inch of thickness plus one day, then three days hanging in the fridge. The hands-on work adds up to a few minutes.
Do I need a smoker or any special equipment?
No. A rolling pin, a fridge and the kit are the whole list. Even the Ultimate Meat Kit, which makes bacon, jerky, biltong and more, uses a cold cure: the meat cures and then air dries in the fridge, no smoker required.
Is home-cured bacon safe?
Yes, when you follow the cure quantities and timings, use fresh pork, keep it refrigerated throughout and cook it through before eating. The cure is what preserves the meat, so do not reduce it.
My bacon came out too salty. What went wrong?
Rinse it more thoroughly after curing, and soak it in cold water for an hour to draw out excess salt before drying. Next time, do not exceed the curing time in the booklet.
My bacon feels wet rather than firm. Can it be rescued?
It simply needs longer. Give it more time curing and air drying in the fridge so more moisture is drawn out, and make sure the cure was rubbed in evenly.
What if I get stuck partway through?
Head for the Help Hut bacon guide, where we answer the bacon questions we are sent most often, from salty rashers to joints that will not firm up.
Ready to cure your own bacon? The Sandy Leaf Farm Bacon Making Kit includes the cure, all three seasonings and everything above, hand-packed in Britain.
