There is nothing better than when one of your kitchen projects turns out good. I recently made 7 or 8 pounds of good and simple smoked bacon. I put a basic salt/sugar cure on the bellies and than followed up with a good deal of cold hickory smoke.
Not to toot my own horn (I am a notorious horn-tooter) but the stuff came out absolutely beautifully. Just look at that foot long strip pictured above! Just check out these lovely, fatty rashers pictured below!
I have been using a vacuum sealer during the cure (standard dry cure 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar plus pink salt) which has yielded very good results. I cut the pork belly into what-I-am-going-to-use-in-a-week-or-two sized pieces (I freeze the surplus).
Here is a hunk after smoking. I cold smoked the cured bellies for about 8 hours and then brought them up to about 128 deg. at the end. I used my Bradley smoking rig with the cold smoke adapter. I am starting to get a little dissatisfied with this setup and I think that building a real smoke house in my yard may be one of next year's projects (don't tell the wife).
I used my slicer Lurlissa (I name my appliances) to cut the stuff fairly thin. The best part about slicing your own bacon at home is that you are left with all sorts of smokey bits and ends to utilize in soups/stews/etc...
Here is the end result of all my toil. Delicious, crispy, home made bacon strips.
As I stated before, there is no better feeling than home producing one of the staple food products (I am doing a period of keto, so bacon is currently a staple) that you utilize on a daily basis. It ties you to a period in time when all sorts of processes like this were done in the home as a matter of course.
I know that bacon is so 2008, but thank you for humoring my self indulgent bacon pride for a couple of minutes.
Nice job. As you know, I heartily endorse home production of all sorts of cured meat products.
ReplyDeleteDave, you make my day! I check for new posts every day.
ReplyDeleteLooks good. What don't you like about the Bradley setup? I keep hearing mixed - some swear by them while others think they are junk.
ReplyDeleteIts over all rickety construction bothers me, the door on mine broke already. The puck feeder thing always misfeeds, once the button stuck on me and it fed about 15 bucks worth of pucks into the water bowel. I feel like the setup is ok for cold smoking, but I would much rather just have a small smoke house with a little heating element and use sawdust or actual hardwood, it would be much cheaper.
DeleteThat's too bad about the quality of the smoker especially for the price. I have a few ways to cold smoke but it would be nice to dial in 150 degrees after a few hours. Alas, the cheap bastard in me won't buy one.
DeleteI have that Auber Instruments ( http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=151 ) temperature controller. I figure I can rig this up to some sort of heating element and get good steady temps for hot smoking. I am going to have to research it.... I would like a little more room too.
DeleteBy the way, wait until you see my meat curing chamber I am building... Waiting for one more piece to finish it. It is going to be a temperature/humidity controlled beauty.
I look forward to seeing it. Our basement was little too damp so I got a big dehumidifier that renders my old curing setup useless. It's the old Steven Wright joke about putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room and letting them fight it out.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your Christmas-themed post, I wonder if you have ever tried making "Tom and Jerry" http://www.esquire.com/drinks/tom-and-jerry-drink-recipe It is a varient of egg-nog, and used to be a a holiday tradition among those "of a certain age". I bet you'd like them.
ReplyDelete