Get a weight on your pork belly and scale the recipe accordingly.

Remove the pork belly from the package and pat it dry with paper towels.  Transfer it to the container you will be curing it in.  You may want to cut the pork belly into more manageable sized pieces and that is fine to do so in this step.

In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients except for the bay and thyme.  Mix this around to evenly distribute the curing salt and break up any clumps of brown sugar. 

Add the maple syrup and mix.  It will form a grainy paste.

Spread this paste all over the belly, top and bottom.    Sprinkle the thyme sprigs and bay under and over the belly.  Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 days.

Remove the curing belly from the refrigerator.  The salt will have pulled water out of the meat and created a brine in the container.  Using your hands, turn all the pieces of bacon (so what was on top is now on the bottom) and rub everything with the brine.  Cover and refrigerate for another 3-4 days for a total cure time of 7 days.

Remove the bacon from the refrigerator.  Rinse the cure off of the pork belly.  Pat it dry and lay it out on a rack in a single layer.  Refrigerate for one day.  If you are doing this during the winter in colder climes, you can leave the bacon out in your garage for this step, just make sure the area is clean and the overnight temp in the garage is under 41 F but not freezing.

Preheat your smoker to 180-225.  Smoke until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of 140-145 degrees.

Cool the bacon.  

At this time bacon can be cut, used, wrapped, vacuum sealed and/or frozen.  This bacon will last at least 2 weeks in the fridge (longer if vacuum sealed and unopened), or 6 months in the freezer.