Text 5929, 113 rader
Skriven 2008-04-24 00:04:20 av Sean Dennis (1:18/200)
Ärende: How to Cure Bacon Part 2 of 3
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MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

      Title: How To Cure Bacon by Dave Sacerdote (Part 2 of 3)
 Categories: Info, Meat, Bacon
      Yield: 1 Good info


  Curing Time

  For brine-cured bacon, just leave the container with the submerged
  pork alone in the refrigerator for about a week. Check every now and
  then to be sure the brine is reaching every part of the meat. If you
  have more than one piece of pork in the brine, turn them every day
  or so to make sure the same parts of the pork aren't pressed up
  against each other all the time (the surfaces that are pressed
  against each other don't get exposed to the brine as well.)


  For dry-rub cured bacon, you will notice after a few hours that
  the rub has begun to draw moisture out of the pork and form a
  brine all its own in the bag. If you're using a loosely-fitting
  sealed zipper bag, you should turn it over twice a day to make
  sure all surfaces of the meat stay exposed to the salty brine
  evenly. As the days go by, more brine will form.

  Brine will still form in a vacuum-sealed bag, but there's less
  room for it to move around. Once a day, take the sealed bag out
  of the refrigerator and gently massage the surfaces of the meat
  through the plastic. This helps ensure that the undissolved salt
  and other seasonings stay evenly distributed.

  Finishing the Cure

  After about a week has passed, the bacon is cured and should be
  ready to smoke. Remove the bacon from the cure and rinse it under
  cool running water. You'll only need a light rinse with brined
  bacon, but if you used a dry salt cure you'll need to lightly
  rub the bacon under the water stream to remove all the brine
  and undissolved salt and bits of herb, etc. Ground pepper
  might still stick to the meat. You can leave that on if you like.

  Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and put it on a wire rack,
  rind (skin) side down, to dry for a few hours. Smoke doesn't
  adhere well to wet meat, so the pork needs to air until the
  surface feels kind of dry and even a little sticky. This sticky
  surface is called a "pellicle" and is formed when surface
  proteins on the meat dry out and harden a little. This extra
  step not only gives the bacon a better texture, but also
  improves the ability of the smoke to flavor the meat. Don't
  skip it.

  Smoking

  You may not have the same type or model smoker as I do, but you
  should be familiar enough with your own equipment that I don't
  have to tell you how to perform this step. Just remember to
  keep the bacon spaced out enough so that the smoke can flow
  freely around the meat and expose the entire surface to the smoke.

  From top to bottom in my smoker:

  Racks holding the bacon, placed rind (skin) side up

  A pan of water. This provides humidity in the smoker and also
  catches and cools any fat that might drip from the bacon as
  it smokes. Just allowing the fat to fall into the coals will
  not only cause hot flares, but the burning fat will leave an
  unpleasant flavor and color in the bacon.

  Under the water pan is a shallow tray filled with lava rocks. It
  is made of stainless steel and perforated with big half-inch-
  diameter holes to let the flames from the burner through. It
  sits on a heavy steel rack holding it above the burner. When
  the lava rocks heat up, wood chips soaked in water are scattered
  upon them and smolder slowly, releasing their flavor.

  Below the lava rocks, of course, is a bronze burner to provide
  heat.

  I usually light the smoker about a half an hour before I'm ready
  to put in the meat. This gives the water and the lava rocks time
  to heat up. That way, I can load the meat in, throw on a handful
  of chips to start the smoke, and close the door.

  Once the bacon is in the smoker and the smoke has started, keep
  the temperature inside the smoker at about 225 to 270 degrees F.
  The idea is to slowly cook the bacon without rendering out very
  much of the fat (a small amount will "sweat out" during the
  smoking process, but you will be surprised at how little it is!)

  Keep an eye on the vents and when the smoke slows down, add more
  chips to keep a constant flow of smoke. You'll want to keep a
  small bucket of water handy with a handful or two of chips
  soaking so they are wet and ready when they need to be added
  to the lava rocks.

  Smoke the bacon for about three hours. You'll know it's done when
  the skin has softened and pulled back from the edges of the meat
  and the bacon feels firm when pressed. The color should be a rich
  deep golden brown.

  Remove the bacon from the smoker and place on a wire rack over
  some absorbent paper to cool. When the bacon is at room temperature,
  wrap it tightly in butcher's paper, plastic, or aluminum foil and
  refrigerate until completely chilled. This will "set" the juices
  in the lean parts of the bacon and firm up the fat, making the
  bacon much easier to slice for frying.

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