1) Get a fresh baguette, still warm from a bakery. 2) Sprinkle smoked salt on a pat of fresh warmed unsalted butter. 3) Spread on sliced baguette. 4) Eat.
1) Get a fresh baguette, still warm from a bakery. 2) Sprinkle smoked salt on a pat of fresh warmed unsalted butter. 3) Spread on sliced baguette. 4) Eat.
Alternatively, dip the baguette in some high-quality herbed olive oil. I am so hungry all of a sudden.
I have a cube steak thawing in the fridge for tonight. Gonna cook it in a skillet with butter and Worcestershire sauce, and then top it with a huge heap of mushrooms and onions, and deglaze that skillet with red wine and pour it all over the whole mess. Oh yes.
I have the correct pink salt. Tomorrow, I procure 5 pounds of pork belly. Then the curing begins.
It seems, in further research, that there are a few different schools of thought with regard to baconing. First, some people who dry-cure pour off the brine and re-rub, while others allow the slab to sit in the brine that accumulates. Further, some places say that no further processing is required after the curing, while other people do a heat-treating step (~126 F internal temperature), while other people full-on pre-cook their bacon (~150 F internal temperature).
I think I'm going to dry cure, leave the brine, and do a low-temperature heat-treat (125 F) to "set" the proteins. Slice and package after it's sufficiently cool.
I found this discussion board dedicated to cured meats. I haven't read through it yet, but I'm going to hand out a blanket HOLY SHIT DON'T FUCK WITH C. BOTULINUM warning:
Distrust 99% of any "opinions" people give on how to cure meats. Do lots of research and figure out the best way to do it. Someone will probably steer your wrong with an ignorant and uninformed opinion.
Does anyone have any info on devices that will allow me to vacuum seal some already done bacon? If I actually get on the bacon bandwagon, it will be so much bacon, I will need to preserve it somehow.
I have the correct pink salt. Tomorrow, I procure 5 pounds of pork belly. Then the curing begins.
It seems, in further research, that there are a few different schools of thought with regard to baconing. First, some people who dry-cure pour off the brine and re-rub, while others allow the slab to sit in the brine that accumulates. Further, some places say that no further processing is required after the curing, while other people do a heat-treating step (~126 F internal temperature), while other people full-on pre-cook their bacon (~150 F internal temperature).
I think I'm going to dry cure, leave the brine, and do a low-temperature heat-treat (125 F) to "set" the proteins. Slice and package after it's sufficiently cool.
I found this discussion board dedicated to cured meats. I haven't read through it yet, but I'm going to hand out a blanket HOLY SHIT DON'T FUCK WITH C. BOTULINUM warning:
Distrust 99% of any "opinions" people give on how to cure meats. Do lots of research and figure out the best way to do it. Someone will probably steer your wrong with an ignorant and uninformed opinion.
Extremely true. This is probably the authoritative book. I'm basing this.on the fact that Thomas Keller co-authored it and he is a genius regarding culinary matters; he wrote an entire textbook on cooking sous vide safely.
I also recommend taking a look at USDA guidelines and meat processing guidelines, like the ones from the American Meat Science Association. (That's a link straight to a .pdf)
If I actually get on the bacon bandwagon, it will be so much bacon, I will need to preserve it somehow.
You should just be able to wrap it very very tightly and freeze it. There are home vaccuum-sealing devices, though. Seal-a-Meal and so forth.
The best way to handle this without a vaccuum sealer is to get freezer bags and a 5 gallon bucket from a hardware store. Fill the bucket 3/4 of the way with water, and pack a freezer bag with your bacon. Lower the bag into the water until it is just below the seal, using your hand to help force out any trapped air. The water pressure will flatten out the bag and force out excess air. You create a DIY vacuum seal by sealing the bag while it's submerged.
This is how most sous vide at home is done, as vacuum sealers can be expensive.
So I made Beer and Cheese Soup...and it failed. ^^; So many problems. Too much beer, not enough cheese, not simmered enough, beer over-powered everything, couldn't taste the vegetables, was bitter as hell...but yet, I don't feel defeated. I was quickly like. "Okay, correct the liquids, add carrots, add more cheese." Oddly enough, I usually hate broccoli, but I found it really good in this. So I felt like this is another culinary block that I've over come, where even after you made something crappy, you still feel like it wasn't a waste of time and you could still make it delicious.
On another note, I'm in a real dessert kick. I make my ice creams, but I'm REALLY going to go nuts for a while because of Spring Break. So my goal is to make a type of cookie, some cupcakes, a Dutch Baby, and Ice Cream with actual fruit. (All my other ones are Chocolate or Fruit-Infused with Liquor) Anyone have a nice dessert to suggest or a challenge? I don't have a Mixer, because I don't have a spare 300 dollars. >_> Expect plenty of posts. And I have to mention the thing that has inspired me to make all these desserts.
