Makin' Bacon! (and other cured meats)

[Drunk Tank]

I love cured meats. From bacon to salami to prosciutto and everything in between. I have been wanting to try my hand at charcuterie for a while.



I bought this book about a month or so ago and after reading through it a couple times and going over the recipes, I have decided that making bacon would be the best and easiest thing to start with.

I needed to pick up a couple pork butts and while at the meat market, I noticed that they sold pink salt (curing salt) and they also had some really nice slabs of pork belly, so I decided to pick them up and try my hand at making bacon.

For my first batch I am doing maple cured bacon. The cure is pretty simple.

• 50g kosher salt
• 50g dark brown sugar
• 12g pink salt
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3-5lb pork belly, skin on

First thing is to trim up the pork belly so the ends are nice and square for easy slicing when all said and done. Next, you make the cure by combining the dry ingredients and mixing them well.



Then add the maple syrup and mix again. Now you coat all sides of the pork belly with the cure and place in a large zip-lock bag. It is important that the cure always stay in contact with the meat. I used a gallon zip-lock bag, but it was almost too small. If I would of thought about it, I could have vacuum sealed it.





It now has to rest in the fridge 7 or so days. I will flip the bag every other day. When done, You rinse in cold water and pat dry. Then let it dry on a rack in the fridge for 24 hours. After the cure, I am going to smoke it. I am trying to decide on hickory or apple wood. Everyone I have talked to who has made their own bacon says it is so much better than store bought. I cant wait!

[CJF]

I've got to try this. I'm guessing you slice after smoking? What temp will you smoke at and how long?

[Drunk Tank]

Smoke at low heat (180°-225°) until the internal temp is 150°. You remove the skin after you smoke it while it is still hot and easy to slice through the fat. After it cools, I'll throw it in the freezer for 30 or so minutes to firm it up, then slice it on my deli slicer and vacuum pack it. If it works out well, I am going to order a whole pork belly and make 20 or so lbs. I want to try my hand at pancetta as well.

[MarkGrace]

I posted this a while back, but an article about how to cure meats at home using a wine refrigerator.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/vorac...wine_refri.php

[Drunk Tank]

I posted this a while back, but an article about how to cure meats at home using a wine refrigerator.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/vorac...wine_refri.php

That is awesome. I have seen other people do that but have never looked into the details on building your own. Thanks!


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[Drunk Tank]

OMG. Why have I waited so long to make this stuff. So freaking good!

The bacon rested in the cure for 7 days. I flipped the bag containing the bacon and the cure every other day and re-distributed the cure over the pork belly. After 7 days, I checked to see if the cure had done its job. The book said the bacon should be firm to the touch, which it was, so I took it out of the cure and rinsed it well under running cold water, patted dry and left on a cooling rack in the fridge for about 16 hours to form a pellicle (sticky surface for the smoke to adhere too).

Here it is ready for the smoker.





The book calls for smoking the bacon @ 200° until the internal temp of the bacon is 150°. I had it on the smoke for a little over 3 hours and used hickory pellets. I wanted to use apple-wood pellets, but I was out.





After it was off the smoker, I removed the skin by sliding a sharp knife between the skin and the top layer of fat. It came off rather easy since the bacon was still warm from the smoker.








Once cool, I wrapped the bacon in some plastic wrap and put it into the freezer to firm up a bit more to make it easier to slice. I tried making the slices about 1/8" thick. My slicer isn't quite large enough to handle to whole slab of bacon, but I managed. I sliced about half, and vacuum sealed the rest and put it in the freezer.







Of course I had to reserve a few slices to fry up and try out. Since it is a maple bacon, I used a lower temperature to try to keep the sugar from burning. I was amazed at the amount of fat that renders off the bacon. I probably had close to 1/4" of bacon grease from just the 3 slices. It cooked faster and also crisped up a lot nicer than store bought. Not sure why.






The taste was amazing! It was a salty, sweet bliss. It is very rich and the fat that didn't render off was very tasty. The pieces I cooked were end pieces and I think were a bit more salty than the rest will be. It is so different than store bought. I could only eat once piece it was so rich. Probably the best bacon I have ever tried. I cant wait to try more savory flavors. I'll be making more for sure!

[wuapinmon]

It looks like your heat was up too high in the pan. If you want crispy perfect bacon, try cooking it in water...just enough to almost cover it in the pan. Cook it on medium-high heat. When the water's gone, the fat will be rendered, and the proteins will have relaxed enough that it won't curl up. The result? The water boils off, and you have what's left sizzling itself to crispiness in rendered bacon fat.


Your bacon looks awesome out of the smoker.

[Drunk Tank]

It looks like your heat was up too high in the pan. If you want crispy perfect bacon, try cooking it in water...just enough to almost cover it in the pan. Cook it on medium-high heat. When the water's gone, the fat will be rendered, and the proteins will have relaxed enough that it won't curl up. The result? The water boils off, and you have what's left sizzling itself to crispiness in rendered bacon fat.


Your bacon looks awesome out of the smoker.

I'll have to try that. Thanks for the tip!

[CJF]

Looks awesome. Can't wait to try it.

[risicam]

Looks just about like heaven...well, almost.

[wuapinmon]

I feel something towards that smoked flesh that's not quite lust, but not mere desire. I'm conflicted.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Very cool, DT.

[dabrockster]

Nice. Mouth is watering for a nice piece of bacon now..

[SteelBlue]

Very cool to follow DT. Looks delicious.

[Shaka]

This is awesome. I'm going to try this out prior to a camping trip. I'm sure this bacon will get me chicks.