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I have to order curing salt from butcher-packer since I cant find any around here. I'm assuming 8oz is plenty and buying 16oz of it is just overkill? Probably just going to be making bacon to start, with eventually trying some other things.
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Oct 26, 2012 00:01
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Finally got some pork belly and got a batch in Ruhlman's cure. I plan on smoking it next weekend. Which kind of wood do you guys like the best when smoking bacon, pple, oak, hickory? e: Also, do you take of the skin after its done curing, or after its cooked? dms666 fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Nov 18, 2012 |
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Nov 18, 2012 01:00
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Martello posted:Jason Molinari has a great how-to for making a curing chamber out of a fridge at Cured Meats. I haven't tried it myself, but that set-up will be my fallback if my basement doesn't end up matching the temperature/humidity range. I'm buying a thermometer/hygrometer today to check. Speaking of which, even if my basement is the right environment, is it okay to hang a dry-cured pork belly without wrapping it in cheesecloth or anything first? I know if it was in an enclosed curing chamber it'd be fine but I don't know about in the basement in the open. I'm concerned there'd be insects all over it, even though it's winter and the only creatures I've seen around the house lately are spiders. I think the point of the cheesecloth is so it dries out evenly instead of the outside getting dry faster.
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Dec 3, 2012 19:08
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Arglebargle III posted:I've had a question nibbling at the back of my mind for a while that you magnificent pork potentates will probably be able to answer. I have heard the "American" bacon is a cured product, whereas in other countries you basically buy slices of bacon raw. I have found that indeed, in China, bacon lacks the enormous flavor I was used to and tastes a lot more like any random piece of meat fried up on a grill. But I never found any information to confirm the idea that American bacon was a distinct product. What say you, porklords? The sodium nitrate that is used in curing to make it pink adds a distinct bacony flavor to it. It also helps if the bacon is smoked, that also adds a lot of flavor.
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Dec 5, 2012 16:07
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Was going to pick up Ruhlman's Charcuterie for Christmas, is Salumi worth getting too? I have read mixed reviews on Salumi. I would eventually like to start making both types, didnt know if there were better book resources or not.
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Dec 6, 2012 16:55
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Well I got both Charcuterie and Salumi for Christmas, time to look on Craigslist for a cheap wine fridge. I would look for a cheap fridge, but I do not have the space for one. I guess with the wine fridge I wont have to worry about temp at least, just making sure the humidity is right.
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Dec 27, 2012 02:46
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Pardalis posted:Hello wonderful charcuterie thread, nice to meat you. I got myself a ridiculous big smoker and some pink salt. I want to try the recipe in the OP for bacon, but with my smoker rather than oven. I was thinking apple wood chips? Do I set it for a certain amount of time or do I have to probe it until it is 150? If you are hot smoking it, smoke at 200* until your probe says it is at 150*. Mine took over 2 hours, but it was also <30* out when I smoked it.
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Jan 17, 2013 00:57
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Petey posted:I did. It came out pretty rubbery and tasting more like ham than bacon :/ I am assuming you used DQ #1 curing salt? Put my first pancetta in the curing chamber last night, now for the wait for it to lose 30% of its weight.
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Jan 20, 2013 17:40
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It has been 1 week so far for my pancetta. I am going to probably going to give it 10 total days in there before I weigh it and see where it is at.
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Jan 26, 2013 21:58
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From a 12lb pork belly to a cold smoke at <100* for 6 hours with hickory and apple wood,  to the fridge for 2 days for the smoke to mellow out and to firm up for the slicer,  then finally a giant pile of bacon.  I love the woman in the newspaper ad just staring at the bacon. Full blog post for instructions, basic Rulman savory recipe. http://buckmeat.blogspot.com/2013/01/savory-bacon.html
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Jan 28, 2013 23:37
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Frog Lip posted:I gotta ask, where did you find such good looking pork belly? I live in a decent sized town in south Texas and after going to over six meat markets and butcher shops, I had to settle for really fatty pork belly at a Mexican grocery store. It didnt all look as good as the pile of bacon in the last picture, parts of it were almost 75% fat. Someone I was talking to recommended a butcher shop about 40 minutes away from me in the middle of nowhere. It still was a lot better than the belly I got from a store in Pittsburgh.
