OK so let's make some bacon... recipe adapted from Ruhlman's Charcuterie
Curing supplies and equipment
Details of cures and suppliers can be found on this page.
Cleaning/Hygiene
Pay attention to hygiene; keep everything clean and safe. Remove any dirty cloths or towels. Ensure work surfaces and cutting boards are clean. You may wish to use food grade plastic gloves when handling curing salts.
Choice of Meat
In Malta we are lucky to have very good quality local fresh pork. Go to your butcher of trust and ask for Majjal ta' Malta. You will need pork belly for Streaky Bacon or pork loin for Back Bacon.
I buy mine from Zammeats at Arkadia, Portomaso. Here is what I bought for this trial.
The Basic Dry Cure
If you have an accurate set of scales you may use the following calculator:
* calculator courtesy of http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk
If you do not have accurate scales create a large batch of cure as follows, it will store in a jar indefinitely.
Salt 450gm
Sugar 225gm
Cure #1 - 50gm
Use 0.025 * the weight of your meat. For example if you have a belly weighing 1.5kg the amount of basic dry cure to use is 1.5 * 0.025 = 37.5g
Spices
You may add any spices you like, I used some bay leaves, sprinkle of thyme and freshly ground black pepper.
Sugars
The sugar can be one of your choosing white, brown. The darker the sugar: the stronger the flavour.
You may even use maple syrup or honey for a sweeter taste.
Salt
You may use any salt that has no additives to it, ideally use coarse salt. I used coarse sea salt.
Ensure that the cure is mixed well.
Applying the Cure Mix to the Meat
The amount of cure mix may seem a lot less than you expected. Do not add more, it is enough. Avoid falling into the temptation of adding more salt.
Sprinkle about 80% - 90% of the cure mix onto the flesh side of the meat and rub well in, getting into all the folds and crevices. Do not forget the sides and end. The remainder is sprinkled onto the skin/fat side and rubbed in well. Massage the piggy well.
This is how mine looked like after applying the cure.
Now put the meat, along with any cure that fell off whilst you were rubbing it in, into a food grade zip log bag, or a container. Be aware that the bag may leak so I used both a bag and a container. Put everything in the fridge. Every day or two turn it over and give it a bit of a rub; you can do this through the bag without opening it. Do not worry if liquid comes out of the meat. It often, but not always, does. Just leave it all in the bag. This is the effect of osmosis, the salt drawing out the moisture from the meat.
How long do I leave it in the fridge?
The standard advice is to cure the meat for 1 day for each ½ inch (13mm) of thickness, plus two days. So for a piece of belly like ours, about 1½ (39mm) inches deep, that’s going to be 3 days + 2 days = 5 days total.
Do not worry a lot about the curing times. Unlike older curing methods, this type of cure is not time critical, it will not be too salty if you leave it longer than the calculated time so it is always best to err on the side of caution.
You may notice, that the meat does not appear to have changed colour. This is normal. The outside colour is deceiving. If you have followed the instructions it will look like lovely red bacon when you cut into it.
Wash and Dry
At the end of the curing time rinse the bacon in cold water and dry it with a clean cloth or paper kitchen towel. This is mine right after rinsing.
Testing for Saltiness
Cut a slice of bacon and fry it. Eat and check for saltiness. If too salty to your taste, put the belly in a bowl of cool water and leave to soak for an hour or two. Test again and repeat until it is to your taste.
Drying/Pellicle
Leave the belly on a rack in the fridge overnight to dry and form a pellicle (a film like cover which will help absorb the smoke flavor). Alternatively put it in front of a fan for a couple of hours.
Cold Smoking
Ruhlman suggests that you should hot smoke the bacon.In my opinion According to my taste, the best bacon comes with maximum smoke with minimum
heat. But Ruhlman is king in these matters so I suggest you try for yourself. Since I choose, I typically like to smoke bacon in the winter
because you don’t need to be as careful, or at night during summer. Ideal cold smoking temperature should not exceed 25 degrees Celsius. I smoked mine in the last week of May at night to be safe.
As a cold smoking setup I used a PRO Q CSG Cold Smoke Generator and a normal BBQ Grill with Cover. I also have a PRO Q ECO Smoker, which is basically a cardboard box, but did not use it yet, since I was smoking at night (gets wet with dew) and because of the wind.
I set up the grill for cold smoking and prepared the CSG with apple wood dust for a burn of 10 hours. I ran this from 22:00 till 08:00 of the following day.
Here is the bacon in the grill with the CSG, some cheese to make apple wood smoked cheese and some buffalo mozzarella.
