Discussion
Okay, so I've been obsessing over making my own bacon for quite a while An after having the curing salt in the cupboard for the last few months after it turned up I finally managed to get my arse in gear, get down to the butchers and buy a nice 2.5kg slab of pork belly.
The breed is a free range Norwegian Landrace which is just the common old swine bred in the southern part of Norway. quite fatty which is what I want as I'm making streaky bacon as I couldn't get a hold of some Loin.
So I'm going to wet cure the bacon and it's going to be sweet, it's a recipe we used to use back in the UK during my days as a Head Chef but I've tweaked it a little.
200g Sugar
250g Dark brown soft sugar
20g Cracked pepper
100ml Maple syrup
260g Table salt (without Iodine)
250ml Fresh apple juice
15g Prague Powder 1
3.4ltr Water
So first off I got the pork belly and trimmed off any excess fat and also took the skin away so that the cure would absorb evenly through the piece of meat, the fat I binned but the skin I'm going to keep and make pork scratchings out of today at some point.
Once the excess fat and skin was off I poked it quite a lot with a needle like kebab skewer to put holes in so that the liquid can penetrate into the meat. I then soaked it in maple syrup, rubbed it in evenly and left it in the fridge overnight, so that the meat would absorb some of the flavour of the syrup.
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/udCevKGS[/utrl]
So having done all of that yesterday, this morning I got together all the ingredients to make the brine. I weighed out the pink curing salt with a scales that is accurate to the gram. the rest is there or there about on a normal scale. I added a bit more brown sugar and slightly more apple juice as I really want a sweet taste from this slab or swine!
All the ingredients are mixed together with the water until they have disolved, I let it sit for about an hour and stirred it every 10 minutes just to make sure that it was diluted enough.
so, I decided to cut the belly into two slices to make it easier to cure, I managed to get some 6.5ltr seal tight food bags from Ikea a few months back. So they've gone into the bags with an equal amount of brine and I've tried to take out as much air as possible. In a week I'll turn them both over to give the liquid enough chance to equally penetrate all the sides of the meat.
So that's that! They've gone in to the fridge both laying flat in a metal tray just incase they leak. I'm already super excited for 2 weeks time, just need to get my ass in gear and build a cold smoker now ready for when it comes out!
The breed is a free range Norwegian Landrace which is just the common old swine bred in the southern part of Norway. quite fatty which is what I want as I'm making streaky bacon as I couldn't get a hold of some Loin.
So I'm going to wet cure the bacon and it's going to be sweet, it's a recipe we used to use back in the UK during my days as a Head Chef but I've tweaked it a little.
200g Sugar
250g Dark brown soft sugar
20g Cracked pepper
100ml Maple syrup
260g Table salt (without Iodine)
250ml Fresh apple juice
15g Prague Powder 1
3.4ltr Water
So first off I got the pork belly and trimmed off any excess fat and also took the skin away so that the cure would absorb evenly through the piece of meat, the fat I binned but the skin I'm going to keep and make pork scratchings out of today at some point.
Once the excess fat and skin was off I poked it quite a lot with a needle like kebab skewer to put holes in so that the liquid can penetrate into the meat. I then soaked it in maple syrup, rubbed it in evenly and left it in the fridge overnight, so that the meat would absorb some of the flavour of the syrup.
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/udCevKGS[/utrl]So having done all of that yesterday, this morning I got together all the ingredients to make the brine. I weighed out the pink curing salt with a scales that is accurate to the gram. the rest is there or there about on a normal scale. I added a bit more brown sugar and slightly more apple juice as I really want a sweet taste from this slab or swine!
All the ingredients are mixed together with the water until they have disolved, I let it sit for about an hour and stirred it every 10 minutes just to make sure that it was diluted enough.
so, I decided to cut the belly into two slices to make it easier to cure, I managed to get some 6.5ltr seal tight food bags from Ikea a few months back. So they've gone into the bags with an equal amount of brine and I've tried to take out as much air as possible. In a week I'll turn them both over to give the liquid enough chance to equally penetrate all the sides of the meat.
