anyone for bacon?

[username_taken]

I made up a batch of bacon and promised to log what I was doing for some friends. Thought I'd post it here for some inspiration.

Day1

Bought the pork, didn't have the chance to get some proper pork belly but the local woolies had a rack roast which i chopped the ribs off, looks like the eye of bacon that you buy. I also got some pork rashers.

I made up my cure mix, which is made up of 3 parts salt, 2 parts sugar, 1 part pepper. ( I used about 60g per KG of meat which is way less than last time so hopefully won't be as salty in the end )

The meat is then rubbed with the cure mix

Finally I placed the pork into ziplock bags and distributed the rest of the cure through the bags. I finished by putting a stick of rosemary in each bag.

Day Two

Coming along nicely, the salt has started to draw the moisture out of the pork making a lovely brine. The trick here is to turn the meat once a day so that each side has plenty of time soaking in the brine to cure it all through.

Day 4

Nothing much has changed, still turning it over every 24 hours. There's no visible changes to the meat other than touch more brine. Probably no need to take any more photos until friday.

Day 6

Usually I cure for at least an extra day, but due to time constraints this weekend I have to do the smoking on Saturday. I took the pork out of the ziplock bags and rinsed off most of the cure. To ensure that it's not too salty in the end I have put it in a bowl full of cold water to soak overnight. This should draw out any extra salt.

Day 7

Pork has soaked overnight and is ready for a test fry to make sure it's not too salty. Right now it's about the equivalent of supermarket bacon which is rarely smoked. You'll notice the difference of not using sodium nitrite when it's fried as it doesn't stay pink. The smoking will help solidify the pink colour though. I was happy with the flavour so I left it uncovered in the fridge overnight. This helps develop a tacky skin which the smoke sticks to.

Day 8

Preparing the smoker :-

Bring pork up to room temp:

Light a fire of Natural Charcoal and a few HeatBeads

Soak the wood chips ( I'm using Apple ) in water

Day 8 part 2

After smoking for about 8 hours @ 200 F ( 95 C ) until it reached an internal temp of 150 F ( 65 C ). I took it out and sliced some straight away ( the rest is resting/cooling first ). Fried it up and it tastes amazing!

Wet Wood chips get wrapped in foil with holes stabbed in the top to slow down the release of smoke

Part way through smoking

finished smoking

sliced

into the frypan

and into me!

and that my friends, is bacon.

[Sparksie]

Any chance of bacon sandwich, delivered hot, to level 15, 266 George Street Brisbane...?

:whistle:

Suck at work....

[rayke1938]

I am drooling. Could you show a photo of the complete smoker.

Is it side draught into the meat chamber?

Cheers

Ray.

We buy our cure from Lesnies at Morningside. It has nitrate in it and you have to be careful to mix it correctly or you can poison yourself.

Cheers

Ray

[mangler]

Good work mate, that bacon looks great!

Thanks for putting the diary of making bacon up for us all to see, was really interesting and I am sure it would taste about 83 times better than supermarket bacon too! It truly is amazing what you can find on AFO!

Cheers,

Matt

[Angus]

Username that looks frikking awesome!!!

Hey mate, would you be interested in one day catching some nice big freshwater eels and experementing with smoking them? I frikking love Japanese cured and smoked eel and i think it would just be a matter of working out a good mixture of soy and ginger to soak them in before smoking...

Angus

[bootyinblue]

Day 1 1635hrs - Here is a pic of my car I used to transport me.

Day 1 1640hrs - To this place

Day 1 1650hrs - Back home again with

Total time taken 15 mins!!

LOL... nah sorry to take the piss. Mate that bacon looks awesome and I am seriously impressed. Often I have problems trying to buy a slab of bacon instead of strips as I often used cubed bacon in cooking, thinly sliced bacon to wrap a meat loaf and normal size bacon for breakfast.

Well done!

[rayke1938]

We tried pumping some eels with cure and we gouldnt get enough pressure in the pump. It just blew back past the washer in the pump. Probably have to skin them before soaking in the brine solution. I also put up a post on yahoo answers and only got smart arse answers.

Cheers

Ray

[ellicat]

That's great UN_T!! Are you getting a few ready to take to the Winter Camp ?

[Angus]

rayke1938 wrote:

We tried pumping some eels with cure and we gouldnt get enough pressure in the pump. It just blew back past the washer in the pump. Probably have to skin them before soaking in the brine solution. I also put up a post on yahoo answers and only got smart arse answers.

Cheers

Ray

Ray thats a shame. We all know despite us nice gentlemen here the internet is plauged with idtiots

Check out this article for interest: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/seafoodfish/a/aboutunagi.htm

Cheers

Angus

[Leighton]

looks the goods, from day 1 to day 6 or 7 is the Pork left to cure in the fridge or where?

[tacklebox]

UN_T that looks divine! I'd been wondering what the smoker's been up to since your last thread.

[username_taken]

Leighton wrote:

looks the goods, from day 1 to day 6 or 7 is the Pork left to cure in the fridge or where?

In the fridge mate, If I had proper curing pink salt I wouldn't need to ... Definately gonna have to check out that place Ray goes to, is just a fair hike to get to.

[rayke1938]

Just have a look in the yellow pages under butchers supplies.Your local butcher may sell you some.

Cheers

Ray

[Gazza]

Just for the records Hans Smallgoods who supply Woolworths bacon all their Bacon is cured ,cooked and smoked on site where I work before being sent to your local :woohoo: and follows really strict levels of acceptance :woohoo:

Gaz

[Mick]

Bacon Tree

Two Mexicans are stuck in the desert, wandering aimlessly and close to death. They are close to just lying down and waiting for the inevitable, when all of a sudden…

“Hey Pepe, do you smell what I smell. Ees bacon, I is sure of eetâ€Â.

“Si, Luis, eet smells like bacon to meeeâ€Â.

So, with renewed strength, they struggle off up the next sand dune, and there, in the distance, is a tree, just loaded with bacon.

There’s raw bacon, dripping with moisture, there’s fried bacon, back bacon, double smoked bacon…every imaginable kind of cured pig meat you can imagine!!

“Pepe, Pepe, we ees saved. Eees a bacon treeâ€Â.

“Luis, are sure ees not a meerage? We ees in the desert, don’forgetâ€Â.

“Pepe, when deed you ever hear of a meerage that smeell of bacon…ees no meerage, ees a bacon treeâ€Â.

And with that…Luis races towards the tree. He gets to within 5 metres, Pepe following closely behind, when all of a sudden, a machine gun opens up, and Luis is cut down in his tracks. It is clear he is mortally wounded but, true friend that he is, he manages to warn Pepe with his dying breath.

“Pepe… go back man, you was right, ees not a bacon treeâ€Â

“Luis, Luis mi amigo… what ees eet?â€Â

“Pepe…ees not a bacon tree…

Ees…

Ees…

Ees…

Ees, a Ham Bushâ€Â

[ellicat]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: