The last two pigs I've shot have been pretty good sized. The bellies were really thick and I am curing some bacon in my fridge right now. For those of you who've never made bacon, you really should give it a go. I explain each of these a little more over at my silly blog, but here are the basic tools you need to make bacon:

1. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman.
2. Coarse Kosher Salt
3. Pink Salt (6.25% sodium nitrite)
4. Dextrose
5. Pork
6. An Electronic Scale
7. 2 gallon Zip lock bags
8. Refridgerator
9. Smoker
10. Fresh Spices

Its such an easy process, I hate to think of all the fine pork belly ground into sausage. Or worse left lying.

Here is some of the last batch I cut into lardons to add to a pot of pinto beans:


For those of you who've made bacon before, can you add to the tools above?