CURED BACON – DEAN TORGES, THEINGREDIENTSTORE

I like brines for what you are doing. Try this one next time for your "bacon." Quicker and less mess. I've been messing with this recipe for a few years and haven't made a change in it the last 8 times I've done it. Here's my recipe from my logs…

2 Avg Belly slabs (@ 15 LB) - each slab squared up and cut in half crossways
1/2 Gal Cider
1 Gal Water
1 C Dark brown sugar
1 1/2 C Salt
1 1/2 TB Cloves - ground
4 LG Bay leaves - ground
1 1/2 TB Black pepper
9 TB ~or~ 4 OZ Sodium nitrite

Boil all ingredients in water, cool, add cider and then chill brine.

Soak slabs at approx 38*F, turning occasionally.

After five days, remove sides, pat dry and hang in smokehouse overnight, vents open, at 100* to form a pellicle. Begin smudge at 125* Slowly raising smokehouse while you correspondingly close down vent, keeping a good smudge going all the while. About the last four hours, keep at 150* with vents 1/3rd or 1/4th open, maintaining this condition until internal temp reaches about 128-130*F. Takes about 8 hours in the smokehouse.

Canadian Bacon

Ingredients:
Boneless pork loin (size will depend on how much bacon you want to make.)
1 Tbl. Morton Tender Quick (or Basic Dry Cure) per pound
1 tsp. dark brown sugar per pound
1 tsp. garlic powder per pound
1 tsp. onion powder per pound

Directions:
Trim fat and silver skin from pork loin.
Cut into 3 to 4 pound sections.
Weight each section.
Make a note of the weight of each piece before measuring the dry ingredients.
Measure all dry ingredients for each section of meat based on the weight of each section, and thoroughly mix.
Example if you have two sections; one weighting 4 pounds and one weighting 3 pounds, measure all the dry ingredients for the 4 pound piece and place that in one bowl; and measure all the ingredients you will use on the 3 pound piece and put that in a separate bowl.
Rub the entire mixture on to the loin.
Make sure to cover all surfaces, and work the dry cure into any crevices in the meat.
Place loins into separate one gallon sealable plastic bags, and remove as much air as possible.
Cure meat in the refrigerator at 36- 40 F
My refrigerator was at 38 F.
Due to the thickness of the loin you will need to cure them for 6 days.
Once a day turn meat over.
You do not have to open the bags, if some liquid has formed give the bag a few shakes to redistribute the liquid.
When the loins are fully cured, remove loins from plastic bags and thoroughly rinse off.
Soak loin pieces in about three gallons of cool water for 30 minutes; remove from soak and pat dry.
Refrigerate uncovered overnight, or long enough to allow to dry and to form pellicle on the surface.
You may also see an iridescent sheen on the surface. *
Place loins into a 225 F preheated Bradley.
Apply maple smoke for 1:40 to 2:00 hours.
Continue to cook until an internal temperature of 140 F - 150 F is reached. The higher you take the internal temperature, the less moisture will remain in the meat.
It is important to take the internal temperature of each piece of loin. **

I now only take may Canadian Bacon to 140 F. The texture and moistness is much better. If you decide to use the 140 F temperature, make sure that your probe is in the thickest part of the meat. After it the meat reaches 140 F, slowly move the probe in and out. If there is a drop in temperature, leave the probe at that spot and continue to cook until the 140 F internal temperature is reached. If you have a good instant read thermometer, also use that to get your final reading.
Remove loins from smoker, and tent foil until loins are cool enough to be handled by hand.
Wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least two days.
Cut into 1/8 inch thick slices and serve
(if serving with crackers you may have to quarter each slice.)
Additional information:
This recipe is a modification of Morton Tender Quick recipe and curing methods; and Mallard Wacker?s cooking guidelines for Buck Board Bacon.

You can add or subtract as many spices and flavoring you want to this recipe, as long as you maintain the correct amount of Tender Quick.

The dark brown sugar gives it a nice distinctive flavor, but you can replacement it with light brown sugar, or regular sugar or use maple granules.

You can increase the amount of applied smoke, but I like my Canadian bacon and pastrami lightly smoked. Keep in mind, that smoking a 225 F, your loins are going to reach 145 F -150 F in about 3 to 4 hours.

*OPTIONAL: At this point I used butcher's twine and tied the loin every 2-3 inches. This helps the bacon maintain a more rounded shape, and the even shape helps all parts cook more uniformly.

** I had two pieces in the smoker, and the tapered piece took 45 minutes longer to reach 150 F.

Home-cured Ham

Home-cured HamSo the end of August brings a lot of things to my family. Our little garden is in full harvest mode, tomatoes have the vines hanging down with weight, we canned quarts and quarts of pickles and picked I don't know how many pounds of green beans. But this year I was able to take advantage of another bounty, local farm-raised pork. A good friend of mine had raised 2 hogs and offered one to me.

