Heritage Pork Bacon

Thick cut heritage pork belly bacon, dry cured with sea salt and brown sugar, smoked over hardwood, and sliced by hand. Real bacon from real pork. The kind of bacon that ruins you for the plastic pouch version forever.

Cut Story

Bacon is just cured and smoked pork belly. The difference between a great bacon and a forgettable one starts with the belly itself, then runs through the cure, the smoke, and the slice thickness. Most commercial bacon fails at step one. The belly comes from commodity pigs bred lean, then gets pumped with water and brine to add weight, then gets smoke flavoring instead of actual smoke. You can hear the result when you cook it. It hisses, sweats water into the pan, and shrinks to half size.

Circle 7 heritage bacon starts with belly from our own pasture raised heritage hogs. Thick alternating fat and meat layers, no water injection, no liquid smoke. We dry cure with sea salt and brown sugar for 7 days, smoke over hardwood for 4 hours, then chill and slice by hand into thick strips. The result behaves the way bacon is supposed to behave in a pan. It crisps instead of shrinking, the fat renders clear instead of foaming, and the strips lay flat instead of curling.

Each pound contains roughly 12 to 14 thick slices. One pound is enough for 4 to 6 servings depending on how generous you are with breakfast.

Why Heritage

Lean commodity bacon has nothing to render. You end up with crispy meat strips and soft white fat that never crisps. Heritage bacon has the fat structure to render fully, leaving you with strips that snap when you bite them and rendered fat in the pan that is the best cooking fat on earth for eggs, potatoes, and greens.

Marbling and Quality

• Cure: sea salt, brown sugar, pink curing salt #1
• Smoke: hardwood, 4 hours
• Slice: hand cut, roughly 1/8 inch thick
• Color: deep pink meat, ivory to cream fat
• No nitrates, no nitrites, no liquid smoke, no water injection

Note: pink curing salt #1 contains sodium nitrite. We disclose that. The phrase “no nitrates added” on most bacon packages is a labeling workaround that uses celery powder for the same chemistry. We use a small precise amount of curing salt and label it honestly.

How It Ships

Bacon ships sliced, vacuum sealed in 1 lb packs, and flash frozen. Use within 6 months of receipt for peak flavor (bacon stores well frozen but the smoke profile is best fresh).

Suggested Cooking Method

Pull from the freezer the night before. Thaw in the refrigerator. Lay strips in a cold cast iron skillet, turn the heat to medium, and let the fat render slowly as the pan comes up to temperature. Flip once when the bottom side is golden, finish on the other side. Do not crank the heat. Slow rendering gives you the flat crispy strip. Fast cooking curls the strip and chars the meat before the fat renders.

For oven bacon: lay strips on a wire rack over a sheet pan, bake at 400F for 18 to 22 minutes for thick cut, until the fat is fully rendered and the meat is mahogany. The hands-off method that gives you perfectly flat strips every time.

Save the rendered fat. Strain it through a coffee filter into a jar. Store in the refrigerator. Use it for everything.

Cut Specs

What’s Different About Circle 7 Pork

• Heritage breed genetics, not commodity hybrids
• Pasture raised, not confinement raised
• Slow grown to natural finish weight
• No added hormones, no routine antibiotics
• Cut and packaged on the ranch
• Direct from the family that raised the animal
• Dry cured, real wood smoked, hand sliced

Customer FAQs

Why is your bacon more expensive than grocery store bacon? Because there is no water in it. Commercial bacon is often 10 to 20 percent injected brine, which you pay for at the register and watch evaporate in the pan. Our bacon is bacon all the way through. Per cooked ounce, the price is closer than it looks.

Does this have nitrates or nitrites? Yes, a small precise amount of sodium nitrite (pink curing salt #1) used in dry curing. We disclose it. Most bacon labeled “no nitrates added” uses celery powder, which is nitrate from a different source. We chose transparency over a marketing label.

Why is the fat creamy instead of pure white? Pasture diet and heritage genetics. The slight cream tint signals quality. It also renders cleaner and tastes better.

Will this bacon shrink when I cook it? Far less than commercial bacon. There is no injected water to evaporate. Expect roughly 30 percent shrink versus 50 percent or more on commodity bacon.

Can I freeze unopened packs and use later? Yes. Bacon freezes well for 6 months at peak quality and longer for safety. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Pairing Recommendations

• Cast iron eggs and sourdough toast
• BLT with heirloom tomato and aioli
• Maple glazed and crumbled on roasted brussels sprouts
• Bourbon and a black coffee on a cold morning
• Crumbled into wilted greens with apple cider vinegar

Storage

Keep frozen at 0F or below. Once thawed, refrigerated bacon keeps 7 to 10 days unopened, 5 to 7 days opened. Rendered bacon fat keeps in the refrigerator 3 months.

Learn More

• Heritage Pork vs Grocery Store Pork
• Kurobuta Pork Buyers Guide

Image Specs

• Hero: raw sliced bacon laid out on butcher paper, 2400x1600
• Detail 1: thickness and layering close-up, 1600x1600
• Detail 2: bacon in cast iron mid-render, 2400x1600
• Lifestyle: bacon and eggs breakfast plate, 2400x1600

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