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a note to those looking for smokers : I have this http://www.google.com/products/cata...ed=0CM4BEPMCMAc and it is magic. it runs a bit hot during the summer (220-230), but electric is amazing - I can leave stuff on it for 8 hours and not even think about it, aside from throwing woodchips on if I have spare time. I have a few ranco temperature controllers that I could wire up to better regulate the temperature, but I'm lazy, and it gets the job done right out of the box. It also doubles as a grill, but the electric element is a bit weak for anything that needs searing hot heat, so I mostly just smoke with it.
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Sep 26, 2011 22:43
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Nadine Hauklund posted:Okay, I just want to get this completely clear; that bacon from the first post and from the thread originator is not smoked. I don't need a smoker to make that amazing-looking bacon. That is what you are telling me? How much can I expect to pay for pork belly per lb? no way, that's definitely smoked. here are some before (well, in my homemade cure) and after glory shots of my most recent bacon effort though -   I started with about 3lbs 8oz, and finished with 3lbs 7 - the cure accounts for the minimal weight loss. I paid 3.69/lb for heritage berkshire pork belly - absolute top quality. You can find it for half the price (and half the quality) at cheap asian/hispanic marts. still, $3.69/lb for finished bacon is a steal. mindphlux fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Sep 28, 2011 |
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Sep 28, 2011 05:17
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Nadine Hauklund posted:So the gorgeous bacon above in your post is smoked. But smoking isn't required to make bacon, is that correct? naw, of course not. you just gotta cure pork belly. brits and canadians will tell you bacon doesn't even have to be pork belly, but don't listen to them, they're completely wrong. if this is your first time making bacon though, and you can't hot smoke it to finish, I'd really recommend at least using nitrates/pink salt. I like so called 'uncured' (no nitrate) bacon well enough, but only when it's smoked. unsmoked and unnitrated bacon begins to lose its claim on bacon-ness, in my opinion - the nitrates do tons for hammy, bacony flavor - but the smoke does as well. take both of them out, and you're just missing something - just my gut feeling.
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Sep 28, 2011 05:34
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I don't wanna be a panicky nelly, but I don't know what sort of effect that's gonna have on your cure. It's true it is water and proteins getting sucked out by the salt, but at the initial phases of the curing, it's basically all the salt on the outside. So, if you poured it off, most all of your salt might be gone. Idea is, it forms a brine, then moves its way back in to penetrate to the center of the meat. I'm not sure anyone could really answer the question of how big a deal it'd be, without measuring the quantity of liquid it was, and measuring the salinity of the water and comparing it to how much salt/cure you originally used. if you wanted to be safe, you might measure out an appropriate amount of cure, mix it with a cup of water or however much, and add that back to the bag.
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Sep 29, 2011 20:51
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CaptainCrunch posted:I think I will do that exact thing as soon as I get home from work. Gah. Teach me to not know what to expect during a cure! naw, I don't blame you; it is pretty counter-intuitive. you'll probably end up with a slightly salty version of bacon given the mishap and my above suggestion, but it's better than unsafe or uncured bacon I guess. anyone else more experienced than I am feel free to chime in, I've only cured like ~10 bellies before. and I am a lil bit of a panicy nancy when it comes to food safety. stupidly.
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Sep 30, 2011 06:00
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If you're making bacon and plan to hot smoke it to finish, which I recommend, it's easiest just to leave the skin on. Once you hot smoke it, you can run a sharp chef's knife through the layer of fat between skin and meat - almost like skinning a filet of fish, and the skin will come off beautifully, leaving the fat intact on the bacon. Pancetta, guess you'd want to skin that first.
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Oct 2, 2011 19:32
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cancertoast posted:I have just started looking into curing meats as a potential hobby. My wife and I began talking and the topic of nutritional value arose. Since this is still very new to me, I can not honestly say that I do not know the answer. Does cured meat mean less nutrition? Please enlighten me. Meat = Nutrition. Full stop, end of conversation. and slap her if she even tries to open her mouth after you've informed her of this indisputable fact you learned about nutrition from the internet.