Now I have the butchering skills to break down the carcass, but unfortunately I don't have all the tools. My little summer kitchen is lacking a bandsaw for the chops, but my grinder, slicer, stuffer and smoker will do a nice job with everything else.

I asked the kill house to simply portion the hog into roasts, chops and ribs. Everything else I would take fresh, which included 2 hams (halved into 4), 2 pork bellies and about 20 pounds of trimmings which I would grind into sausage.

This is the recipe I found online, courtesy of some BBQ buddies I've competed against and also die-hard Big Green Egg fans! I made a couple changes from their recipe due to things I had on hand and I'm very, very happy with the results!

Home-cured Ham

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Pickling Spice
3 cups Tender Quick
3 cups Brown Sugar
3 tablespoons CockeyeBBQ Rub
4 cloves Garlic (center)
2 fresh pork hams (halved)

Bring 2 gallons of cold, filtered water to a boil along with above ingredients until Tender Quick and sugar is dissolved and flavor from other ingredients infuses the liquid, about 10-12 minutes.

Remove from the stove and cool until liquid is 38°F, which is ideal temp for brining and curing.

Inject the ham at that cup:4-5 lb meat ratio, making sure that you inject the curing brine to and around the big bone running through the leg. This is a very important step in creating a successful end product.

Now cover the leg roasts with the remaining cold brine. I used a plastic bus bin which held the 4 hams nicely and I used a stainless baking tray to weight down the hams so they didn't float in the bring.

The leg will sit in the curing brine for 8-10 days depending on its size and your personal schedule. Ensure that it is refrigerated in conditions that keep the temperature of the brine as close to that ideal 38°F temp as possible!

After the 8-10 day curing period, congratulations are in order; you've just turned a pork leg into a full-fledged cured ham!! The meat will have that distinct smell of and pink flesh tone of the ham you are used to.

The next step is to draw some of the salt off/out of the ham. How much depends on your particular tastes. What Bryan and I did was give the roast a quick rinse to get the surface salt off and to also remove some of the residual seeds and peppercorns stuck to the ham from the pickling spice, and then we soaked it for 2 hours in cold water. A change of water and then 2 more hours in a second coldwater bath and we were ready to get smokin'!

For smoking the ham, I used my FEC-100 and stuffed the hams into a ham net. Now this isn't at all necessary. You can simply lay the hams on the racks, but I wanted my hams to have the appearance of a professional store bought ham and those little cross-hatched marks on the fat that the netting will make. I tied the open ends of the netting and hung them in the smoker with stainless hog rings.

When the smoker stabilized around 200°F, and the hopper filled up with hickory, I added the hams to the cooking chamber. I would love to try other woods as well. Apple sounds like a good choice, but I just happened to have a full bag of hickory on hand.

I smoked the hams at 200 until the internal temperature read about 130, then I turned the smoker up to 250 and brought the hams to 140-150.

I chose not to glaze the hams, partly because the nets would get all sticky and I figured most of the glaze would be ripped off when I removed the net, but also because I wanted to glaze the hams when I reheated them for dinner.

Here is the glaze recipe (I haven't tested this one yet, but based on the excellence of the brine I wouldn't hesitate to mix this one up).

Based on a slight modification of the recipe provided to us by Reg Pelletier, I would suggest this Dizzyfied starter glaze:

- 1/4 cup mustard
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/8 cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon Dizzy Pig Cow Lick rub (I would also suggest trying Dizzy Pig's Raging River, Tsunami Spin, Swamp Venom or Jamaican Firewalk, depending on your preferences.)

Heat on stove, stir/whisk to incorporate ingredients. Apply every 20 minutes or so, until you reach your target temperature.

After a total of about 8 hours on the smoker, the hams came off and were quick cooled in the fridge so they could be vacuum sealed and frozen. I removed the netting first, trimmed any ugly fat or anything that looked funky and sealed and froze them.

My local hog cost me about $1.50/lb and with a little time and effort and now I have 4 hams for my family ready to go for holiday meals, sandwiches, soups and countless other meals.

A 9 lb ham at Sam's Club (I'm sure not as good as these) cost around $3.50-4/lb.

I'm really very very pleased with the results and wanted to share the recipe and story.

Homemade Pancetta

WHAT TO BUY:
Pork belly is the same as fresh bacon. You can order it from a good butcher or buy it online from Niman Ranch. A whole fresh pork belly with the skin on weighs around 11 pounds, of which you’ll need half (a 5-1/2-pound slab) to make 1 pancetta. If you like, you can ask your butcher to remove the skin for you, making the total prep time minimal.
Curing salt, also known as pink salt or saltpeter, contains 6.25 percent sodium nitrite. It is colored pink so as not to be confused with regular salt. Curing salt should be available at your local butcher.

