Posting this in this forum is a bit of a cheat as I don't have pigs or anything but hey ho
Anyhoos, over the years I have got very very disappointed with what is passed off as bacon in the shops. That nasty white oozing gunk that all of it now seems to produce is just grim, then you have to take the shrinkage into consideration. Its enough to do a mans head in when all you want is a nice bacon sandwich. My quest has been long, trying to find a decent bacon the problem I have found is this, you can get decent bacon but it comes at quite a price.
Well, I should say it does if you buy it, I have for the first time produced my own bacon and I am so impressed with the quality. In my internet travels I came across
http://www.sausagemaking.org/ where I found their bacon cure. Next was a trip to the local butchers Sunday meat auction where I picked up a nice sized bit of pork belly for a fiver. Later that day I trimmed out the bones and had myself some nice bbq ribs and then go the business at hand, weighing out some cure, rubbing it in and wrapping in cling film, then pretty much leave alone for several days. For my piece it took 7 days all in. I now have lots and lots of lovely streaky bacon that doesn't ooze and doesn't shrink anywhere near as much as shop bought. And of course I can cut it to any thickness I choose.
So if like me you are fed up with low quality bacon give it a try, its really easy and price wise works out exceedingly well (a bag of cure is £7 and is enough to do 25kilo).
It's weird, something so simple but so worthwhile I just had to shout about it