So that's that! They've gone in to the fridge both laying flat in a metal tray just incase they leak. I'm already super excited for 2 weeks time, just need to get my ass in gear and build a cold smoker now ready for when it comes out!
Home made bacon is brilliant when compared to the terrible rubbish we are offered in supermarkets and some markets.
Whenever I've tried to do it at home, I've often added too much sugar to the cure which then results in rashers which burn too readily either in the pan or under a grill.
The cure you list above looks even sweeter so I hope you don't have the same issues.
Be sure to update us with some gratuitous bacon porn.
Whenever I've tried to do it at home, I've often added too much sugar to the cure which then results in rashers which burn too readily either in the pan or under a grill.
The cure you list above looks even sweeter so I hope you don't have the same issues.
Be sure to update us with some gratuitous bacon porn.
This thread might be of interest. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=125...
Tanguero said:
This thread might be of interest. http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=125...
Cheers OP and Tanguero, definitely having a go at this!Pferdestarke said:
Home made bacon is brilliant when compared to the terrible rubbish we are offered in supermarkets and some markets.
Whenever I've tried to do it at home, I've often added too much sugar to the cure which then results in rashers which burn too readily either in the pan or under a grill.
The cure you list above looks even sweeter so I hope you don't have the same issues.
Be sure to update us with some gratuitous bacon porn.
I use around 15g sugar, 30g salt & 2.5g Prague powder #1 per 1kg of meat in a part injected/part dry cure and get consistently superb results.Whenever I've tried to do it at home, I've often added too much sugar to the cure which then results in rashers which burn too readily either in the pan or under a grill.
The cure you list above looks even sweeter so I hope you don't have the same issues.
Be sure to update us with some gratuitous bacon porn.
Edited by Tanguero on Monday 10th August 11:20
crossy67 said:
Ok, I'm in. All I need now is a supplier of Prague Powder #1 either mail order or somewhere someone could collect it from a chemists in the next few days or the name of it in French.
Getting really excited now
I get mine from here http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Cure_1.htmlGetting really excited now
. If that fails I'll get if mail order from that place.I use one of these for my cold smoking. I just do in inside the BBQ on a cool day.
http://www.macsbbq.com/cold-smokers
http://www.macsbbq.com/cold-smokers
I've actually got one of those on order from ebay. Managed to pick up 10kg of untreated applewood chips for around £8 earlier today!!
Some top advice in here.
I would have ideally love to have done a loin and had back bacon but it's extremely difficult getting hold of unprocessed pork and and expensive, I played just over £40 for my 2.5kg belly, then there's a huge lack of fresh butchers here, currently in talks with a farmer about getting a 1/4 of beef and half a lamb but no one seems to farm Pigs and the ones that do are all an 8 hour drive away down south.
Some top advice in here.
I would have ideally love to have done a loin and had back bacon but it's extremely difficult getting hold of unprocessed pork and and expensive, I played just over £40 for my 2.5kg belly, then there's a huge lack of fresh butchers here, currently in talks with a farmer about getting a 1/4 of beef and half a lamb but no one seems to farm Pigs and the ones that do are all an 8 hour drive away down south.
I've actually got one of those on order from ebay. Managed to pick up 10kg of untreated applewood chips for around £8 earlier today!!
Some top advice in here.
I would have ideally love to have done a loin and had back bacon but it's extremely difficult getting hold of unprocessed pork and and expensive, I played just over £40 for my 2.5kg belly, then there's a huge lack of fresh butchers here, currently in talks with a farmer about getting a 1/4 of beef and half a lamb but no one seems to farm Pigs and the ones that do are all an 8 hour drive away down south.
Some top advice in here.
I would have ideally love to have done a loin and had back bacon but it's extremely difficult getting hold of unprocessed pork and and expensive, I played just over £40 for my 2.5kg belly, then there's a huge lack of fresh butchers here, currently in talks with a farmer about getting a 1/4 of beef and half a lamb but no one seems to farm Pigs and the ones that do are all an 8 hour drive away down south.
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