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Oct 31, 2011 23:32
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ok, I'm pissed off. I can't get my curing fridge (using a small wine fridge) to maintain good humidity. there's gotta be a small (no bigger than mason jar sized) humidity keeping device out there. how do I keep this poo poo humid? I've tried misting it daily with a starsan solution, leaving cheesecloth in front of a fan draped in to saltwater, etc etc. ugh. I just want a set and forget solution.
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Dec 6, 2011 04:54
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I like turtles posted:I haven't kept a solid track of what the humidity looks like in my curing fridge, but I just leave a cup of water uncovered in there when it seems dry. I have a hygrometer. my wine fridge at 48-52degF has a humidity level of like 10-25% with no aid. uncovered water is like 20-30%. cheesecloth in front of fan draped in salt water is like 40-50%, as is misting once a day. nothing gets me up to the ~55-95% I want for cheese maturation and properly aging meats. I need like a mini humidifier, but my searches have been fruitless
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Dec 6, 2011 07:06
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cobra_64 posted:Maybe something like this http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16030902 this looks good, except I need to be able to set the humidity level, and I'm really tight on vertical space (the wine fridge is a 8 bottle horizontal one) I like turtles posted:The cigar humidifier is nice because you can specify desired humidity levels between 50% and 90% on the ~$80 models I was looking at. yeah, that's a thought. I was hoping for cheaper, but I guess you can't have something that works well and is cheap as balls. I'll probably just pick up one of these.
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Dec 6, 2011 19:07
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PainBreak posted:
oh hell yes
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Dec 9, 2011 04:49
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so, I want to make something like prosciutto, but I just have a 2lb strip of pork belly. in principle, I don't think this is an unreasonable goal - I mean there isn't really much difference between a pork shoulder and pork belly as far as meat goes, except obviously belly is a bit fattier - but I like lardo so. how should I go about curing it? I think ruhlman mentions anything (beef tenderloin, pork belly, whatever) can be dry cured like prosciutto - I think you just are supposed to rub it down with pepper and maybe garlic, and then salt the everliving gently caress out of it for a couple days - then lard it and hang it with cheesecloth in a temperature/humidity controlled area until its ham. but, has anyone done this? (or actually made prosciutto?) any advice? I guess I'm just gonna go garlic and pepper my pork belly strip and bury it in kosher salt and hope for the best...?
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Jan 16, 2012 03:39
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nevermind, apparently the exact recipe I wanted was already in Charcuterie - it was just labeled in the index as 'lardo'. Apparently he suggests the same procedure for dry curing pork belly as lardo - tons of the basic cure with pink salt, pepper, bay leaf, thyme. I added garlic. I guess its good I found that, I wasn't planning on using pink salt, and the curing times listed (about 10-14 days) are a lot longer than I was going to use.
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Jan 16, 2012 04:45
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goddamn, were you feeding like 20 people with those trays?
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Jan 18, 2012 22:01
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Joe Friday posted:Can you hook me up with your pickle recipes or post them in the home canning/pickling thread? I'd love the pumpkin pickle recipe especially. you can probably justify duck ham, because what average meat store has that? making bacon is ridiculously easy, no excuse not to. unless you don't have access to good pork I guess.
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Jan 18, 2012 22:49
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spandexcajun posted:I decided to corn a beef since I had pretty much everything but the brisket in my pantry I meant to do that last year. How much better was it than store bought? Can you say anything about how the two differ? Maybe I'll do it this year...
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Jan 20, 2012 05:01
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my first 'dry cured' meat is dry curing. about 3lbs of berkshire pork belly came out of the cure yesterday, gave it a longgg rinse, wrapped it double in cheesecloth, and put it in my 'cheese/meat' cave - a converted 8 bottle countertop wine cellar. I have the temp at 62, and a hydrometer which says my conditions are between 62-80% humidity. I have a small ramekin of water sitting in there, and I mist into the cheese cave with a spritz bottle full of a starsan solution every day. hope this works - if it turns out half as good as that loving duck ham, it's gonna be tops.
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Jan 29, 2012 08:52
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yeah, I mean the worst thing that can happen is it will be bacon that is 'worse for you' which is actually better for you, if you know what I mean...