I like to use kosher salt in our recipes. It’s especially important to use kosher salt here to ensure that your quantity is correct. I prefer Diamond Crystal brand, available in most grocery stores.
Special equipment: In addition to your chef’s knife, you’ll also need a boning knife to remove the skin. Be sure to have a spool of cotton butcher’s twine for tying and hanging your pancetta.

I found that giant storage bags, like the jumbo 2-gallon bags by Ziploc, were perfect for holding the pancetta during the curing process.

Find a cool place to hang your pancetta, away from windows and direct sunlight. And of course make sure you allow enough time for the curing and hanging processes.
1 (5-1/2-pound) piece of fresh, skin-on pork belly (1/2 of a whole belly slab), or 1 (11-pound) whole belly

FOR THE CURE:
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns, plus 1 tablespoon for after curing
2 tablespoons whole juniper berries
1/3 cup kosher salt
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons curing salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 fresh or 5 dry bay leaves, torn into small pieces
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves

How to make it

If you’re starting with a full (11-pound) piece of fresh pork belly, slice it in half crosswise to make two (5-1/2-pound) pieces. You only need one half for this project, so seal up the other well with plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 6 months.

Place the pork belly meat side up. Using a sharp boning knife, make the piece more level by trimming off any extra bits of muscle or fat. Square off the edges with a chef’s knife.

Rinse the pork belly and pat it dry. Place it on a cutting board, skin side up. To remove the skin, use a sharp boning knife. Starting at the bottom left corner, slice in horizontally just under the skin but above the fat layer. Pull the flap of skin toward your body, holding it taut as you loosen it from the fat with a series of small horizontal cuts. Be careful not to remove too much fat or cut too deeply. (Pulling the skin toward you as you cut helps prevent this.)

Keep cutting until the skin is completely removed, then use your knife to even out the fat layer a little.

Place the 2 tablespoons of peppercorns and the juniper berries on a rimmed baking sheet. Use a heavy pot to crush them. Combine them in a mixing bowl with the rest of the cure ingredients. Mix the cure very well to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Place the pork belly on a rimmed baking sheet and rub the cure all over its surfaces, making sure to coat both the fat and lean sides, and all the edges and corners. Carefully place the belly in a large (2- to 2-1/2-gallon) sealable bag. Once it’s inside, rub the belly to redistribute the ingredients that may have fallen off while you moved it. Fold over the excess plastic and press down to remove as much air as possible. Seal the bag. (Alternatively, you may place the cure-coated belly in a glass baking dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap.)

Place the bagged pork belly on a baking sheet and place it in the refrigerator. Weight it by placing a pot or dish that is roughly the same size as the pork right on top of the bag, and place a 3-pound weight in the dish. (A box of salt or a few cans of tomatoes work great.)

Refrigerate the weighted belly for 7 days, flipping it over every day. After 7 days, remove the belly from the refrigerator and press down on it to check the firmness. It should feel uniformly firm throughout, as if you’re pressing down on a soccer ball. If the belly is still squishy like raw meat, return it to the refrigerator for up to 3 more days.

Remove the pork belly from the refrigerator and rinse off the curing mixture under cool running water. (It’s OK if there are still a few bits of pepper or spices on the belly.)

Move the pork to a clean cutting board and pat it very dry with paper towels. Place it meat side up. Crush the remaining tablespoon of black peppercorns with a heavy pot and rub the crushed pepper over all the meat sides to create an even coating.

Roll the pork belly very, very tightly into a cylindrical shape, starting at whichever end makes the roll most uniform. Make sure there are no air pockets inside the pancetta. Tie it very tightly with butcher’s twine at 1- to 1-1/2-inch intervals. Be sure to leave enough extra twine to hang the pancetta with.

Hang the pancetta in a slightly cool, dark, moderately humid place where air can circulate freely around it. (Ideal conditions are around 60°F and around 60 percent humidity.) Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from air vents. A basement is ideal, as is a bathroom that isn’t used often (a shower curtain rod works great for hanging, but not if you’re showering in there!). I hung mine both next to the kitchen sink and in the bathroom, and I never had one pancetta go bad.

Let the pancetta hang for 2 weeks. It will emit a subtle smell, sort of savory and sweet like the cure. If it smells rancid or rotten, take it down and trash it. When the pancetta is completely firm but pliable like leather, it’s ready.

Cut down the pancetta and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Store it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Note: Pancetta is not meant to be eaten uncooked. Be sure to cook it, just as you would bacon, before eating.