There has been a great deal of excitement over the last few years around bacon. I kind of feel like the kid who heard of the "new band" first and now everybody likes them, except in this case, I'm not going to say their not cool now that they are popular. I've been a bacon fan for a long long time and am very pleased that I have company now.
As long as I can remember, I have loved all types of bacon from pancetta to the domestic grocery store variety. That said, my palate has changed a great deal over the past twenty or so years and I am more discerning now. I have actually had some really horrible bacon lately and I forgive those that produced it for they obviously knew not what they did.
Recently I have had the misfortune to try "pre-cooked" bacon, an abomination in the name of convenience and labor savings. Horrible stuff really. Quality of product was not the first priority here. If you haven't tried it, well good for you. If you have, I'll assume you understand what I'm writing about.
The pre-cooked bacon is dry, mostly without character and completely lacking in one of my favorite experiences relating to bacon, the release of the fat when you bite down on it. Ugh! I prefer to discuss what can be right about it, so I'll move on.
I've been brining and smoking my own bacon for about five years or so now. At first it was for a project, Christmas presents really, and after the first taste right out of the smoker, I was hooked.
The bacon that I make has a much stronger smokey quality to it as well as a much more robust flavor. It is relatively easy to make as long as you have given yourself the time to do it, and worth every second. My bacon takes three to five days to produce, but the actual active time involved is more like two hours over the first three to five days and four hours on the final day (give or take depending on the amount of bacon that you are making and the capacity of your smoker.)
To start, as always, get the highest quality raw pork belly that you can find and afford. Lately I have been making mine from Carlton Farms pork bellies. They cost a little more, but I find that the fat to meat ratio seems to be more consistent with their product.
I have always loved fatty bacon, but I also enjoy the meat component. I have found that with the really cheap bellies you get too much fat and not enough meat even for my taste.
If you don't know where to find a raw pork belly, you have three options as I see it: 1) you could go to the best grocery store in town. You know the one, it has a great meat counter/butcher, nice fish, great produce and is generally a little pricey, 2) go to one of the new artisan butcher shops that seem to be springing up lately, or 3) find a meat purveyor in town that carries quality pork and will do a "will call" to the public.
I do the third option as I have been able to create a good business relationship with a salesman at a local meat house. If you don't have this already, try what I used to do: pretend that you are a freelance caterer and you are looking for pork belly to make a custom bacon for a client. Now you have a relationship, or at least the beginning of one. You'll get a better price that way, not the best, but better than walking off the street. Who knows, maybe your bacon will be so good that you'll soon have a side business. It could happen.
Remember that a commercial pork belly runs 7-9lbs, so ask in what quantities the bellies can be ordered. Then check to see what options they have in quality and in how the animal was raised. For me how the animal was raised is very important because if you are what you eat, I want to be a well treated being.
The next step after you have a belly (or more!) is to mix your brine. I use a dry brine with my bacon, I like the finished bacon and don't want water or some other liquid to compromise my final product.
My recipe is:
3 C kosher salt
2 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar
Sometimes I substitute 1 C maple syrup for one of the cups of granulated sugar.
This recipe will brine one belly. There is an economy of scale if you were to do multiple bellies. For each additional belly you would add a little more than 1/2 of the above recipe. For this reason I will often brine more than one piece. This adds time on the smoking end, but again, worth every second.
Place a 1/2 of the dry brine into a roasting pan that will hold the meat. I try to make it roughly the shape and size of the meat so that I am not wasting my brine. Then make a coating of the rest (if only one belly is being brined) on top of the meat. If there are more pieces to be brined, repeat the process without the first step. Stack them up on each other this way.
If brining more than one, rotate them daily so that each has time on the bottom of the stack. Also flip the meat once a day, meat up the first day and then meat down the next.
At the end of the brining period, pull the meat from the pan and start your smoker. Do not rinse the remaining brine from the meat, wipe it off with kitchen towels or paper towels. If you have a small smoker, you will need to cut the meat to fit in your smoker. I usually cut mine in two or three pieces depending on the size of the brined bellies.
I like hot smoked bacon. Stronger, more intense flavor and takes less time to smoke. Cold smoke will probably double your final preparation time, but will yield a more subtle end product.
Once the proper amount of smoking has been achieved, remove the bacon from the smoker and let it cool to room temp. I find that when I cut off a piece of the meat or fat from the bacon while it is still in the smoker, eat it and like the flavor, I am done. Now don't gross out over this one. Bacon is a brined and smoked product. It is cooked and safe to eat without further cooking. At least mine is, I can't vouch for the grocery store stuff.
My last step is to vacuum pack my bacon into reasonable portions. As much as I like bacon it would be unwise to try to eat 7 lbs of bacon quickly. Besides, home made bacon is a great gift, housewarming present, etc. and it is better to store it in a sealed environment. Our bacon lasts months in this condition in the refrigerator without any loss of quality.
A quick note on cooking: my bacon recipe has so much sugar that it needs to be cooked "low and slow". Sugar burns easily, have patience and enjoy!
Next time: How to cut a Chicken
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