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Sugar-free, hickory smoked bacon recipe that is an important product for local farms that offer healthy, pastured pork to the community. **Please share this recipe with your local pastured pork farmer!
I’ve been buying hickory smoked pastured bacon from Peaceful Pastures, a Tennessee family farm, for a number of years.
It is sugar-free too, which is very hard to find when it comes to locally produced, pastured pork.
Tragically, this farm suffered a devastating family loss a few months ago.
I received my last order on March 1, 2024. Sadly, there are no plans for further pickups in the future 😢
Given that sugar-free pastured bacon is so hard to find locally, I asked Peaceful Pastures if they would be willing to share Jenny’s recipe so that I could give it to local pork producers in my state.
They said yes! Below is the Peaceful Pastures amazing recipe for hickory smoked, sugar-free bacon.
It is the BEST bacon you’ve ever tasted.
I’ve already shared this recipe with the pork farmers in my community. I hope you will share it with the ones in yours too!
We really need local pork farmers to offer sugar-free bacon as it is simply too dangerous, in my opinion, to buy commercial bacon at the store anymore even if organic.
China is buying up the commercial pork industry in the United States (along with farmland), and mRNA injections are already being used in pig livestock. (1-3)
To get safe bacon, you simply must buy it locally and avoid any bacon that has passed through the Industrialized Food System.
Is Celery Powder Healthy?
The recipe below contains celery powder, which is a natural source of nitrites.
Other vegetables that contain naturally occurring nitrites are spinach, beetroot, lettuces, cabbages, potatoes, and carrots.
Organic celery powder is far safer than sodium nitrate curing salts commonly used in commercial versions, which involve a lengthy, complex, and toxic manufacturing process that involves ammonia. (4)
By comparison, celery powder is made by dehydrating whole celery at low temperature. That’s it!
Thus, the “nitrates are nitrates” line from Big Food which seeks to confuse consumers into accepting sodium nitrate as a food preservative and curing agent as the same as what is in vegetables is a typical half-truth.
It is strongly reminiscent of the “MSG is MSG” line trumpeted for decades seeking to conflate synthetic MSG added to processed foods with the natural, healthful glutamate in meat, gravy, broth, and stock.
While some people cannot tolerate even the natural nitrates in vegetables like celery, most people can … even those on gut-healing diets like GAPS.
If you can eat celery and other nitrite-rich vegetables without issues, there is a good chance you will be fine with celery salt as a natural curing seasoning too.
Cooking Sugar-Free Bacon
These tips on cooking sugar-free bacon will help you transition to the slightly different method needed compared with sugared commercial brands.
Hint: Sugar-free bacon tends to stick to the pan and needs to be flipped several times during the initial cooking process as it is heating up.
Hickory Smoked, Sugar-free Bacon
Sugar-free, hickory smoked bacon recipe that is an important product for local farms that offer healthy, pastured pork to the community.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup celery juice powder
- 3/4 – 1 cup fine sea salt
Instructions
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Blend the celery powder and sea salt together to make a dry rub for the fat-rich cut you will use to make the bacon (pork belly is common).
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Generously apply the rub all over the surface of the meat, making sure to coat it evenly.
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After generously applying the rub, place in a vacuum sealed or ziplock bag (with as much of the air removed as possible) and refrigerate for 10-14 days to naturally cure it. Flip the bag each day to move the juices through. You’ll know that the meat is cured when the exterior is dry and you can poke it and it has some resistance.
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Remove the pork from the refrigerator and hickory smoke at 200 °F/ 93 °C for 3 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 160 °F/ 71 °C.
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Remove the pork from the smoker promptly and let it rest for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours on the counter.
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Slice the bacon to the desired thickness and cook some up right away! Refrigerate what you will use within a week.
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Freeze the remaining slices in one-pound packages until ready to use.
(1) Who’s behind the Chinese takeover of world’s biggest pork producer?
(2) House Agriculture Committee Testimony 3-20-2024, Governor Kristi L. Noem
(3) How Long Have You Been Eating mRNA Injected Pork?
(4) Sodium Nitrate Manufacturing Process: A Closer Look
Do you think celery powder and salt could be used to make corn beef also? With pickling spices, of course. I’m having a really hard time finding a nitrate free corn beef recipe.
I have not tried it to know for sure.
I make my own bacon using 1 cup (0.24 l) of fresh Chinese or oriental celery (regular celery works too), 1 cup (0.24 l) of Montreal Steak Spice and 1 cup (0.24 l) of water. Blend and pour over pork belly is a self – lock plastic bag.
After curing 10–14 days in the fridge, rinse under cold water to remove all salts and spices. You can then add various spices to add flavor. I coat mine with maple syrup or honey, a thick coating of fresh ground pepper, cocoa powder (gives it a nice umami and depth). You could also heat it up with Jalapeño or chipotle powder, or whatever strikes your fancy.
You want the internal temp to be between 125f to 150f. Smoking at 200F is too high IMHO, it cooks too fast on the exterior. If you can control it around 150f or lower, you will have better results.
Why add sugar? Also the Montreal Steak Spice is loaded with MSG (it’s hidden in “spices”).
I would try this simple rub of celery powder and sea salt and see what you think. You don’t even have to rinse it after curing!
Why sugar & msg? Because I don’t believe they are the bugaboo people make them to be. However, I do understand some may be sensitive to them. To each its own. Notice I don’t use refined white sugar, but maple syrup or honey. The second reason is, it tastes delicious!
And frankly, if someone was so concerned about health issues to the point they want to avoid maple syrup or honey; they should be more concerned with eating meat and smoked at that, which is known to contain Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other nasties.
If eaten as a treat on some occasion, I believe it has the same risks as a piece of cake indulged once in a while.
But again, you do you…
If you think sugar and MSG are fine, that is certainly your preference. Your neurons and pancreas may feel otherwise, however!
Hi Sarah,
There was a WAPF article in 2012 about bacon and nitrates where nitrate free products (celery salt) have more nitrates than nitrate free products! After reading this and your post today I am confused….
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/food-features/save-your-bacon-sizzling-bits-about-nitrites-dirty-little-secrets-about-celery-salt-and-other-aporkalyptic-news/#gsc.tab=0
Yes, I’ve read that article. The fact of the matter is that the natural nitrites in celery (and dehydrated celery powder) are not the same as industrialized nitrates manufactured with ammonia.
While it is true that someone who is sensitive to nitrates will likely react to both, they are not the same toxicity-wise. A person with healthy gut function will rarely if ever have any issues with the natural nitrites in celery powder.
How many pounds of bacon would this recipe cover? Thanks!
The cup of rub would likely cover at least a couple of pork bellies.