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Jan 30, 2013 19:01
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nominal posted:What's your curing chamber there? Did you find the wine fridge you'd mentioned looking for earlier in the thread? How's that working out for you? I'm currently weighing my curing options. I'd really like to do some dry-cured stuff by the end of the year. Yeah I found a wine fridge on Craiglist for $50. I think it is around 36"h x 24"d x 12"w. The one nice thing is it is made to run in the correct temperature range. I set mine at 60* and my thermometer says it is at a constant 57*. Humidity is the only thing you have to worry about. The tray of wet salt in mine usually keeps it in the 70-75% range, but I still check it daily to make sure it isnt too high or low. The only thing I am worried about is when it gets really hot and humid here in the summer and keeping the humidity stable.
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Feb 4, 2013 16:28
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Martello posted:edit: I'm starting the cure for a lonza tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing the black-pepper cure in Ruhlman and Polcyn's Salumi. The only thing I'm not sure about with the recipe is that it doesn't have pink salt in it. I think I'm gonna mix some into the kosher salt for the cure, just to be on the safe side. Looks good. I am not 100% sure on this, but from reading I want to say that since it is a whole muscle cut that is not being rolled, just liked the Tesa, that you should be fine without pink salt. I think it is only used in rolled pancetta since there is a chance of there being a dead air space in the middle, which botulism needs to grow.
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Feb 5, 2013 16:36
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The last 3 ounces I need my pancetta to lose are taking forever. Started at 44oz, after two weeks it went to 34-35oz, weighed it today after another week and it is still only around 34oz. It needs to hit 31oz to hit 30% weight loss. Hopefully it only takes one more week.
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Feb 9, 2013 17:08
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Just put two pieces of belly in a cure. I trimmed the skin or rind or whatever off before I did it, was that correct? Also, how should I prepare the skin that I cut off? I'm not really sure of the benefit of leaving the skin on when making bacon. Less penetration of the cure, same with smoke if you are doing that. I guess you could fry the skin if you wanted, or use it to flavor beans or a soup or something.
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Feb 16, 2013 22:51
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Does just straight up deep frying it puff it up, or do I need to dehydrate it first? I have never made them but I have heard of people boiling, dehydrating, then frying. Something like this maybe http://lookimadethat.com/2010/02/08/chicharrones/
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Feb 16, 2013 23:12
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mindphlux posted: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 measure everything when I do my bacon so I can adjust, instead of using a premixed cure. I think as long as you are putting the proper amount of pink salt in for the weight of the belly you are going to be fine with the cure. The salt can vary since it isnt like you are going to be dry curing and eating it raw. I have only done the saltbox method when I dry cure, since that seems to be more important to make sure all of the meat is covered in salt, otherwise I just dump everything in a bag with my belly for bacon. Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:I see Ruhlman says I need to rub my bacon half way through. SHould I be turning it daily or anything else? I feel like I should be more involved in this process. I flip the bag it is in over daily just so the liquid that comes out gets evenly distributed over the length of the cure. I also rub halfway through.
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Feb 18, 2013 16:24
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I found using the exact recipe makes it very very close to store bought saltiness. And pink salt in bacon isnt that big a deal for curing, its more for color. There wont be enough time for botulinim to grow since it isnt in an oxygen free environment. For health reasons pink salt is required for dry sausages and other salami products since they dry and are sealed and allow anaerobic bacteria growth. Bacon curing never hits this stage. The pink salt is strictly for meat that stays pink instead of turns grey. (WHERE IS PF!! HE NEEDS TO WEIGH IN WITH HIS KNOWLEDGE!) But isnt the pink salt what also gives it the specific bacon flavor?
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Feb 18, 2013 19:03
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I'm trying bresola now, which is dry cured eye of round. Have it sitting in the cure til Saturday, curious to try it, never had it before.