Right, I'll be getting my pork belly soon. I'll post pictures here as soon as I get it going. Right now, I'll post my cure recipe.
I'm shooting for a traditional American strongly-cured bacon. The Sausagemaking.org forums are British, so they tend towards making their more mild Albionic bacon.
Note that the maximum allowable nitrites in dry-cured bacon is 200 ppm according to the USDA. Look for the paragraph about dry-cured bacon. If you're immersion-curing, your limit is 120 ppm. I'm assuming nobody is going to be making pumped bacon.
So 200 ppm is equivalent to 1 gram of sodium nitrite in 5 kilograms of pork (0.2 g/kg). Given that pink salt #1 is 6.25% sodium nitrite, that means that you can use a maximum of 16 grams of pink salt to cure 5 kilograms of bacon. That's about 1 tablespoon for 11 pounds of pork belly.
I'm going to be curing 5 pounds of pork belly, which is roughly 2.3 kilograms. So, at most, I can use 0.46 grams of nitrite, which is 7.36 grams of pink salt. I'm going to shoot for 150 ppm nitrite, which is equivalent to 5.5 g of pink salt, roughly one rounded teaspoon.
I'm using a traditional 8:3:3 cure ratio (8 pounds salt, 3 pounds sugar, 3 ounces cure), but ignoring the cure part since that's based originally on potassium nitrate. Per pound of meat, that translates to 22 grams of salt, 8 grams of brown sugar, and 1.1 grams of pink salt.
That's about 1/3 - 1/2 cup sea salt (probably close to 1/2 because of the density of the salt crystals), 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a heaped teaspoon of pink salt.
EDIT: Also, the people of Albion prefer back bacon to belly bacon, both of which are delicious in their own ways, but which accounts for the difference in cures.
I'm a fan of a really hearty lentil soup or a Coq Au Vin with some excellent bacon. Alternately, make some bacon-wrapped steaks and using the drippings as a fat base to make a mind-blowing cornbread.
As per the preservation discussion: Alton Brown had a very good method that does not require any vacuum creation. If you get some dry ice and a cooler, you can fill up the cooler with CO2 gas and remove any oxygen that would contribute to your food going bad. If you have a fresh out of the box ziplock bag, and open it and package all of your food below the surface of the gas, there will never be any oxygen in the system, giving you a very bacteria-hostile environment to store your food in. Also, if you are planning to freeze meats; always make sure to chill the meat as thoroughly as possible in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. This will prevent large ice crystals from forming and destroying the tissue of the meat, making all the juice run out when it is thawed and cooked.
I finally get a great picture on my phone...and it's of non-baked peanut butter cookies. ^^; But these came out fan-fucking-tastic. My family loved them and I've been giving them to my mom's clients too, so extra win. And as an extra bonus, these are flour and butter free. It was an adventure making them though, having to bash a block of brown sugar into powder. XD
So, if you follow my directions for curing bacon, you will wind up with some delicious fucking bacon.
However, it's super fucking salty. You need to soak it for a while before you slice and eat it. I'd try at least an hour in cold water, then pat dry and try it.
I didn't have the epic tools to create my own bacon, HOWEVER, I did take my own step of wonderful, meat creation and made my own sausage. I made Chorizo for Quesadillas tonight, and they were the best, addictive tasting quesadillas I've ever had.
I had a really busy day of cooking stuff. Oatmeal Cookies, Chorizo Sausage, Chicken/Sausage Quesadillas, Broccoli Bhaji and Butterscotch Ice Cream. I was really surprised at how much I liked these cookies, but it's amazing how things can change when you make them yourself. ^^
What the fuck do you know about bacon? Bitch, I own bacon.
If you're curious, it's very tasty. Not too salty, a slight sweetness, and a nice smoke flavor and aroma. It's up there with any good artisan dry-cured bacon, and definitely better than most conventional store-bought bacon.
Comments
2) Sprinkle smoked salt on a pat of fresh warmed unsalted butter.
3) Spread on sliced baguette.
4) Eat.
I have a cube steak thawing in the fridge for tonight. Gonna cook it in a skillet with butter and Worcestershire sauce, and then top it with a huge heap of mushrooms and onions, and deglaze that skillet with red wine and pour it all over the whole mess. Oh yes.
I now have pink salt, let the bacon making begin!
EDIT: FUCK!!! I just discovered there are two kinds of pink salt and I got the wrong kind.
It seems, in further research, that there are a few different schools of thought with regard to baconing. First, some people who dry-cure pour off the brine and re-rub, while others allow the slab to sit in the brine that accumulates. Further, some places say that no further processing is required after the curing, while other people do a heat-treating step (~126 F internal temperature), while other people full-on pre-cook their bacon (~150 F internal temperature).