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Jan 31, 2012 08:19
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I gotta say, I have never really been wowed by the meat from any pig as much as the black iberian. I even pretty much did the blind taste test - I went to spain knowing absolutely nothing about their ham (or even that they did ham aside from serrano or whatever) - and saw this ridiculously priced poo poo at a tapas place and ordered it for the heck of it. but man, it really is something special. I'd sooner have 1 lb of jamon iberico than 10lbs of goose foie gras.
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Jan 31, 2012 09:16
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Jose posted:I've got some more pork to cure for bacon, but lack the charcoal needed for smoking it and nowhere is selling it since its winter. Do I need to do anything after I finish curing it? you don't need charcoal to smoke, you just need the appropriate wood chips. if you want to cold smoke, you can just turn your oven into a smokebox with enough ingenuity. or hot smoking works in oven too - just catch a foil packet full of woodchips on fire on your hob, and then set it on the bottom of your oven - it'll smolder out and smoke. I guess you have to be OK with your house being completely smoked out, but I'm sure if you're making bacon you're not the type to shy away from delicious wood-smoke.
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Jan 31, 2012 10:17
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Kid posted:After slicing a mountain of bacon, I wrapped it up in Clingfilm for freezing and fried a few pieces up to try. AND???????????
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Feb 14, 2012 06:42
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Demon_Corsair posted:Is it safe to go less then a week in the cure? yes. you can tell when it's done based off of color and squishyness. I've had plenty of pork belly get finished 4-5 days in - it'll be firm and evenly colored. Mirthless posted:I've been brainstorming how to deal with super thick bacon when I had the idea to throw the thickest slices on the grill with some burgers for dinner. Has anybody else tried this with your huger hand-sliced bacon slices? grilling bacon is awesome, but even if you don't have a meat slicer, it's pretty easy to get thin slices with a sharp blade. pop your pork belly in the freezer for about 20 minutes, then carve off some thin shaved bacon goodness. Nolanar posted:but that looks like it makes a slab of pancetta, instead of the more roll-looking stuff I've gotten at the store. Are they different things? I haven't made the ruhlman recipe, but *essentially* they aren't any different. one isn't in a roll, but honestly most good pancetta unfolds in to less-than-a-roll anyways. The curing/drying times might be a bit different between the two versions, but in the end I think all the flavor comes from the curing ingredients, so either method would work great. dinosaurtrauma posted:So I'm interested in making Duck Rillettes, but I had duck rillettes at a restaurant recently and it was distinctly chunkier Rillette is a pretty rustic preparation, and I think it can vary to a wide degree and still be considered 'a rillette'. Much like there are different forms of pate (some chunkier, some more emulsified), it is mostly just regional style and taste that determine how a rillette turns out. So long as you have a meat long cooked in stock (and probably fat), seasoned, potted, and sealed with a layer of fat, you have rillette in my book. doesn't matter if it's chunky, like pate, or pulled pork. Daedalus Esquire posted:I just put two duck breasts in salt for prosciutto and was wondering if I should have removed the skin? no. the fat in the duck prosciutto is the most amazing part. so delicious - make sure to slice it ultra razor thin. wings/legs/thighs should be made into confit. salt and pepper them very very liberally, rub with garlic and herbs de provence, and let sit overnight. rinse and dry thoroughly, and cook in duck fat (or lard, or whatever) for 3-6 hours, until falling off the bone. chill in the fat, pick a piece out of the fat, crisp it up under a broiler, and serve. ultimately delicious, and can be used in salads or pasta or whatever really.
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Sep 13, 2012 08:53
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so, I've been using a modified version of ruhlman's saltbox method for curing bacon for the last couple years. I basically have a big 2 gallon tub of cure premixed, so I'll just pour some on my work surface, slap my belly down, turn and press to evenly coat, and then throw in a ziplock with my herbs/aromatics/garlic/whatever. I usually leave it, as he suggests, for about 7 days - until it stops feeling so squishy and firms up. only thing is, my bacon is really salty. some people like it, I personally have come to believe I don't. like, my bacon is maybe 1.5x saltier than a decent store bought, maybe 1.25x saltier than broadbents. dunno what to do about this. I mean the obvious thing is to cut down on salt and or time, but I wanna be sure I'm properly curing whatever...
