Mangalitsa Bacon - Hickory Smoked Maple Brown Sugar

Mangalitsa Heritage Pork · Our Maple Cure Our maple bacon, on Mangalitsa. The same cure as our best-selling bacon — hickory smoked, with maple and brown sugar worked in alongside cinnamon and clove — on belly from the Mangalitsa hogs we raise here. Richer, softer fat, and a lot more of it in the pan. MANGALITSA Heritage lard breed HICKORY Smoked over MAPLE In the cure Why the package says “uncured” Bacon labelled “cured” has sodium nitrite added to it as a chemical, straight from a packet. Ours says “uncured” because we use the natural nitrates found in celery and cherry rather than chemicals. Same job, same safety, different source. The USDA requires the word “uncured” on the package when it is done that way — even though the bacon is, of course, cured. It is a labelling rule, not a description of the bacon. The whole ingredient list, exactly as it reads on the package: Pork, Sea Salt, Celery and Cherry Powder, Brown and Maple Sugar (100% Maple Syrup), Organic Cane Sugar, Cinnamon and Clove. That is the entire thing. From the farm We raise Mangalitsa here in Monticello, Kentucky. They grow slower than a commodity hog and put that time into fat rather than lean, which is the whole point of the breed. Put our regular maple cure on that belly and you get a richer strip that renders more fat than any bacon you've cooked. It's the bacon we wrapped our Italian stuffed chicken thighs in. How to cook it 01 Start in a cold pan. Lay the strips in before the heat goes on, then bring it up to medium-low. The fat renders instead of seizing. 02 Go lower than you would with supermarket bacon. The maple and brown sugar caramelize well before the fat is done, and Mangalitsa has more fat to render. Sugar burns; fat takes its time. 03 Or use the oven. 375°F on a rack over a sheet pan, 15–20 minutes. Flat strips, no splatter, and the whole pack cooks at once. 04 Keep the fat. Pour it off into a jar as it collects — there is a lot of it with Mangalitsa. Hickory, maple and clove all end up in it, and it is the best thing you will ever fry an egg in. On the grill, keep it off direct flame; that much fat will flare. What you're getting One sliced pack — Mangalitsa belly bacon Same cure as our best-selling bacon — hickory smoked, maple and brown sugar, cured with celery and cherry powder Mangalitsa raised on our farm — a heritage lard breed, not a commodity hog Raised in Monticello, Kentucky — USDA inspected Who vouches for us Homegrown By Heroes Farmer veteran certified Weston A. Price Wise Traditions listed Kentucky Proud KY Dept. of Agriculture Appalachia Proud Mountains to Market USDA inspected · Processed at USDA-inspected facilities in Science Hill, Kentucky and Walling, Tennessee