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Making your own bacon?

Mrs D said:
You can buy nitrite-free bacon in supermarkets now, there are at least two brands. Making your own isn’t everyone’s idea of fun.
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Yeah, I totally get that. My other half thinks it's odd.

I did come across a fair bit when reading that suggests that nitrite free bacon may not be, celery salt is used, which itself is very high in nitrites.
 
spitfire said:
If you can get them to smoulder, like a cigar, then yeah. But it would be difficult, they'd keep going out because of the gaps.

Dust works because of its density. The heat travels through.

On a small scale dust is the winner, some larger scale operations may use chips although I don't know of any. And I've looked.

Fun smoking fact. Formans Smoked Salmon in Fish Island smoke their fish with oak. The oak beams are fed into a spinning cog and the smoke is generated by friction. No fire involved. Very clever.

View attachment 132022
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As I do a lot of work with Oak as a timber I can generate a nice mix of dust, chips and shavings ... I think it makes a slightly hotter smoke.
 
StoneRoad said:
As I do a lot of work with Oak as a timber I can generate a nice mix of dust, chips and shavings ... I think it makes a slightly hotter smoke.
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Free dust w00p! :thumbs:

As long as you aren't generating much heat or your cheese gets sweaty and it is obviously not a great idea to be warming up raw meat. The temp of the container should be ambient + 2 at most. Doing it in direct sunlight is also not a great idea as the box gets warm.

15 - 16 is ideal, you can do salmon up to about 24 (Formans do). I don't know enough about bacon to advise temps but it's all out there on the web.
 
spanglechick said:
Oh I don't know. It's a three-in-one smoker/oven/barbecue thing I bought my boyfriend for his birthday.
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Probably an offset? Get a CSG, some dust and stick it in the bottom of the big bit. Put cheese/boiled eggs/sundried tomatoes/chorizo/nuts/olive oil/salt on a clean oven tray/dish. Smoke. Eat. Some people like to leave the cheese a week to mellow.


upload_2018-4-6_10-27-55.png
 
spitfire said:
Inspired by this thread I am also going to make some bacon. Streaky maple cure. Then cold smoked.
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That sounds lovely. I'm sure with your past skills your first efforts will probably be more interesting then mine.

On the plus side turned it this morning and it's definitely looking a more bacon coloured pink. :)

Poi E said:
Dude I think you should do a vlog on your journey with pork.
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Ha. Will do pictures. Hate hearing myself speak to camera.

Am definitely fancying sausages next though.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
That sounds lovely. I'm sure with your past skills your first efforts will probably be more interesting then mine.

On the plus side turned it this morning and it's definitely looking a more bacon coloured pink. :)



Ha. Will do pictures. Hate hearing myself speak to camera.

Am definitely fancying sausages next though.
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It'll be my first time too. We'll see how it goes. Will post up progress on here if you don't mind? Don't want to hijack your thread even more.

Found this website last night whilst poking about for curing salt. Lots of sausagey stuff.

Sausage Making Supplies from Weschenfelder Direct
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Yeah totally, it's not a hijack or my thread, the more bacon the better. How are you doing your maple cure?
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Cheers. :cool:

Not sure yet, had a look at a few, they're probably much of a muchness.

But I did discover on my google travels that a lot of people hot smoke their bacon which means (theoretically) you could eat it without further cooking. Never knew that.
 
That sounds nice...although not bacon as we probably know it. Obviously most links I've seen are American and they have a very different idea to us about what bacon is. I imagine well cured and smoked pork belly would be awesome.

I'm actually quite suprised mrs quoad hasn't shown up on this thread yet...
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
That sounds nice...although not bacon as we probably know it. Obviously most links I've seen are American and they have a very different idea to us about what bacon is. I imagine well cured and smoked pork belly would be awesome.

I'm actually quite suprised mrs quoad hasn't shown up on this thread yet...
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I follow a relevant Facebook group.

The house vegetarian forbade me from doing too many things with outdoors meat. (Or anything with indoors meat, tbh).
 
mrs quoad said:
I follow a relevant Facebook group.

The house vegetarian forbade me from doing too many things with outdoors meat. (Or anything with indoors meat, tbh).
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Ha. Fair enough. The main reason I picked the method of doing in the bag is the other half gets squeamish about big bits of meat and never cooks with the stuff.

Which group is it btw?
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Ha. Fair enough. The main reason I picked the method of doing in the bag is the other half gets squeamish about big bits of meat and never cooks with the stuff.

Which group is it btw?
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3176BECE-9070-4E95-A8B7-352D3A341D68.png
Recommended by someone on here, about the time I started making my own sausages.

It’s WAY beyond sausages, tho. Sth like 65% of discussions seem to end up being about the precise %ages of cures, how to turn an insulated barn into a smokehouse, and / or which coloured Moulds (black, white, green) can be wiped off (with / without vinegar / red wine / citric acid) without killing all of your immediate family once consumed.
 
mrs quoad said:
View attachment 132313
Recommended by someone on here, about the time I started making my own sausages.

It’s WAY beyond sausages, tho. Sth like 65% of discussions seem to end up being about the precise %ages of cures, how to turn an insulated barn into a smokehouse, and / or which coloured Moulds (black, white, green) can be wiped off (with / without vinegar / red wine / citric acid) without killing all of your immediate family once consumed.
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My understanding is that if a meat gets black mould it's best to chuck it out. Is that right?
 
I've cured a couple of pork bellies in the past using salt and demerera. It was interesting but the end product was more like pancetta than English style streaky bacon. That's not a problem because I like pancetta but it was quite a bit too salty as well. It wasn't properly pink either, more a reddish grey but that's because chemicals are used commercially to maintain/enhance the colour. If I do it again I'll do it with a thicker cut of meat, more sugar and less salt.
 
Spymaster said:
I've cured a couple of pork bellies in the past using salt and demerera. It was interesting but the end product was more like pancetta than English style streaky bacon. That's not a problem because I like pancetta but it was quite a bit too salty as well. It wasn't properly pink either, more a reddish grey but that's because chemicals are used commercially to maintain/enhance the colour. If I do it again I'll do it with a thicker cut of meat, more sugar and less salt.
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Yeah, it was quite salty, so may use less next time. I used curing salt, so it did go the right colour. A chemical, but has been used since the middle ages and grew on pig styes. I do fancy having a go at a belly

joustmaster said:
19cm Electric Meat Stainless Steel Blade Slicer Cheese Food Cutter Home INCD VAT 637509422240 | eBay
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That would be ace. Kitchen isn't that big so will have to do a fair bit more before I can justify one. :D
 
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