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This thread has inspired me to make my own bacon, so here are some pictures of my first attempt! I went to the local farmer's market and bought 4 pounds of pork belly. At $3.49 per pound, it's not amazingly cheap, but okay. Apparently it's locally raised Berkshire hogs, so I guess that's something. I mixed up the spices as directed in the OP:  Later I added honey to the mix, instead of brown sugar. Unfortunately, at this point I got so involved in preparing the bacon that I don't have pictures. Applied the cure liberally, bagged it up (gallon bags are almost too small) and left it in my fridge for a week. I would occasionally come by and flip the bacon, to make sure the cure was well distributed. Finally, it's been a week, and I regain my ability to take photograpghs. My bacon comes out of the cure looking glorious.  I place the bacon in a 200 degree oven for 90 minutes, and it comes out looking great, and smelling even better. The entire house is filled with the smell of bacon. I slice off a piece to cook and taste, and (stupidly) decide that this is a good time to slice the whole slab: when it's hot out of the oven. It goes about as well as you might expect:  It's cut unevenly and often into tiny pieces.. Still, tastes good. The wife and I eat on this first slab for around a week. When the time comes to slice the second slab, it's cold and considerably easier to slice. Of course it helps that in the meantime I bought one of these:  Things go much better this time:  Still not perfect. While all of the full slices are nearly perfect, as I got down to the end of the slab it became hard to control and wouldn't cut evenly - lots of small uneven scraps. Next time I will freeze the slab for an hour before slicing - I hear that's supposed to make it easier. All in all, my first bacon was a moderate success. For my next project:  Maple and brown sugar bacon! Should be ready to come out of the cure tonight.
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May 22, 2014 19:16
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 06:47 |
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The Midniter posted:That bacon looks delicious and that slicer is awesome. May I ask how much you picked it up for? New or used? Looks brand new. Bone_Enterprise posted:Chef's Choice brand I imagine and if that is the case they are fairly cheap at around $135 for that model. Absolutely correct. $135, well reviewed on Amazon, and works well for my purposes. Not terribly easy to clean though. http://amzn.com/B0058VCYWS It's not quite professional grade. The blade moves slower than I expected but the blade is serrated and razor sharp, so it goes through the bacon like it's nothing. Teflon gloves are a good idea to go with it. http://amzn.com/B003TV40XA
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May 22, 2014 23:14
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Update time! The brown sugar maple bacon was a success. It came out of the cure looking glorious.  A quick 90 minutes in the oven dried it out nicely.  However, tragedy - my wife finds the bacon too salty. A soak in ice water in the fridge for 6 hours drew out a good deal of the salt and made it palatable. Slicing up the bacon on my awesome deli slicer got me my first injury in the line of bacon-making duty:  Not to worry, just a small nick under my fingernail while cleaing the blade. Time to package this up. Oh wait, what's that? That's right, a new vacuum sealer, for easier storage of my bacon.  The vacuum sealer has other, non-charcuterie uses too:  Not to mention, between the new slicer and the new sealer, my cat now has a kick-rear end box fort: 
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May 27, 2014 15:56
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 Latest bacon experiment: spicy cajun with brown sugar!
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Jun 8, 2014 17:27
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Errant Gin Monks posted:both links have been added to the op. If you all want me to add other lists of things to buy let me know and I will update it. NB: Shipping from Butcher-Packer is $9.75, at least to my area. Amazon may actually be cheaper, especially if you've got prime. Not sure how B-P handles shipping to different areas or if you're ordering multiple items. I got my Cure #1 from Amazon, it's been working great so far. Either should work, but definitely a good idea to have both links. Maybe something about the shipping cost from B-P should be the OP.
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Jun 12, 2014 23:11
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Musket posted:snip You know, I was thinking of making whiskey bacon. I was unsure how to do it. Until now. Please excuse me if I steal this recipe to use in my bacon. MiTEG posted:Experiment! I made six duck breasts worth of prosciutto a couple months ago and had fun trying it with different flavor combinations. Some of my favorites: I know of a friend that uses it in tacos. smilingfish fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 20:37
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Musket posted:Tools needed: Okay, I tried this the other day, all I was left with was a stain in the bottom of my cupcake holders. I'm wondering what I did wrong.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:36
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Thinking of trying to make "gingerbread bacon" during my next batch - basically add all the spices from gingerbread cookies (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) to the cure along with dark brown muscovado sugar. Thoughts?
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Jul 30, 2014 16:08
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 06:47 |
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Nicol Bolas posted:Gingerbread bacon sounds like it would go beautifully in a BLT with dried or roasted tomatoes on pumpernickel or rye or some other dark bread. Yeah, writing this suggestion down.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:22
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