I made bacon. It was good.

biggreenrob

Booyah!  That's how it's done.  Everything looks great.

theyolksonyou

Your knife skills are way better than mine. Sliced up a couple of pounds last week and it was way inconsistent. 

SGH

theyolksonyou said:

Your knife skills are way better than mine. Sliced up a couple of pounds last week and it was way inconsistent. 

You know there is a way to cheat when going for presentation if your knife skills are lacking. Simply use a straight edge as a guide. Now of course this only works on flat meats, but there is a way to cheat on odd shaped ones as well. Where there is a will there is a way my friend.  

nolaegghead

I used a 12" Messermeister - flexible blade.  Line it up and cut in to one side, then line up the other side and cut in to that.  So you line up the ends and the blade can flex to make it consistently thick.  Also, refrigerate the meat so it's hard.  I debated pulling out the electric slicer, but didn't feel like cleaning it afterwards. 

saluki2007

Looks good nola.  I too took advantage of the Costco deal. Not sure if I want to make bacon or just smoke it all the way through.

SGH

saluki2007 said:

Not sure if I want to make bacon or just smoke it all the way through.

You can't go wrong with either. 

nolaegghead

Something I want to try, and this bacon would be perfect since it's lean insofar as your typical belly goes, is to low and slow it, then pull it.

BigJonMoo73

Mmm... That looks awesome! Excellent execution!

WeberWho

You seriously cut that by hand?  Damn dude.  Impressive knife skills you have

ar15203

Nice looking bacon

byrne092

Looks awesome. 

YYZegger

Nice Bacon!

nolaegghead

WeberWho? said:

You seriously cut that by hand?  Damn dude.  Impressive knife skills you have

Yes, thanks.  It's really not that hard if you have a long knife and take your time.

nolaegghead

This is the other half.  I cut a bit with the grain so it would fit in the bags better.

HoustonEgger

Nice shop picture

What did you use for the cure mixture?

nolaegghead

Loosely, this:  http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/10/home-cured-bacon-2/

—Mix the following together in a small bowl:

2 ounces (1/4 cup Morton or Diamond Crystal coarse kosher) salt

2 teaspoons pink curing salt #1 (I use this DQ Cure from Butcher-Packer, $2)

4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper

4 bay leaves, crumbled

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar or honey or maple syrup

5 cloves of garlic, smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife

2 tablespoons juniper berries, lightly crushed (optional)

5 to 10 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)


—Put your belly in the zip-top bag or on a sheet tray or in a plastic container.  Rub the salt and spice mixture all over the belly.  Close the bag or cover it with plastic wrap, and stick it in the refrigerator for seven days (get your hands in there and give the spices another good rubbing around midway through).

—After seven days, take it out of the fridge, rinse off all the seasonings under cold water and pat it dry.

—Put it on a sheet tray and put it in the oven (put it on a rack on a sheet tray if you have one) and turn the oven on to 200 degrees F. (if you want to preheat the oven, that’s fine, too). Leave it in the oven for 90 minutes (or, if you want to measure the internal temperature, until it reaches 150 degrees F.).

—Let it cool and refrigerate it until you’re ready to cook it.  But I know.  You won’t be able to wait.  So cut off a piece and cook it.  Taste it, savor it.  Congratulations!  It’s bacon!

Notes:  If you don’t have five pounds of belly, either guesstimate salt based on the above or, if you have a scale, multiply the weight of the belly in ounces or grams by .025 and that’s how many ounces or grams of salt you should use.

If for any reason you find your bacon to be too salty to eat (it happens, especially if you measure your salt by sight, which I sometimes do), simply blanch the bacon and dump the water before sautéing it.

Pink curing salt means “sodium nitrite,” not Himalayan pink salt.  It’s what’s responsible for the bright color and piquant bacony flavor.  You don’t have to use it, but your bacon will turn brown/gray when cooked (you’re cooking it well done, after all), and will taste like pleasantly seasoned spare ribs, porky rather than bacony.

If you have a smoker or a grill, you can smoke the bacon (strictly speaking, it needs to have the pink salt in the cure if you’re going to smoke because, in rare instances, botulism bacteria from spores on the garlic could grow; pink salt eliminates this possibility; but I never worry about this, you’re going to cook it again in any case).

You can also, instead of roasting it or smoking, hang it to dry, in the manner of pancetta.

There are plenty of reasons not to cure bacon: fear should not be among them.

Bacon is life itself: embrace it!

nolaegghead

I doubled that, as I cured twice the weight.

Canugghead

Absolutely gorgeous and incredible hand slicing my friend. 

SGH

@nolaegghead
You did a great job on the bacon brother. It looks simply awesome. I hate to admit it, but not bad at all for a democrat

caliking

I didn't even know Costco was selling pork belly. I've been wanting to try my hand at bacon for a while.

And +however-many-we're-up-to-now on the knife skills. 

Legume

@caliking I just found one at costco a week ago in Austin, I'd never seen them there before.  I put one in the freezer until I have time to figure out what I'm going to do with it.  I think I need to go back and get a few more, not sure if it's going to be a regular item there or not

SGH

nolaegghead said:

Random picture from shop.

When I first saw this pic I didn't have my glasses on. I thought you were slicing bacon on your band saw. After putting my glasses on I could see that it was a timber. For a minute I  thought, man what a thick slab of belly!!!!!

theyolksonyou

@sgh ha! I thought the same!

nolaegghead

I'm machining some smoke-wood! 

Actually that's a leg for my dining room table.

nolaegghead

theyolksonyou

Dude, except for the fact that your a flaming liberal, you're my hero. 

Edit:  that and you busted my troll cherry. 

SGH

theyolksonyou said:

Dude, except for the fact that your a flaming liberal, you're my hero. 

Edit:  that and you busted my troll cherry. 

He is a hippy as well as a flaming liberal. He could use a hair cut something fierce

XC242

Your title said you made bacon and it was good. I must disagree. From where I see it I would say it was great. Nicely done!

TheManBehindTheMask

Looks great.

bgebrent

Outstanding bacon post!!  Bravo!