Curing bacon and rendering lard!

This is just silly. I got so many things that I want to do a post about that I don't get any posts done at all! I'm only confusing myself and then I give up. So I'm just gonna write about one thing at a time. Not confusing myself.
And I have coffee.

I went to the butcher on monday, it's as local as it can be around here. My daughter had an appointment for checking her eyes at the hospital and the butcher also has a small shop in the same town. So I came home with a big piece of porkbelly, bones from reindeer, porkfat and leaf lard from cow. My goal was to cure bacon, make bone broth and render lard.

I started with rendering the fat.

I ended up with about 7 jars, I chose to use small jars, 1/4 litres. I did it in a waterbath to avoid burning it. The fat from the cow was a bit smelly, I haven't tried using it yet so I don't know if it's going to taste anything. I put them in my freezer and kept one of each to try in the fridge.

I like the idea of using as much as I can when it's available to us. I use butter, olive oil and coconut oil, but I can't make any of it myself like I can do lard. We need to figure out which one we like the most and then I can get more fat from the butcher. I got the pork and the bones at a very low price, the pork was cut the same day so it hadn't even been frozen.

I ended up getting the whole family involved in making the bacon. I started to cure two bigger pieces of pork, using only salt and sugar. I was reminded about turning it at breakfast already, but I don't need to until later tonight.
Please do not think that I know for a fact that it's going to be safe to do that. I read up on a few curing methods and I made the decision to use only salt and sugar after reading and having a talk with both my hubby and my mum. If you want to cure bacon, please research and decide for yourself.
I learned about this method from a video on youtube, with Guildbrook Farm and Grass-fed homestead.

We use similar methods for fish so I figured if the fish doesn't spoil then the meat isn't going to either. If it would start to smell, I'll know that it's going bad. Once it's cured I'm gonna cut it and freeze it. We've talked about building a smokehouse, but that isn't going to happen before the summer anyway.
The reindeer bones I got are still left untouched, I got a really bad cold so if I'm up for it I'll make a big batch of bone broth and soup later this week.

I also discovered that I got over 200 followers! That makes me so happy! Thank you for following me!

Until next time, be well.
//S