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Feb 18, 2013 09:26
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dms666 posted:But isnt the pink salt what also gives it the specific bacon flavor? yes Errant Gin Monks posted:Pink salt is salt. It contains sodium nitrite in some forms and both sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate in other forms. (thingk DQ Salt #1 and #2) It doesnt change flavor, it just keeps anaeroibic bacteria from growing as well as preserve the color of meat. The only reason it is pink is because they dye it so you dont go full retarded and think its normal salt and start adding nitrites and nitrates all willy nilly to your pasta water. sorry bro, I like you as a poster, but this is not true. sodium nitrite definitely affects flavor, it gives everything it touches that 'hammy' flavor. just as a lesson in sodium nitrite, try dredging some chicken legs in two different cures - one with sodium nitrite, and one without - then go rinse them off and grill them after 4-6 hours. I frequently use chicken/turkey in place of pork in places I'd normally use smoked ham hocks (like collard greens, jambalaya, etc) because my girl doesn't eat pork. figuring out that sodium nitrite could give me that same hammy taste was a godsend. (CANT HAVE GREENS WITHOUT HAMMY SMOKEY MEAT GODDAMNIT GIRL)
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Feb 18, 2013 22:57
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Scott Bakula posted:I'm repeating myself but I've given you curing salt safe weights of 250g of salt per 10kg of meat. Start with that and then add as you want. I personally prefer a bit more salt. Thanks!
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Feb 18, 2013 23:52
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Scott Bakula posted:I feel I should add that this was UK bought curing salt that isn't pink but is 0.4-6% sodium nitrite Thanks!
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Feb 19, 2013 05:06
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I corned a beef once using Ruhlman's recipe (+ a lot of extra herbs and spices), it was magnificent.
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Feb 23, 2013 21:13
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you're fine. just cook it and eat it. to contrast - I cooked a bone in ham for christmas last year, I cured it myself. first time. I left it in the cure about 2 weeks - long enough for normal pork to go horribly wrong - and thought it was done. I took it out, rinsed it, and then smoked it - got it to the right internal temp, then cooled and served a day or two later to like 20 people. turns out the cure penetrated like 85% of the way to the bone, but not all the way. there was a distinct inch wide ring right next to the bone where it hadn't cured all the way - but people ate bits of it anyways (well, I was probably the only one who noticed). anyways, noone died, it tasted like delicious ham with a bit of like a normal roast pork section, and it was a rousing success. wouldn't worry about slightly semicured bacon - so long as it was fresh to begin with and you put it in the cure for a reasonable amount of time, I think you're fine.
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May 31, 2013 07:56
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question charcuterie thread : I've made the charcuterie (ruhlman's) lox/cured salmon recipe maybe 5 times, and it turns out ridiculously gross and salty every time. if I cure it for a shorter time, the interior is perceptively raw-er and not really like 'cold smoked salmon' territory. what can I do to fix this? all I want in life is my own supple gravlox that don't seem like I'm poisoning everyone, and aren't complete saltlicks.
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Sep 9, 2013 10:09
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ok, I've googled a ton and can't find this anywhere. how fast are nitrites converted into them less dangerous nitrates? I bought some ground turkey that I'm adding the appropriate amount of ruhlman's basic dry cure to, but I'll be eating it tomorrow night. I'm sure I'll be fine no matter what, but it got me wondering if there was like a 'minimum curing time' for nitrites to be converted over. I figure it being ground meat and mixed in will help, considering I don't have to think about meat penetration really.
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Sep 28, 2013 23:52
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gently caress it, ruhlman answered my e-mail before, I'm just e-mailin' him again like a goddamn boss. who has ruhlman as a personal friend. disclaimer : michael ruhlman is not a personal friend of mine
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Sep 29, 2013 05:27
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are those worms
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Feb 8, 2018 04:33
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| # ¿ May 1, 2024 18:07 |
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goodness posted:And he tasted it... and didn't even know if he disliked it...
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Feb 8, 2018 11:02
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