And here is the bacon after the 10 hour smoking session. Notice the yellowish tint the meat took, this the effect of the smoke.
Slicing
If you are lucky to have a meat slicer, by all means use it if you like thin slices. I don't own one, so I used a regular slicing knife. It would be best to semi freeze the bacon first so it would be easier to slice.
Storing
Ideally you vacuum pack the bacon and freeze it. It will keep for a couple of months. In the fridge (below 5C) it will keep for a couple of weeks.
Eating, Cooking
Ideally you should always cook the bacon before eating.
All Photos by Juanita Cassar
If you do not have accurate scales create a large batch of cure as follows, it will store in a jar indefinitely.
Salt 450gm
Sugar 225gm
Cure #1 - 50gm
Use 0.025 * the weight of your meat. For example if you have a belly weighing 1.5kg the amount of basic dry cure to use is 1.5 * 0.025 = 37.5g
Spices
You may add any spices you like, I used some bay leaves, sprinkle of thyme and freshly ground black pepper.
Sugars
The sugar can be one of your choosing white, brown. The darker the sugar: the stronger the flavour.
You may even use maple syrup or honey for a sweeter taste.
Salt
You may use any salt that has no additives to it, ideally use coarse salt. I used coarse sea salt.
Ensure that the cure is mixed well.
Applying the Cure Mix to the Meat
The amount of cure mix may seem a lot less than you expected. Do not add more, it is enough. Avoid falling into the temptation of adding more salt.
Sprinkle about 80% - 90% of the cure mix onto the flesh side of the meat and rub well in, getting into all the folds and crevices. Do not forget the sides and end. The remainder is sprinkled onto the skin/fat side and rubbed in well. Massage the piggy well.
This is how mine looked like after applying the cure.
Now put the meat, along with any cure that fell off whilst you were rubbing it in, into a food grade zip log bag, or a container. Be aware that the bag may leak so I used both a bag and a container. Put everything in the fridge. Every day or two turn it over and give it a bit of a rub; you can do this through the bag without opening it. Do not worry if liquid comes out of the meat. It often, but not always, does. Just leave it all in the bag. This is the effect of osmosis, the salt drawing out the moisture from the meat.
How long do I leave it in the fridge?
The standard advice is to cure the meat for 1 day for each ½ inch (13mm) of thickness, plus two days. So for a piece of belly like ours, about 1½ (39mm) inches deep, that’s going to be 3 days + 2 days = 5 days total.
Do not worry a lot about the curing times. Unlike older curing methods, this type of cure is not time critical, it will not be too salty if you leave it longer than the calculated time so it is always best to err on the side of caution.
You may notice, that the meat does not appear to have changed colour. This is normal. The outside colour is deceiving. If you have followed the instructions it will look like lovely red bacon when you cut into it.
Wash and Dry
At the end of the curing time rinse the bacon in cold water and dry it with a clean cloth or paper kitchen towel. This is mine right after rinsing.
Testing for Saltiness
Cut a slice of bacon and fry it. Eat and check for saltiness. If too salty to your taste, put the belly in a bowl of cool water and leave to soak for an hour or two. Test again and repeat until it is to your taste.
Drying/Pellicle
Leave the belly on a rack in the fridge overnight to dry and form a pellicle (a film like cover which will help absorb the smoke flavor). Alternatively put it in front of a fan for a couple of hours.
Cold Smoking
Ruhlman suggests that you should hot smoke the bacon.
As a cold smoking setup I used a PRO Q CSG Cold Smoke Generator and a normal BBQ Grill with Cover. I also have a PRO Q ECO Smoker, which is basically a cardboard box, but did not use it yet, since I was smoking at night (gets wet with dew) and because of the wind.
I set up the grill for cold smoking and prepared the CSG with apple wood dust for a burn of 10 hours. I ran this from 22:00 till 08:00 of the following day.
Here is the bacon in the grill with the CSG, some cheese to make apple wood smoked cheese and some buffalo mozzarella.
And here is the bacon after the 10 hour smoking session. Notice the yellowish tint the meat took, this the effect of the smoke.
Slicing
If you are lucky to have a meat slicer, by all means use it if you like thin slices. I don't own one, so I used a regular slicing knife. It would be best to semi freeze the bacon first so it would be easier to slice.
Storing
Ideally you vacuum pack the bacon and freeze it. It will keep for a couple of months. In the fridge (below 5C) it will keep for a couple of weeks.
Eating, Cooking
Ideally you should always cook the bacon before eating.
All Photos by Juanita Cassar
1 comment:
Great article! Will surely give the curing part a try :)
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