Garlic Whiskey Wild Boar Bacon

This recipe was first featured on our brand partner's website—Harvesting Nature. Their team harvests their own meat, tests their own recipes, refine, and test again. For more fantastic recipes, check out the Harvesting Nature recipe page. 

Who doesn’t love bacon? Breakfast, lunch, dinner and even for a quick snack. This recipe brings home the bacon—literally. While 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, we wanted to show you how easy it is to make your own bacon as long as you have a few key ingredients.

After hunting season, you're going to wonder what you can do with the belly of your boar or any other animal. Don't just throw it 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 is 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.  

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 lb 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.**

 Directions

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 180º.
8. Place belly on smoker for 2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 150º. (Alternately if you don’t have a smoker you can preheat your oven to 200º and place it in there until the internal temp is 150º).
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.