INGREDIENTS FOR 10 POUNDS OF BACON If you like your bacon to be a little more moist you should use a 70-30 mix of red meat beef or game and pork fat. For a dryer bacon use a 80-20 or 90-10 mix. Everybody has different tastes so the following is what I have used and have found it to be flavorful combination.

7.5 lbs - lean beef, elk, venison, or antelope if using wild game, be sure to trim away all fat and cartilage as this will give your bacon a poor taste.

2.5 lbs. - pork fat This can have some meet, I use the trimming from Boston Butts or Picnic trim that I use when making sausage

1 Cup - Cold water

Seasoning - Born's Bacon Seasoning for 10 lbs.

one half oz - Liquid Smoke Used if cooking in oven, not used if smoking.
The amount may vary based on concentration, follow package instructions for amount to use per lb of meet.

STEP 1:GRINDING AND MIXING
Be sure the meat temperature stays at 34° to 40° F. during preparation. Work rapidly with cold meat or refrigerate small batches as necessary. Grind all meat and fat through a half inch or three quarter" plate or dice the meat-fat into quarter inch cubes. Mix the sodium nitratecuring agent with Born's Bacon Seasoning Brown Sugar seasoning already has cure in mix. Sprinkle the spices evenly over the meat and mix the meat and spices thoroughly using a kneading motion similar to mixing dough. Grind the meet a second time through a 1-8" or 3-16" plate depending on your desired texture. After Grinding add water and thoroughly mix the meat again. If you will be cooking your bacon in an oven liquid smoke can be added at this point use package instructions.

STEP 2:PRESSING
After the spices are thoroughly mixed with the meat, pack the meat, not over 2" deep, into a cake pan lined with cellophane or waxed paper. Be sure the meat is packed down very tightly to eliminate all air pockets. Place the pan of bacon in a freezer for 2-3 hours to touch freeze it. Not hard frozen, but enough for bacon to maintain its form when removed from the cake pan

STEP 3:SMOKING-COOKING
Preheat smoke house or oven to 130°F. Remove bacon from pan and place upside down on wire rack in smoke house-oven. Smokehouse - Add smoking chips and smoke for approximately 2 hours at 130°F. Oven - cook at 130°F for 2 hours. After two hours raise the temperature of the oven-smokehouse to 165°F and cook until an internal temperature of 130° is obtained. Once this temperature is reached turn off heat and cool to room temperature. You may opt to cut bacon into 1-2 lb slabs at this point and freeze. You may do this and slice just before frying. You may also slice per the instruction below and freeze in slices.

STEP 4:SLICING-COOKING
Place cooked slab back in cake pan and put in freezer for 2-3 hours until once again touch frozen. Remove slab from freezer and place on a cutting surface. Slice bacon from slab using a very sharp knife. An electric knife or meat slicer works best, but a sharp knife will also work. Slice 1-8" to quarter inch thick. There is very little shrinkage when frying this so any thicker than quarter inch may cause the bacon to cook unevenly. To cook, fry in a pan like bacon until done I do not recommend cooking in a microwave. In order to wrap and freeze, place individually cut stripes on a baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen hard you can package in desired quantities wrap and freeze. This product must go straight from the freezer to the frying pan. If you thaw the product first it will begin to crumble and stick together. To avoid bacon sticking together when frozen you can place freezer paper or cellophane wrap between slices before final packaging.