The Nine-Day Process Behind Our Original Bacon

Bacon is one of the most popular products we make, but many customers are surprised to learn just how different our process is from the bacon found in most grocery stores.

Our original bacon starts with Iowa-raised pork bellies that are carefully selected for quality and consistency. From there, we use a traditional curing process that takes time, patience, and a lot of hands-on work.

It Starts With a Dry Cure

Unlike many commercial bacon manufacturers, we don't inject our pork bellies with a liquid curing solution.

Instead, each belly is hand-rubbed with a blend of salt, sugar, pepper, spices, and curing salt (sodium nitrite). The bellies are then placed in our cooler and allowed to cure slowly over the course of about seven days.

This traditional dry-curing process takes significantly longer than injection curing, but we believe the extra time is worth it.

Many commercial bacon producers mechanically inject a curing solution directly into the meat. This helps the bacon cure faster and can increase production efficiency. In some cases, it can also increase the weight of the finished product. That's why you'll sometimes see labels that read "Bacon, Water Added" at the grocery store.

Our goal is different. We want our bacon to taste like pork and smoke, not added water.

Why Our Bacon Feels Different

When you open a package of Old Station Craft Meats bacon, one of the first things you'll notice is that it's much firmer than most grocery store bacon.

That's because we don't inject additional liquid into the pork belly, and we fully cook our bacon to 145°F during the smoking process.

Many bacon manufacturers stop short of the USDA-recommended cooking temperature for pork. By leaving more moisture in the product, they can increase the weight and yield of the finished bacon.

We take a different approach.

We smoke our bacon until it reaches 145°F, which means some moisture is naturally lost during the process. The result is a firmer slice, a richer flavor, and a product that contains more actual meat and less retained water.

Simply put, you're paying for bacon, not extra moisture.

Better Performance in the Pan

If you've ever cooked bacon that seemed to shrink to half its size, you've seen what happens when excess moisture cooks out of the product.

Because our bacon is dry-cured and fully cooked, it holds its shape much better during frying. Instead of watching your bacon shrivel into a thin strip, you'll notice thicker slices, better texture, and more meat left in the pan when it's finished cooking.

Finished With Hickory Smoke

After curing for seven days, the bellies are slowly smoked with hickory wood until they reach the proper temperature.

The bacon then rests overnight in our cooler to allow the flavors to settle and the product to firm up. The following day, it's sliced, packaged, and prepared for our customers.

The Difference Is Easy to See

The next time you open a package of our bacon, take a moment to compare it with what you've purchased elsewhere.

You'll notice a firmer texture. You'll notice less moisture in the package. You'll notice that it holds up better in the frying pan.

Most importantly, you'll notice great flavor.

At Old Station Craft Meats, we believe making bacon the traditional way takes more time, but we also believe it's the reason our customers keep coming back for another package.

After all, great bacon isn't made in a hurry.