I might be doing a bacon-curing run the week after new year's.
If you are interested in curing some bacon, we need to get going NOW!
I saw some recipes that have a 1-week brine, followed by an immediate smoke cure (no nitrates). AFAIK, most nitrate techniques prefer two weeks (1 week brine, 1 week larder). It certainly won't hurt to use nitrate (pink) salt in your brine, then directly to cure... but it won't be absolutely necessary. A little safer, but not required. I plan to go to Keller's for some pork belly today or tomorrow. I can pick some up for you if you wish. Let me know. 750-8435 (aaron)

The best/cheapest wood souce I know if is the big (12#, 20#?) bags of Hickory chunks from Home Depot. If you know of a better source of hardwoods for smoking, let me know. (Apple? Pecan?...)

I have one oak pallet, which I hear is pretty good for some "filler" (not flavor) wood. I'll take all the untreated hardwoods I can find.

Keller's and Ta Lin sell frozen pork bellies. $2/lb at Ta Lin.
Kellers expects a fresh shipment might be around February. They claim that you can arrange to be notified and get some fresh pork bellies the day they come in. They freeze or cure them immediately.

If you go with a pink curing salt (nitrate), one recipe calls for 2 tsp for 5 pounds.

This one worked like I do. Derived their procedure by finding commonality among several other published procedures:
http://keepingthefarm.blogspot.com/2011/03/curing-bacon.html

Pretty standard recipe, with curing salt:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/meat_bacon.html

Fancier recipe, also using curing salt:
http://ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/

Another fancy recipe. Shows a common 7 day brine (regular salt and sugar), then heat (smoke) cure.
http://robbwolf.com/2011/05/20/the-path-to-culinary-bliss-home-cured-bacon/

Shockingly similar to above, but has a video:
http://www.legourmet.tv/cooking/homemadebacon.html

Another regular salt recipe:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Home-Cured-Bacon

This one from a Missou Aggie, notes that this is traditional bacon season (if you have a cool larder shed) THIS IS MY FAVORITE OF THESE LINKS!!!:
http://www.thepigsite.com/recipes/94/home-curing-bacon-for-a-mild-flavor
Summary: 1/2 oz mixed cure/lb

This is not the only recipe I see with juniper berries.
Anybody got some?
http://ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/

General collected cure ratio guess: about 1-3 Tbsp salt + 1-3-Tbsp sugar / lb. I'm inclined to lean toward the aggie guideline of 1/2 oz cure/lb. I'm not sure how many Tbsp cure are 1/2 oz. I think it will be closer to 4-6 Tbsp total. We may want slightly more cure than the Missou site recommends if we are not using nitrates.

Having a tough time getting to Ta Lin, and getting bacon in brine. may have to delay. I do plan to do this soon.

My smoker is fairly large, and costs $15-$20 in wood every time I fire it up... so the more bacon I can do at once the merrier.

P.S.... anybody know of a good source for scrap, untreated hardwoods?
Mesquite, Hickory, oak, apple, pecan, cherry... Know of any orchards with trimmings?

I wish i could remember where Gabe Was getting his pork bellies, i recall they were both a good deal and nice and local/fresh/healthy. Perhaps Walter knows.

I really dont have the time this month to play with this. but would love to sample/buy some of your finished product.

Turkey and duck were a bit salty. For poultry brining, I would recommend 24-48 hours in brine, then 2-10 hours in simple ice water. This should allow the brine to equalize and reduce... then smoke.

I may try this with kippers next time, too. Perhaps brine 3 hours, instead of two, then 30 min - 1 hour in ice water, then 12-14 hours cure before smoking.

To extrapolate to bacon, 5-7 days in brine. all day, or overnightish in ice water, then cure for 1-3 days ( longer is possible if using nitrates ) in fridge, then smoke 3-6 hours at 200.

I have noted that my top rack is quite a bit warmer than the bottom rack of the smoker. Next time I kipper (at 150ish degrees), I'll see if I can do some bacon on the top rack, which might be closer to 200F.