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Bacon, a love story (pic heavy)

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Comments

  • Jeffersonian
    Jeffersonian Posts: 4,244
    Muchas gracias, amigo. El tocino es la lingua universal, no?
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  • Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker
    Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker Posts: 3,743
    we used the same recipe, and yet i found my bacon was perfectly salted. I was afraid it'd be saltier than anything, so was very happy with it.

    Do you know how big your trimmed chunk was? I think mine was about 7 pounds, and (might be wrong) I think Ruhlman's recipe was for 5 pounds. I never even considerd adjusting it for size. Was yours five pound or less than five?

    looks good.

    One thing i did different too is that i sorta cold smoked it. I didn't go nuts (down to 80 or anything), but was probably around 100-120 most of the time. Did yours tighten up? Looks a little like a curl happening there (like it was contracting).

    looks great though. Where was your scotch?
    hahaha
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  • Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker
    Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker Posts: 3,743
    jumped right into dessicting the cook, but meant to say that it looks fantastic. i hope it was worth the effort, even though it doesn't feel like much effort really.

    slicing is an issue too here. need to get a deli slicer. the old man had a byoot, but sold it.
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  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
    Right, try a soak. Then still rest overnight in the fridge.

    You don't really want to lessen the amount of cure needed for the weight you are processing, nor do you want to shorten the cure time.
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
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  • Beli
    Beli Posts: 10,751
    Definitivamente...yo puedo entender eso muy bien!! ;)
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  • Jeffersonian
    Jeffersonian Posts: 4,244
    No scotch last night...work this morning. :( When I'm batching it in a couple of weeks, I'll be sure to degrease with a little Balvenie, though.

    My untrimmed slab was around 5.5#, probably about 5# trimmed. It wasn't terribly salty, just a tad more than you'd get in store-bought bacon. I'm not even sure I should use that as a reference, really. The pork flavor was more intense, kind of what you get from fresh eggs as opposed to supermarket eggs.

    It did tighten a little. I wanted to keep it at a lower temperature longer, but I most likely overcompensated to keep my fire from going out. I was more worried that I'd let the Egg get too warm and I'd have to snuff it and start all over.

    All in all, this was a success, but not one so complete that I won't do a little adjusting next time around. I might try Thirdeye's soak and play with the temps a bit more to put more cool smoke on it.

    Again, thanks for the inspiration and all here.
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  • Jeffersonian
    Jeffersonian Posts: 4,244
    Heh...I'm an engineer. You can never go wrong with an engineer by getting straight to the dissection.

    Any recommendations on a slicer?
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  • NoVA Bill
    NoVA Bill Posts: 3,005
    Thanks.

    I'm using the chefs choice although have not sliced pork belly bacon I have sliced butt and pork loin after cure and smokes in addition to beef and as long as the meat is cold, near freezing, it does a great job. I use on all types of cheeses too.
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  • Jeffersonian
    Jeffersonian Posts: 4,244
    Thanks, Bill, I'll give that one a whirl.
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  • Cheesegghead
    Cheesegghead Posts: 42
    Looks awesome! I've done homemade bacon a couple times now and am in love with it - so much better than store bought. This last time after removing from the brine I soaked it in cold water for about 2 hours, changing the water once. Helped remove a lot of the saltiness.
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