Making your own bacon at home is easier than you might think, and the results are far superior to anything you can buy at the store. With just a few simple ingredients, a bit of patience, and the ...

Last weekend, on a visit to San Francisco, I witnessed cookbook author and food writer Michael Ruhlman show a roomful of bloggers at the California Culinary Academy how to cure bacon. Yup, at home.

Bacon doesn’t have to be smoked, says Hank Shaw, author of four cookbooks and the award-winning blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. “Pancetta is the most obvious example,” he says. “There are a lot of ...