Who knew making bacon was so simple?

The guys at 7th West Charcuterie in Seattle did and wanted to share their passion for bacon through their easy-to-make bacon kit.

It’s a cool DIY project — and lip-smacking good, too.

The product: The Original Bacon Kit

Price and availability: $19.99 plus shipping, from baconkit.com

How it works: The box comes with everything you need (except the 5 pounds of pork belly). Just toss the cure, maple sugar (optional) and pork belly into the included plastic bag, zip the bag shut, then massage the meat to rub in the cure and maple sugar. Refrigerate for seven days, remembering to flip the bag over every other day.

After the seventh day, rinse the pork, pat it dry, insert the thermometer (also provided) into the fatty flesh and cook it at 200 degrees until the thermometer pops — two to 2-1/2 hours. (The meat can also be cooked in a smoker — which would probably taste even better.)

Once the meat is cooked and cooled, just slice and fry or freeze.

Pros: The bacon produced isn’t as salty as store-bought bacon (something one of my tasters appreciated), and having control over the thickness of each slice is wonderful for people who enjoy thick, juicy pieces, like me. Also, according to baconkit.com, the fat rendered can be used in other dishes to add another layer of flavor. Or, as the site says, “use it in your favorite bourbon.”

The kit is also a great starting point for people intimidated by the idea of making bacon from scratch but want to try. This way they can create fare suited to their palates.

Cons: You’ll have to make sure to dedicate enough refrigerator space for the pork belly to marinate for a week. If you can’t find 5 pounds of pork belly on sale, then the total cost could be more than just buying 5 pounds of bacon from the store. Also, the slab reduced quite a bit after cooking, but there was still a good amount of meat to go around.

Worth it? Yes. It’s a fun project that can also be done with kids. And in the end you get bacon.