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Bacon: American Treasure or Work of the Devil?

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muffler dragon;2143453; said:
Bacon exists without the nitrates and nitrites, douche-a-bag. :wink:
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Katt has carefully weighed getting cancer from nitrates on one hand...and being subjected to an apron wearing Ord in his kitchen looking like Aunt Bea while naturally curing bacon on the other....and has clearly opted for the cancer.

Why can't you just accept this?
 
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I'll let the man himself weigh in on the subject.

Bacon is one of the greatest foods on the planet, but the food marketers are going to figure out a way to make you buy their bacon. So what they do is use celery powder and celery juice (note the asterisk on the label above) as their nitrate source (celery is loaded with nitrate) and are therefore are allowed to say no nitrites added. Why go to the trouble? Because we don’t know any better. Can we really be this stupid? I have only one word to say on this beyond an emphatic yes.

Snackwells. (Healthy snack? Must be! Says so right on the package! Da der, da der, da der, down the aisle we go.)
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Bacon without nitrates and nitrites is botulism waiting to happen.
 
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Gatorubet;2143458; said:
Katt has carefully weighed getting cancer from nitrates on one hand...and being subjected to an apron wearing Ord in his kitchen looking like Aunt Bea while naturally curing bacon on the other....and has clearly opted for the cancer.

Why can't you just accept this?
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You forgot that I'd be holding my badass 100 year old cleaver. Also my bacon has nitrates/nitrites. That's the whole reason for the curing salt.

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Did the first "overhaul" (redistribution and rerubbing in of the cure) on the bacon last night. It's starting to take on a nice bright red baconesque color, firm up a little bit and the salt is definitely pulling all the liquids out of the meat and turning things into more of a brine than a dry rub.
 
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knapplc;2143456; said:
Good bacon? Or that pseudo-bacon crap?
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Trader Joe's. (which happens to be the basis of Ord's article above) I like it, and I consume a fair quantity* of it.

Gatorubet;2143458; said:
Katt has carefully weighed getting cancer from nitrates on one hand...and being subjected to an apron wearing Ord in his kitchen looking like Aunt Bea while naturally curing bacon on the other....and has clearly opted for the cancer.

Why can't you just accept this?
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I accept that just fine. :wink:

*Fair quantity being approximately 1 lb per week. I cook the bacon at 275F for approximately 4-5 minutes per side. According to the information I've gleaned, this is more than enough time to kill any potential botulism toxin. I understand that if any spores are present, then there could be issues. However, the rarity of botulsim at present leads me to believe that my concern needn't be high.
 
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muffler dragon;2142791; said:
Aside from suspected carcinogenic issues with nitrates and nitrites (which happen to be the bulk of the issues with processed meats). :wink:
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Before any of you guys decide to go postal on my comment and the follow-up, I decided to copy my original statement and highlight the important part: "suspected". I didn't say it was a given or anything of the sort. I deal in a world that tinkers with carcinogen, suspected carcinogen and so forth almost every day. And I want to draw the distinction here.

I'll even post what Sisson writes since some of you agree with his stance on foodstuffs in other topics:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-quick-guide-to-bacon/#axzz1sQ2eJwAg

Now for nitrites. We?ve admittedly hedged our bets on these additives in the past, but I?ll agree that shelling out for ?naturally cured? bacon (or other cured products) isn?t worth the extra cost. Some folks like the taste or simply trust the use of ingredients like celery salt (which contains its own nitrates from the celery) more than a conventional product. Others buy nitrite free because the bacon tends to contain fewer additives in general or because they want to support local or organic farmers and nitrite-free is what they offer. Nonetheless, it appears to be of little consequence.
Just a quick and dirty review? We take in nitrates every day with our vegetables and, to a much smaller degree, with cured meats. Microorganisms in food and in our own digestive tracts convert some nitrates into nitrites, and some of these nitrites can then form nitrosamines, known carcinogens. Vegetables have sufficient antioxidant power that this small amount of conversion is inconsequential. As far as cured meats go, they generally only make up about a 10th of our nitrate intake, and a serving of vegetables or vitamins C and E can further inhibit the unwanted conversion (hence the orange juice recommendation some people follow with their bacon).
When it comes to bacon (pumped but not dry cured), the USDA responded a number of decades ago to concern about nitrosamine formation during the cooking process. Sodium and potassium nitrites were capped at safer levels. Vitamin C was then added to most bacon formulas. The departments? research suggests that these adjustments prevent nitrosamine formation in medium cooked bacon (340 degrees F, 3 minutes cook time for each side), but well done and burnt bacon still pose some risk for nitrosamine conversion. Moral of the story: if you like well done bacon and choose naturally or conventionally cured, pop some vitamin C with your meal.​
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I choose to eat the bacon marketed as such as Trader Joe's for multiple reasons. It not only deals with nitrates/nitrites.

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muffler dragon;2143512; said:
I choose to eat the bacon marketed as such as Trader Joe's for multiple reasons. It not only deals with nitrates/nitrites.

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The problem is that you're still getting just as much nitrites and nitrates. Those companies are using a loophole in the labeling law to backdoor them into the bacon via celery juice and celery powder, where they're naturally found in abundance. At the end of the day, the bacon is really no chemically different than if the nitrates were added through a traditional curing salt.
 
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The two big pieces are smoking over apple wood as I type.

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The smaller pound and a half piece has been rolled, tied and hung to dry for the next two weeks. Pancetta awaits on the other side.

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And for what it's worth, Gator, I just spent a small fortune on a hundred year old Griswold cast iron fruit & lard press. I'll be fermenting hard cherry cider this Summer and hard apple cider this fall.

GriswoldRS.jpg
 
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