Bacon: American Treasure or Work of the Devil?

[knapplc]

That sounds a lot like this recipe from Tyler Florence:

Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed and split down the middle
4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) bacon, cut into small squares
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed, plus 2 cloves, roughly chopped
4 sprigs thyme, plus 2 sprigs thyme, leaves only, chopped
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take a large pan and set over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until fat renders 2 to 3 minutes. Add the smashed garlic clove, thyme sprigs and Brussels sprouts and cook gently until slightly caramelized. Add stock and reduce heat to a simmer. Season with salt and a little pepper, cover and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Remove lid and add a splash of vinegar and reduce until syrupy, 2 to 3 minutes.

After Brussels sprouts are done cooking, put them in oven safe dish. In sheet tray and toss bread crumbs with rosemary, thyme leaves and chopped garlic, then drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture and Parmigiano over Brussels sprouts and bake in a hot oven until golden and crispy.


This is a little more complicated than yours, but its really good.

 

[jwinslow]

You had us until the bread crumbs.

 

[Smudger]

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

I made another batch.

Broke down into three different kinds. Maple bacon (cured with maple sugar and some good Vermont B), Spanish bacon (cured with a combination of Spanish pimentons and peppers), and pancetta.

 

[Best Buckeye]

when they say diet im like well ok kinda sorta , when they add no bacon i say hahahahaha

 

[dav713]

You have to use pink salt. That's the Prague #2 curing salt NOT Himalayan pink salt. It's dirt cheap, and you can pick it up at the Spice House on Wells. It's also--if ingested directly--toxic. So make sure you keep it in a sealed jar away from kids, pets etc. This does two things. First of all it gives it the bright red color and makes it taste like bacon instead of salted and cooked meat. Secondly, and possibly more important, it prevents botulism.

The basic ratio for a curing mix is (by weight!) 8:4:1.2 Kosher salt to sugar to curing salt. Use 4 to 5 percent of the weight of the meat to be cured. To this you can add your other curing ingredients. I'm going with toasted and roughly cracked black peppercorns, garlic, brown sugar, crushed juniper berries and thyme.

Into a non-reactive container (or large ziploc) for a week in the fridge. Every other day, reach in and redistribute the cure and really work it into the meat. At the end of the week, pull it out, rinse off the cure thoroughly (some say that--after rinsing--you should soak it in room temp water for 15 to 30 minutes to prevent the final product from being too salty), then cook, smoke or hang.

I'm using Michael Ruhlman's book Charcuterie as a reference point.

I'm a little late to this party, but homemade bacon is infinitely better than anything you'll buy in the store. I have been brining the pork bellies instead of dry curing them. Doing it this way gives you greater control over the final product and eliminates the possibility of over-curing.

Here is the spreadsheet for the basic brine that I use. Enter the weight of the pork belly and the amount of water you are using (Pork belly should be completely submerged in the brine. If it is not 100% submerged, you can just flip it every day). The spreadsheet will tell you how much salt, pink salt, and sugar that you will need. The sugar can be a combination of any type of sugar (regular sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, etc). The salt should be kosher salt that has no added iodine. The salt and sugar percentages in the spreadsheet are what I prefer, but they can be adjusted. Add whatever extra spices you like. And leave the pork belly submerged in the fridge for 5-7 days. After 5-7 days it reaches equilibrium, so going over won't hurt it.

PM me if you want an excel copy of the spreadsheet. BP wouldn't let me attach it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Agj4SxcdTvwRdE0wanRyUDVQM0VwQURJaDlqbmFIbVE

 

[dav713]

And ORD, have you made anything else from Charcuterie? I've been meaning to try some other things, but haven't gotten around to it.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

And ORD, have you made anything else from Charcuterie? I've been meaning to try some other things, but haven't gotten around to it.

Sadly, I haven't. Haven't had too much time lately. There's a couple of things that are highlighted on my to do list, and I'm going to pick up salumi. For the salumi though, I really think that I'd need a dedicated curing chamber, and that's not easy to do in the city.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

I made another batch.

Broke down into three different kinds. Maple bacon (cured with maple sugar and some good Vermont B), Spanish bacon (cured with a combination of Spanish pimentons and peppers), and pancetta.

How long until you expect finished goods? I'd love to see the 'after' photos too.

Which butcher do you use?

 

[Jake]

That sounds a lot like this recipe from Tyler Florence:

Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed and split down the middle
4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) bacon, cut into small squares
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed, plus 2 cloves, roughly chopped
4 sprigs thyme, plus 2 sprigs thyme, leaves only, chopped
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take a large pan and set over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until fat renders 2 to 3 minutes. Add the smashed garlic clove, thyme sprigs and Brussels sprouts and cook gently until slightly caramelized. Add stock and reduce heat to a simmer. Season with salt and a little pepper, cover and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Remove lid and add a splash of vinegar and reduce until syrupy, 2 to 3 minutes.

After Brussels sprouts are done cooking, put them in oven safe dish. In sheet tray and toss bread crumbs with rosemary, thyme leaves and chopped garlic, then drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture and Parmigiano over Brussels sprouts and bake in a hot oven until golden and crispy.


This is a little more complicated than yours, but its really good.

That sounds pretty good...if you omit the Brussels sprouts.

 

[Mac]

Bacon Weave Breakfast Burrito

 

[MaxBuck]

All you bacon freaks might want to check out Zingerman's Bacon-of-the-Month Club. For six months, you get a package of "artisanal" bacon each month, each 12-to-16 ounces. Cost? $189.

Bacon-of-the-Month

That's like, $35 a pound, for bacon.

Zingerman's Deli is, of course, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the "more money than sense" crowd.

I had lunch at Zingerman's once. Absolutely, without question, the single most overpriced meal I have ever had in my life. Like $18 for a pastrami sammich that had about 1/4 the amount of pastrami I'd get at Katzinger's. And I'd pay 2/3 as much. Lunch for 2, with soft drinks and chips and a little cup of slaw, came to about 50 bucks. And we had the privilege of eating in a tent.

Hideous place.

 

[ScriptOhio]

I like it crispy damnit!

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

How long until you expect finished goods? I'd love to see the 'after' photos too.

Which butcher do you use?

The bottom three are the finished, ready-to-cook goods.

I got the whole skin-on side at a Mexican grocery store just West of Lincoln Square called Andy's Fruit Ranch. I really don't see paying double at Paulina or Gepperth's.

Eventually, I'm going to start ordering some Mangelitsa Pig bellies, jowels and loins (maybe even whole hams to hang for two years) from a small farm in upstate NY. Mangelitsa is about as close as you can get to Spanish Pata Negra pigs which are banned in the US.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

The bottom three are the finished, ready-to-cook goods.

I got the whole skin-on side at a Mexican grocery store just West of Lincoln Square called Andy's Fruit Ranch. I really don't see paying double at Paulina or Gepperth's.

Eventually, I'm going to start ordering some Mangelitsa Pig bellies, jowels and loins (maybe even whole hams to hang for two years) from a small farm in upstate NY. Mangelitsa is about as close as you can get to Spanish Pata Negra pigs which are banned in the US.

Very cool, thank you. Dumb question, probably, but can one get a side without the skin? I'm not much of a butcher.