Text 7428, 61 rader
Skriven 2008-05-20 13:42:24 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: Bacon Cures Update
==========================
So last night, I hauled this enormous pig belly out of the fridge and
laid it out on my biggest cutting board, where it hung over the edges
by an inch or two on all sides.  Pretty impressive.  I cut into thirds
across the width, and then cut each third in two for six approximately
two-pound sections.  A couple of the sections were a little thin at
the ends, but all of them look pretty good, and there will be little 
waste because I generally keep the rind on even through smoking and
frying the bacon itself.

Chunks of bacon were placed in cryovac pouches, booze was poured in,
as much air as possible was pressed out, and the pouches were sealed.
Not vacuum-sealed, mind you, because the vacuum apparatus tried to 
suck out the booze and the first attempt made a mess, with bourbon
filling up the spill tray, splashing off the floor, and soaking the
legs of my jeans.  I will tell you this:  The smell of pigblood and
bourbon mixed is pretty disgusting.  I hope the bacon smells better
than that. [g]

I couldn't go with the original plan and use vodka, because there 
were no ready-made herbal infusions in the liquor stores I visited
and with the pork already waiting in the refrigerator I didn't have
the time to make my own.  I'll try it another time; for now, I'm
using rum, which was another recommended liquor.

For the most part, I used decent but not expensive liquor.  Middle-
of-the-road quality - I see no reason to use the fanciest most
pricey liquors simply to flavor bacon, but I'm not about to ruin
the stuff by using the rotgut store brands either.

The lineup:

Bag 1: Two chunks in Canadian whiskey (Black Velvet.)  One
will later be cured with brown sugar, the other with maple sugar.

Bag 2: One chunk in bourbon (Jim Beam.)

Bag 3: One chunk in Southern Comfort.  After pouring the liquor
into the bag and swishing it around, I noticed a citrusy, almost
orange note I had never detected in Comfort before, and thought
that this bacon might be more interesting than I had given credit
for previously.

Bag 4: One chunk in Bacardi white rum.  I considered using
some Bundy for this one, but decided that the overproof stuff
wouldn't really be appropriate.  Although I like the burn and
the somewhat raw taste of Bundy to drink, I wanted something a
little smoother for the bacon.

That left one chunk refrigerated as is until tonight as a control.
Tonight I'll be starting it in a standard brine without any other
experimental flavors so we can have a baseline comparison.


---
http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/ - Dave's Cupboard - Food and 
Restaurant Reviews; If I post it here in NCE, you'll find it 
blogged with photos at Dave's Cupboard.

http://bacon-labels.blogspot.com/ - A gallery of bacon package labels.
(The extra shelf in Dave's Cupboard.
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)