The Charcutepalooza follow-up: Makin' bacon. 9 pounds in 9 days in 9 easy steps.

My Sweet Sorghum Bacon. The cure mixture created a beautiful "meat gloss".

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Savory Bacon, and Sweet Sorghum Bacon, sliced and packaged for the freezer.

Yes, I'm starting out by showing you the finished product. As a preserver, one of my favorite things is looking at a jar of jelly or jam, a bottle of syrup or infused vodka, or a crock of pickles or kim chi. I can now add to that ever-growing list of favorite preserved things: "a bag of sliced home-cured bacon".

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I'm busy makin' bacon for Charcutepalooza!

My Pork Belly: 22 inches long, 10" wide and approx 9 pounds. Soon to be BACON.

Charcutepalooza's tag line is "The Year of Meat. It's a challenge amongst food bloggers (across the world!) to make one stellar charcuterie project every month for one year. The competition is tough; about 300 passionate -- and some might say "obsessed" -- food bloggers battling it out to create stunning examples of cured meats. Sure there are prizes, including a trip to France. There's also the possibility of fame & glory, as well as advancing a few rungs up the "ways-to-prepare-meat" ladder in your kitchen. But I think most of us are doing it simply because it's fun. The fact that you end up with some incredibly tasty charcuterie as a result is a bonus too, of course.

I decided to slice the Pork Belly into 4 pieces, and will use 2 different cures on 2 pieces each.

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