Garlic Whiskey Wild Boar Bacon

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Ara Zada

Field Staff Writer at Harvesting Nature

Born and raised in Los Angeles Ara Zada is a chef, author, TV personality, food stylist and avid bow hunter. He has worked with Outdoor News, PBS, Food Network, ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT, Jaime Oliver Food Foundation and a range of others. His first cookbook ‘Lavash’ was released Oct. 2019. When he’s not cooking he’s shooting his bow, teaching his kids about the outdoors, training for triathlons and filling any available time with parkour.

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Recipe Contributed by Field Staff Writer A. Zada.

Bacon! I mean who doesn’t love bacon? Breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for a quick snack! You can pretty much add bacon to anything and it will turn a basic dish into a marvelous masterpiece.

Great, now that I got that out of my system, it’s time to bring home the bacon (no pun intended). You can always find bacon at your local grocery store and as bacon gets more and more popular you can find some artisan bacon at specialty shops. I want to show you how easy it is to make your own bacon as long as you have a few key ingredients. With hunting season in full swing you’re probably wonder what fun things you can do with the belly of your boar or any other animal. Don’t just put them in your grind pile. Save them as a whole and cure them into magical bacon. The only ingredient you will have to source out is curing salt (aka Prague powder #2) not to be confused with pink salt or Himalayan salt. This will be the key ingredient to get the proper cure. You can find it online or certain specialty stores sell it as well. The one thing you don’t want to mess with is the ratio of curing salt to meat as it can get really salty or under cured. Here is my recipe for Garlic Whiskey Wild Boar Bacon.

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Ingredients:

• ½ teaspoon Curing Salt
• 1-½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Light Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Garlic powder
• 1 oz Whiskey
• 1 oz water
• 1 lbs Boar Belly

**The recipe is per pound, so if you have a 4 pound belly multiply the recipe 4 times or however many times you need to depending on the weight of your belly.**

Preparation:

1. Wash boar belly and pat dry.
2. Place all ingredients except belly into a large zip-lock bag (that will fit the belly as well)
3. Shake up the bag so the seasoning is all incorporated
4. Add belly to cure and seal the bag. Try to remove as much air as possible.
5. Lay flat in the refrigerator for 7 days. Make sure to flip the bag once a day.
6. After 7 days remove the belly from the bag and rinse off cure and pat completely dry.
7. Preheat your smoker to 180 degrees.
8. Place belly on smoker for 2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees. (Alternately if you don’t have a smoker you can pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees and place it in there until the internal temp is 150)
9. Once it’s off the grill let it cool down then place it in the refrigerator. It is much easier to slice if it is nice and cold. You can also place it in the freezer for a bit to par freeze and it becomes even easier to slice. Enjoy!

Read more recipes by A. Zada