I think I'm going to dry cure, leave the brine, and do a low-temperature heat-treat (125 F) to "set" the proteins. Slice and package after it's sufficiently cool.
I found this discussion board dedicated to cured meats. I haven't read through it yet, but I'm going to hand out a blanket HOLY SHIT DON'T FUCK WITH C. BOTULINUM warning:
Distrust 99% of any "opinions" people give on how to cure meats. Do lots of research and figure out the best way to do it. Someone will probably steer your wrong with an ignorant and uninformed opinion.
This is how most sous vide at home is done, as vacuum sealers can be expensive.
Lamb bacon.
Lamb prosciutto.
Oh my god I want to make all of these things.
So I made Beer and Cheese Soup...and it failed. ^^; So many problems. Too much beer, not enough cheese, not simmered enough, beer over-powered everything, couldn't taste the vegetables, was bitter as hell...but yet, I don't feel defeated. I was quickly like. "Okay, correct the liquids, add carrots, add more cheese." Oddly enough, I usually hate broccoli, but I found it really good in this. So I felt like this is another culinary block that I've over come, where even after you made something crappy, you still feel like it wasn't a waste of time and you could still make it delicious.
On another note, I'm in a real dessert kick. I make my ice creams, but I'm REALLY going to go nuts for a while because of Spring Break. So my goal is to make a type of cookie, some cupcakes, a Dutch Baby, and Ice Cream with actual fruit. (All my other ones are Chocolate or Fruit-Infused with Liquor) Anyone have a nice dessert to suggest or a challenge? I don't have a Mixer, because I don't have a spare 300 dollars. >_> Expect plenty of posts. And I have to mention the thing that has inspired me to make all these desserts.
I'm shooting for a traditional American strongly-cured bacon. The Sausagemaking.org forums are British, so they tend towards making their more mild Albionic bacon.
Note that the maximum allowable nitrites in dry-cured bacon is 200 ppm according to the USDA. Look for the paragraph about dry-cured bacon. If you're immersion-curing, your limit is 120 ppm. I'm assuming nobody is going to be making pumped bacon.
So 200 ppm is equivalent to 1 gram of sodium nitrite in 5 kilograms of pork (0.2 g/kg). Given that pink salt #1 is 6.25% sodium nitrite, that means that you can use a maximum of 16 grams of pink salt to cure 5 kilograms of bacon. That's about 1 tablespoon for 11 pounds of pork belly.
I'm going to be curing 5 pounds of pork belly, which is roughly 2.3 kilograms. So, at most, I can use 0.46 grams of nitrite, which is 7.36 grams of pink salt. I'm going to shoot for 150 ppm nitrite, which is equivalent to 5.5 g of pink salt, roughly one rounded teaspoon.
I'm using a traditional 8:3:3 cure ratio (8 pounds salt, 3 pounds sugar, 3 ounces cure), but ignoring the cure part since that's based originally on potassium nitrate. Per pound of meat, that translates to 22 grams of salt, 8 grams of brown sugar, and 1.1 grams of pink salt.
That's about 1/3 - 1/2 cup sea salt (probably close to 1/2 because of the density of the salt crystals), 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a heaped teaspoon of pink salt.
EDIT: Also, the people of Albion prefer back bacon to belly bacon, both of which are delicious in their own ways, but which accounts for the difference in cures.
That's right. I fucking went there.
EDIT: I want this bacon to be done NOW.
Also, if you are planning to freeze meats; always make sure to chill the meat as thoroughly as possible in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. This will prevent large ice crystals from forming and destroying the tissue of the meat, making all the juice run out when it is thawed and cooked.
I finally get a great picture on my phone...and it's of non-baked peanut butter cookies. ^^; But these came out fan-fucking-tastic. My family loved them and I've been giving them to my mom's clients too, so extra win. And as an extra bonus, these are flour and butter free. It was an adventure making them though, having to bash a block of brown sugar into powder. XD
However, it's super fucking salty. You need to soak it for a while before you slice and eat it. I'd try at least an hour in cold water, then pat dry and try it.
EDIT: Make that 3 hours in cold water.
I had a really busy day of cooking stuff. Oatmeal Cookies, Chorizo Sausage, Chicken/Sausage Quesadillas, Broccoli Bhaji and Butterscotch Ice Cream. I was really surprised at how much I liked these cookies, but it's amazing how things can change when you make them yourself. ^^
Bitch, I own bacon.
If you're curious, it's very tasty. Not too salty, a slight sweetness, and a nice smoke flavor and aroma. It's up there with any good artisan dry-cured bacon, and definitely better than most conventional store-bought bacon.