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Mar 4, 2013 16:05
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Ordered some backfat from a local farm to make some lardo but it ended up coming already chopped up. I guess I will just keep it frozen until I get a grinder to make some cured sausages.
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Mar 8, 2013 00:44
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sinburger posted:I've been inspired by this thread to dive into charcuterie. I've been smoking food for a while now with a Bradley digital smoker, so this seems like the next logical step. Homemade bacon must happen and The Book is on order from amazon as we speak. That was most likely me. All I have really done so far is use the tray of wet salt and check it once or twice a day and open the door if I need to if it's too humid. I would eventually like to get a fan installed into the side of the fridge to run when the humidity gets too high.
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Mar 29, 2013 02:00
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So here is the bresaola (eye of round) I made. I'm not sure why the inside has different colors. The meat lost 35% of its weight, so according to Ruhlman I would think it is safe.  I know the outside definitely hardened more than the inside, I couldn't find any large casings to put it in to help even out the drying during the month long hang in the chamber. It tastes great, had primarily a cinnamon/clove cure, strong beef taste. Oh, and the color isn't from pink salt. dms666 fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Apr 5, 2013 |
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Apr 4, 2013 23:59
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Doing Ruhlman's pepper dry cured pork lonza/filetto. Just put it in the chamber today and noticed my hygrometer broke. Humidity shouldn't be that big a deal for one day though.
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Jun 12, 2013 20:06
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sativa dreams posted:This thread has greatly inspired me to get into this whole smoking thing. I keep looking at some you guys pictures of the bacon and frankly, it's awe-inspiring. I picked up a 30" electric cookmaster from craigslist today that's almost brand new. Would someone mind helping me out with what I should get next? That is the correct salt you need, although a huge quantity. Check craigslist for a meat slicer, I got one off of there for like $20 and it just makes it so much easier. For bacon you really don't need any fancy monitoring, just a regular probe thermometer. It only takes around an hour to hot smoke and if you cold smoke it you don't really need to monitor it.
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Jul 27, 2013 19:34
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sativa dreams posted:I also plan on doing lots of other stuff that would be in there for much longer, like brisket. I love to grill and its about time I made the step up to smoking as well, and being a tech-oriented guy with money to burn (yay new job) I kinda want to be all fancy with my meat monitoring. As far as slicers go, I've looked on craigslist and they are all going for $500+. How do you get one for $20?? Are you talking about a motorized deli slicer? Just seems really cheap; I guess you just gotta keep looking and hope you get lucky? I'd still like to have a good knife anyways for slicing other meat and also for the simple fact that I just don't have a good one. Yep I just got lucky I guess. It isn't a full sized one, but just some small model which is good enough to slice up bacon and brisket uniformly.
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Jul 27, 2013 20:07
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I made some new bacon hooks.
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Jan 14, 2014 19:54
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Um, so I saw this slicer on Craigslist and couldn't resist buying it... For scale that is sitting in the back of the truck. It is fully functional and even has an automatic mode. $2500 brand new, got it for <10% of that. Can't wait to make my next 50 lb's of bacon.
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Apr 19, 2014 00:51
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  Did a batch of bacon over the weekend, 100 lbs total. Here it is after 8 hours of cold smoke, did another 8 hours the next day too.
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Dec 4, 2014 17:14
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holttho posted:
I keep ~5lbs for myself, give a little away to family, and the rest is sold to friends. Yeah I like cold smoking better, it allows you to get a more smokey flavor without having to pull it after a couple hours when hot smoking it. It will take long to fry because it is still raw instead of just quickly crisping up the already hot smoked bacon. and sorry whoever it was that wanted to buy any, it is already all sold/delivered and I've never tried to ship any before.
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Dec 19, 2014 05:09
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atothesquiz posted:Anyone else notice that pork bellies are coming down in price? Yeah I was happy when I bought a few cases last month that they ended up being like $1.89/lb, had to drive 30 min in to Ohio to pick them up though. Anything around Pittsburgh was over $3/lb easily.
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May 8, 2015 18:04
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