Text 5928, 107 rader
Skriven 2008-04-24 00:02:34 av Sean Dennis (1:18/200)
Ärende: How to Cure Bacon MM'd Part 1 of 3
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      Title: How to Cure Bacon by Dave Sacerdote (Part 1 of 3)
 Categories: Info, Bacon, Meat
      Yield: 1 Good info


  This is cross-posted from my blog at
  http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/2008/04/making-bacon-at-home.html

  I encourage you to click through to it; I have lots of gorgeous
  bacony photographs there.

  ==

  For the past couple of years, I've been making bacon at home. I
  don't do it to save money; by the time I've bought the pork belly,
  seasonings, cure ingredients, fuel and chips for the smoker, and
  so on, I really haven't saved all that much. No, I do it because
  I love the different flavors I can achieve with different cures and
  because I like the results better. Commercially-made bacons are
  often injected with their cure - pumped up with moisture and extra
  sugars that make for a wetter, sloppier product. You've probably
  cooked bacon like that. It leaves puddles of salty white water or
  sticky residue in your frying pan, but before now you didn't really
  know why.

  Making bacon at home is a time-consuming process, but not a very
  hard one. The steps are simple:

     1. Cure the bacon
     2. Dry the meat off so the smoke will "take"
     3. Smoke the bacon
     4. Chill the bacon so it's easier to slice
     5. Enjoy!

  Starting the Cure

  I'll give you three separate recipes - you can choose whichever
  one that works best for you, or you can do what I did for this
  article and make a batch of all three. You'll notice that all
  the recipes include an optional ingredient called Morton
  TenderQuick. This product, made by the Morton Salt Company, is salt
  combined with a very small amounts of sodium nitrite and sodium
  nitrate. If you are concerned about nitrites and nitrates in your
  diet, you may leave them out when you make your bacon, but remember
  that they not only inhibit the growth of harmful bacterias, but
  they preserve the wonderful pink color of the lean parts of the
  bacon. In the tiny amounts used in the recipes, I believe them to
  be harmless, but you can make your own decisions about this.

  First, my "default cure." I make a "hot smoked" bacon which turns
  out a ready-to-fry but fully cooked product very similar to
  Russian Bacon. Because of this, I have had a lot of success
  with a brine cure:

  1 gallon water
  1 cup of Kosher or pickling salt
  1 tsp Morton TenderQuick curing salt (optional)
  1/2 cup dark brown sugar

  Combine all the ingredients in a container and stir vigorously
  until the salts and sugar has dissolved. You can add other
  flavoring ingredients to the brine, if you like - bay leaves,
  mustard seed, thyme, sliced ginger, sage (pretty much anything
  that tastes good with pork and smoke) - to vary the flavor.
  Immerse the pork belly into the brine - making sure the pork
  is completely submerged - and refrigerate for five to seven
  days.


  If you prefer a "dry rub" you can get excellent results with this
  honey cure. You'll need:

  1 lb chunk of pork belly (or larger)
  2 ounces honey
  2 tablespoons (or more) coarsely ground black pepper
  1 cup salt
  1 tsp Morton TenderQuick (optional)

  Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels, then rub it all over
  with the honey to form a thin but uniform coating on all sides.
  Next, roll the coated pork in the black pepper until all surfaces
  are covered with pepper. Finally, rub the entire surface well
  with salt to which the TenderQuick has been added. The pork
  belly should be covered with a nice thick layer of salt.


  This is what the pork will look like when you have the cure
  properly packed around it. The pepper will be showing through
  the salt layer, and the honey will be seeping though a bit. If
  you have a vacuum sealer, put the bacon along with all the salt
  sticking to it (and whatever of the salt/honey/pepper mixture
  you can gather up with your hands from the cutting board) into
  a vacuum pouch and seal it tight. If you don't have a vacuum
  sealer, use a heavy-duty zipper-closing freezer bag. Try to
  press out as much of the air as possible from the bag as you
  seal it up. Refrigerate while curing for five to seven days.

  Continued...

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