Posted on 09/05/2009 6:23:28 AM PDT by JoeProBono
We are a people obsessed with bacon.
And the obsession is growing.
Chef and food writer Michael Ruhlman is working to make sure the pork belly doesn’t lose its soul.
He’s a purist when it comes to bacon, believing people should cure their own at home to taste what bacon is really all about.
Curing at home, he says, is as easy as marinating a steak — everyone can do it, and everyone would do it if they just tried it once and tasted the difference.
“People say to me, ‘Your bacon has changed my life,’ ” Ruhlman said.
Ruhlman’s simple method for home-curing bacon is detailed in his 2005 book with Brian Polcyn, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.
The two main ingredients are fresh pork belly and curing salt, which is often called pink salt for its color. Pink salt is a combination of salt and nitrites. Nitrites change the flavor of cured meats, preserve their red color, keep them from spoiling and prevent bacteria growth, particularly the bacteria that cause botulism.
Pork belly isn’t hard to come by. Some butcher shops routinely stock it, but those that don’t and supermarket meat departments generally will order it for customers upon request.
Pink salt can be more challenging to find than pork belly. It’s sold under various brand names, including DQ Curing Salt and Insta Cure No. 1, which are available from mail order or Internet sources, Ruhlman said. His recipe for a basic dry cure includes kosher salt, pink salt and sugar. Morton’s Tender Quick (about $5.95 for a 2-pound bag) is essentially a prepackaged version similar to Ruhlman’s homemade dry cure.
Ruhlman said home-curing meats is a great way for cooks to broaden their culinary horizons, and homemade bacon will be an eye-opener for those who have had only the grocery store variety.
“You’ll notice a depth of flavor that you’ve never had before. A chewy and delicious texture that you’re not used to. A succulent fat that you’re not used to. It’s not that water-logged brine-injected stuff from factories. There will be more fat in the pan, but a good fat, not a fat that you have to be afraid of. The factory fat is the fat to be afraid of,” Ruhlman said.
Home-cured bacon can be smoked, but it doesn’t have to be, he said: “Both still have that same bacony flavor.” He noted that pancetta, Italian-style bacon, is dry-cured and then air-dried, not smoked.
For those who do want to smoke their own bacon, Ruhlman said a kettle grill and wood chips will do the job instead of an actual smoker. Stovetop smokers also are available at stores that sell cooking supplies. Home-curing bacon also allows cooks to get creative.
Ruhlman’s recipe is for a basic dry-cured bacon. But he said the recipe works well with the addition of maple sugar or maple syrup for sweeter bacon, and a host of other flavors for more savory bacon, including garlic, herbs, peppercorns, juniper berries and nutmeg for a classic pancetta.
“Heat would go great with bacon,” Ruhlman said, noting that chili powders or hot paprika would work well in the cure. “You’re limited only by your imagination.”
Home-curing bacon has the added benefit of connecting people with their food in a real way, Ruhlman said.
I haven’t fried bacon in years. It’s so much easier to cook it in the oven! No curling, no grease splatters. Mmmmm BACON!
Take the turkey bacon and seperate it on a cookie sheet. Then you take yoor syrup and drizzle it all over the laid out bacon. Then you stick it in the oven on broil. While its cooking in the oven the syrup mixes with the juice from the bacon.
I broil it on high on the middle rack, but you might want to try low broil first...and make sure to check on it every 5 minutes because it can burn fast. Oh and flip the bacon half way through. I would say for a whole thing of turkey bacon i probably use about 1/4 of a cup of syrup maybe a little less. Hope you like as much as we do! Let me know how yours turns out.
Thank you, a great idea. And I am also going to try it on my beef bacon in the oven.
Acts 10 : 14 and ff (NAS)
But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
And yet Peter NEVER ate anything unholy and unclean. The subject is not pigs but Gentiles.
So, HE changed HIS mind?
I have no idea why I pinged you to this glock... honest!
And save the rendered bacon fat to make elk liver liverwurst.
bump
Ex-schoolteacher here...there is “a rat” in the middle of separate. Separate is among the most misspelled words in English.
I am not trying to single you out, but thought that rule might help others, too.
Are you talking about using something like Butterball Turkey bacon? This sounds good.
Ex-schoolteacher here...there is “a rat” in the middle of separate. Separate is among the most misspelled words in English.
I am not trying to single you out, but thought that rule might help others, too.
Are you talking about using something like Butterball Turkey bacon? This sounds good.
Sorry for duplicate!
Is that what the future looks like?
Or cook my eggs in. Ya, you got it. Elk? You lucky guy. I just have to eat White Tail. Poor me. LOL
I smoke it for about 3 hours low and slow. I cure, smoke and then slice. I have taken thick sliced bacon that I buy at Sams and smoke it again too. Cut it in half and then split it in half. It is wonderful. Some people put maple syrup on it. I do not.
Dark Chocolate Covered Bacon and Bacon Wrapped Hotdogs equals YUMMY./Just Asking - seoul62......
That is hysterical!
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