Food

[geoffbot]

After all the bourbon, this:

Attachment 48772

Attachment 48773

That's looks amazing.

[Henry Krinkle]

That's looks amazing.

It was pretty good. There are only a couple of BBQ places here and this is the better of them.

[geoffbot]

High praise 😂

The woes of being a food snob eh? I feel ya.

[Henry Krinkle]

High praise 

The woes of being a food snob eh? I feel ya.

My brisket and ribs are better, their chicken was good and their sausage was excellent. All the sides and BBQ sauces were all clearly made in house and all had unique and distinct flavours, so overall the experience was pretty good. Did I mention more than a dozen different bourbons?

[geoffbot]

Yeah its about the experience. You have to spend a fair bit of money to get better food if you're a decent home cook. But hey no watching up if you go out right?

[Henry Krinkle]

Here is the summer bacon after 72 hours cure, a rinse and 30 or so hours of drying in the fridge.



Beautifully cured, deep red colour, velvety, supple and tender.




Rustic salad made from indoor and outdoor lettuce, mustards and cresses with one of my wife's wonderful Caesar style dressings.

[Raza]

Okay, Henry, you're going to have to give a step by step process on that. It looks amazing.

[geoffbot]

Looks complicated Raza - when's the last time you cooked anything (not in a microwave)?!

[Raza]

Looks complicated Raza - when's the last time you cooked anything (not in a microwave)?!

Not the salad, Gorf, the curing process on the bacon.

[Henry Krinkle]

Okay, Henry, you're going to have to give a step by step process on that. It looks amazing.

It's pretty straightforward. Back bacon, or even refrigerator side bacon, are some of the easiest things to cure. I use good quality pork tenderloins instead of loin. That is both a preference and a way to shorten the cure time.

Take two litres of water

90 grams kosher salt, which is 6 tablespoons. Different grades of salt occupy different volumes, so using a tablespoon is only good if you are using kosher. Weight is always a better way to go.
20 grams sodium nitrate, also known as Cure #1. Cure #1 is available from butcher supply stores and some small butcher's. It might even be found at giant sporting goods stores like Cabellas. Bacon can easily be made without sodium nitrate, but the cure time will be considerably longer and the salt sugar content will be raised. I find that bacon made without sodium nitrate tends to be significantly saltier.
125 grams of sugar. White sugar works fine, brown sugar gives a little more molasses flavour.

That is a basic brine. Bring all these ingredients to a simmer and stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Cool. Chill in the fridge. Flavourings, if desired, would be added into the brine when heating. The one I made had garlic, lemon, thyme and sage. One could add juniper and pepper, or maple syrup, or go Asian with some Chinese five spice. The variations are endless. Nothing but the brine is pretty tasty too.

When the brine is cooled add 1-2 kilos of tenderloin or pork loin. Make sure it is completely submerged. I often use giant ziplock bags and squeeze all the air out. If you use a ziplock keep it in a large container, because it may leak. Put in the fridge for 72 hours. Rinse with cool tap water and pat dry with paper towel. Put the bacon on a wire rack and return to the fridge. Let stand uncovered in the fridge for 24-30 hours.

You have now made basic bacon! Here's the only thing you need to know. Don't worry if it looks slightly greyish pink on the outside. When you slice into it, it should be bright pink/red throughout. If it is off colour in the centre, even normal pork colour, it is improperly cured and you should cook all of it immediately, or freeze it, or discard it. I have under-cured duck breast bacon and I always cook it and have never gotten sick. It is just not as bacony as one would like towards the centre. Just don't leave it uncooked in your fridge.

Slice.

Fry.

Enjoy.

It will safely store in the fridge for a couple of weeks, but I slice mine up and freeze small packages of it for later use. You can mix it up a bit and change volumes, but even with sugar, which is a curative on it's own, you want to maintain a salt content of around 5%, somewhat more if using only salt rather than a slat/sodium nitrate blend.