Wet-cured smoked bacon ribs with maple bourbon glaze

Dissolve the kosher salt, brown sugar and pink curing salt in hot water, then add ice water to make a gallon of cool brine.

Remove the membrane from the back of the slab, gripping it with a paper towel; cut one slab into individual ribs.

Submerge the meat in the brine, lid on, in the fridge about five days (here seven).

Mix a salt-free rub: 16 mesh black pepper, granulated garlic, ancho chili powder, guajillo, chipotle, dry mustard powder, maple sugar and granulated honey.

Take the ribs out of the brine, pat dry and season heavily on top with the rub.

Smoke at about 200 degrees over hickory for about the first four hours, for smoke and color.

Raise to between 250 and 275 degrees for the last couple of hours to render the fat.

Check internal temperatures: the whole slab about 168, the individual ribs in the 190s.

For the glaze, mix maple syrup, bourbon (about a quarter of the volume), a little tamarind paste and a little honey.

Glaze the individual ribs and pull them into an aluminum tray when done; give the whole rack more time before glazing it.

Slice and serve.