you should try, the Battered/Chicken Fried Bacon w/ White Gravy....Snook, TX. 
w/ a little black pepper.....Hmmm.
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.
Yes, and a Gentile is what I happen to be.
If you want to get into an argument on freedom vs legalism I am sure there are better forums.
“So, HE changed HIS mind?”
I doubt there is little I could say to keep you from being offended, so why bother answering. Your not interested in what I think, you merely want another petty argument.
I suggest you take it to another forum.
you should try, the Battered/Chicken Fried Bacon w/ White Gravy....Snook, TX.
w/ a little black pepper.....Hmmm.
I’m not offended, just curious about how you can justify, even glorify, eating something that the Bible commands us not to eat.
<FR: where religious wars break out even on the bacon threads.
LOL! Let’s take it all the way. I’m vegan. Ain’t eatin’ no bacon, BUT I did find this product, which is vegetarian and kosher and comes in a bunch of flavors. http://www.baconsalt.com/
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, not only is it a kosher ‘bacon’ product, but these fine people also sell something called ‘Baconnaise,’ a kosher, vegetarian product that tastes like mayo w/bacon.
God does love us and wants us to have bacon, he just doesn’t want us to kill any animals for it or kill ourselves by eating great googobs of stuff that will clog our arteries.
radiohead, former bacon-eater by the pre-cooked bacon bag full.
My wife microwaves it. Less shrinking and curling. She place 4 or 5 slices on a paper towel on a plate, covers that with a paper towel, and adds more layers if wanted, covers the top with a paper towel and nukes it for about a minute per slice, adjust cook time for desired crispness.
I have been using bacon salt for a couple of years. Excellent product. I haven’t triend the baconnaise.
Galatians 2:14
14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Sorry thanks for the correction. Sometimes the fingers go slower than the brain. That is an easy way to remember it though...thanks! We use is Louise Rich Turkey Bacon it’s the red package. You can find it in bulk at BJ’s Wholesale. I also use the all natural maple syrup from BJ’s it tastes better.
Really now, you are a Gentile, and who exactly told you that is who you are? Argument? Freedom vs legalism? You are the one who put forth Peter as place where the Creator cleansed a pig for food consumption. NOT the case as there was not a pig that knocked on Peter's door. God did not create a pig for food consumption and HE NEVER intended to use Peter to have some down through the ages to make such non-Scriptural claims. My best guest is you have NO clue who the Gentiles literally, scientifically DNA are. And they sure did not come from biologically speaking 'the' Adam and Eve. But hey sleep one.
Maple Cured Bacon
One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on
2 ounces kosher salt - 1/4 C.
1/4 C. pure Maple syrup
2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawain stuff)
1/4 C. Maple sugar (pricey, worth it)
Obtain pork belly from a meat market, butcher, Mexican or Asian market. You may need to mail order pink salt.
Mix the dry cure ingredients together, then add syrup. Rub the mixture over the meat and put it skin side down in a plastic bag slightly bigger than the meat and put it in the refrigerator for a week. Turn it over every day.
Remove the meat from the bag and rinse clean, then pat dry. Put it back into the refrigerator on a rack over a baking sheet and let it dry for 12 to 24 hours.
Smoke until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Remove the skin while the meat is hot. (Discard skin, or cut into pieces and save for flavoring soups, sauces, or stews) Let the bacon cool, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.
If you don’t have a smoker, use a Weber grill over slow coals or bake the meat at low heat in the oven.
Basic Dry Cure from Charcuterie
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt (2 cups Morton's coarse kosher salt)
8 ounces/225 grams sugar (about 1 cup)
2 ounces/50 grams pink salt (10 teaspoons)
Combine and mix till pink salt is uniformly distributed. Store indefinitely in air-tight container. Pink salt, or curing salt, is a salt containing a small amount of sodium nitrite; it’s dyed pink to prevent accidental consumption.
To make pancetta, salt the belly liberally with the basic dry cure; it should have a uniform coating on it, almost as if you'd dredged the belly. Put the belly in a two-gallon zip-top bag and add brown sugar (a quarter cup or so should do it), garlic, peppercorns (preferably toasted and cracked in a mortar or beneath a saute pan), bay leaf, and if you happen to have them on hand, coriander seeds (also toasted and cracked), thyme, juniper berries. Rub this stuff around on the belly, seal the bag, and store it in the refrigerator for a week, turning it and redistributing the cure at least every other day.
After 7 days (9 if it's a very fat piece, more than 2.5 inches), remove it from the bag, rinse all the cure off it, cut a hole in one corner and hang it to dry for a week. And there is your pancetta (unsmoked bacon). If left out indefinitely it will turn into jerky. Refrigerate for up to three weeks or freeze well wrapped for 6 months. It holds up very well vacuum sealed and frozen. I use an ordinary Rival Seal-A-Meal vacuum sealer designed for home use.
So, so good. I took the skin off some of it (to use when cooking beans or making stock). But the first thing I did was to wrap two thick slabs in foil and roast them for a couple hours at 250 degrees to make them tender. I chilled them till I was ready to cook them: I sauteed them till they were crispy on both sides, then cut them into bite sized pieces and served them as an hors d'oeuvres when some friends came over for cocktail. The slow roasting in an enclosed (therefore moist) environment, followed by searing, is a great technique, results in meltingly tender bite with the crispy exterior (and no loss of flavor to a braising liquid). No end to what you can pare with this, with scallops, with peas, with braised greens, beneath a poached egg, or even as the featured ingredient in what would be a most excellent BLT! No excuses, if you like to cook, for not curing your own pancetta.
Buy a duck breast and pack it in kosher salt and refrigerate it for a day and then rinse it off and enfold it in cheesecloth (or anything that can breath, a clean handkerchief will do in a pinch) and let it dry for a week on a rack on the counter or dangling from a string—then, slice it and taste. Suddenly you will see. Buy a side of salmon—no, buy a piece of salmon—pack it in an equal mixture of salt and sugar and some citrus zest or fennel, wrap it in foil for 24 hours, rinse it and taste a paper thin slice. A cooking miracle.
Yes... It is sad and true.... But the pig overlards defeeted the androids and there is no closed season......
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