WWBD?

What Would (a) Bacon-nut Do?

Recipes: Kombu + Freekeh cured Bacon (Beta), Bacon Bratwurst.

A few weeks back bacon enthusiasts gathered in the hip Logan Square neighborhood to sample bacon creations from some of Chicago's top chefs, to peruse porcine products from vendors and to worship at the larded altar of cured belly. Yes it was the second running of Baconfest Chicago. I can't really say I'm a bacon enthusiast, it's like saying I'm a breathing enthusiast, but breathing enthusiasts probably participate in marathons...I'm not doing that either... Even though I have pontificated about bacon in previous posts, I didn't think I needed to attend a fetish convention. That is until they announced an amateur bacon bake-off.



Oh boy, I have never entered a contest before, but I excitedly submitted my bacon bratwurst recipe. It proved very popular at Oktoberfest last year.
While I waited for an answer, I plotted my entry. The bacon I make is a pantry staple, nothing extreme or fancy, just bacon, a team player willing to lend it's smoky goodness to any situation. But now.....If I'm gonna be competing with baconphiles, I need to bring my A-game, I need a bacon with unattainable ingredients cured in a an unimaginable brine. I need to go gourmet.



Call in the Rod

So my friend Rod, has a brother, or is it a cousin, who has a farm out by Iowa City, he keeps a few hogs. Rod got one. When he ran out of room in his freezer he sent me a few packages.





Unattainable beautiful side pork ready to cure. Now for the never before imagined brine:





I knew I wanted to use some Kombu for its umami properties (I talk about kelp powder in a previous post), and I wanted to try some Lapsang Souchong tea to add smokiness to the brine. But I forgot to buy tea, so I went with my favorite smoked grain, Freekeh.

Kombu + Freekeh Brine (Beta)

2.5 L water
225g Salt
250g Sugar
150g Freekeh
22g (One sheet) Kombu (kelp)
10 g black peppercorns
5g whole coriander
5g mustard
2 fresh bay leaves (now that's gourmet!)

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive pot and boil for two minutes. Chill before using.



I covered the bacon with the brine and let it soak overnight. The next day I let the bacon air dry in the fridge before smoking. That night I fired up the smoker. I hot smoked the slices for a half an hour, just enough time to snap a publicity photo (In case I had to sign autographs at the contest).



I'm ready for my close-up.



The bacon is made time to make a contest.

[BEEP BEEP -THE TELETYPE STARTS TAPPING A MESSAGE]


Oh, Someone is ringing across the Telex. It's Andre Vonbaconvitch from BaconFest Chicago:

Hi Mac,

We love these Brats. It was SO close to making the cut. Just wanted you to know it really does look delicious - and we're sorry we couldn't include it this year. Thank you so much for submitting.

[TELETYPE STOPS TAPPING]

[Pause]

Oh.

I made the sausage anyway. Running the stuffer cheers me up. Besides I didn't want have to wear a funny bacon hat.



Drei im weggla.

I was not about to stuff bacon willy-nilly into a sausage just to impress some trenchermen, I wanted a sausage with pedigree, so I cracked open my $5 copy of Larousse Grastronomique. I found many worthy sausages that are made with bacon, but brat from Nuremburg caught my eye. Nuremberg sausages are famous for thin and short. I read on one cultural website that the tourist should say "Drei im weggla! (three in a roll!)" to order this regional specialty. Here's my recipe:

Bacon Bratwurst

4 lbs/1.8Kg ground pork
14 oz/400g bacon (coarsely ground)
27 g salt
7g black pepper
3g marjoram
3g ground mustard
1g thyme
1g mace

water

Beat together all ingredients using a really big spoon or with the paddle attachement on a stand mixer, Add upto a cup of cold water to make a smooth mixture. Stuff into sheep casings. For the authentico look, fry in an Albert Turk Forged Iron Pan, serve three on bun.



I would try again next year, but in the past month I have lost my amateur status. Happy cooking.

Cheers.

Belly Time

Have you been thinking about making bacon? Now is the perfect time; with the hint of fall in the air, the gentle wisps of hickory smoke should trigger tingling childhood memories like skipping stones on Lake Hope. The late tomatoes are now ripe on the vine. Make up some bread, some mayonnaise, and assemble BLT's. Serve the sandwiches with smoked corn chowder and now you are ready for the season. Maybe a nap first.



Before any napping there's work to be done. The hardest part of making bacon is finding the belly. Ok, if you live in town nick-named "Hog Butcher to the World," maybe it's not that hard. I get bellies at a meat packer about three miles from my house (say YEAH Southland), the problem is usually the ones in the case are pretty thin, they keep the nice ones in the back to make their own cured love. My friend Brian in New Jersey gets them from a Chinese market with the ribs attached. When searching for your own try to find a place where you can choose your piece, if you don't see one you like, ask if there are any others. Make sure you get a thick belly. If you are at a meat packing operation you'll have to buy a whole belly, they wont cut it, and you're gonna get 12 to 19 pounds of pork. But that's what you want. Get the biggest, thickest belly you can find, because we are not just making bacon, we are stocking the larder.



When you get you purchase home you may find one end is really thick with very little fat, and the other end thin and nothing but fat. In addition, an untrimmed pork belly with have fat and meat (a flap of sorts) that sits on top of our future bacon. Now you can simply cut it up into to manageable pieces a cure it, but why not make it look nice?

With my pork side I used the thick, lean portion of the belly and removed the lean flap to make couple of pounds of our house sausage. I used the fatty thin end and any trimmed fat to make lard. I also saved the skin from each of these sections and threw it in the freezer. Skin is useful to thicken soups, Cassoulet, or boiled and diced for a pâté.



I squared up the future bacon and rubbed it with a mixture of sugar, salt and curing salt. Curing salt is a special order item, I get mine at The Spice House in Chicago. I used the recipe from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, for the dry rub. On a smaller piece I poured on a little maple syrup in addition to the dry rub. The pieces go into ziploc bags and cure in the fridge for five days. In the past I have cured bacon in brine along with ham. I haven't noticed any big difference between the wet and dry cure, except that the wet cure only needs three days.

After the cure was complete, I rinsed off the bacon and let it rest in the fridge of 24 hours uncovered. I actually let it go for two days because I got busy with other stuff but the pork didn't mind.



I cold smoked both pieces of the belly for about four hours. The cold smoke rig consisted of a hot plate and stainless steel bowl inside my Bullet. The next day I hot smoked the larger slab for about two hours. While I had the smoker fired up I also threw on some eggplant (smoked baba ganouj) and I hot smoked a few ears of corn (shucked) for the smoky corn chowder. Bonne Femme made the soup.


Cold and hot smoked bacon


Cold smoked bacon

Either way its a winner.



My mom was here last week and she started her own bacon. She took it back to Columbus and she will smoke it on her kettle grill.

Bacon: A pantry staple that's fun for the whole family.



Cheers.

Ham Serial Part Four: Light em up

Cold Smoking and Hot Smoking Ham and Bacon.

This is yesterday about three. Three pieces of cured belly and a ham.

The idea here is to apply smoke by smoldering sawdust over an electric hot plate. The outside air temp (28 F) kept the main chamber below 90 F.

Six hours and two inches of snow later, it time to put these bits to bed.

Today I fired up the bullet and I did some minor tying to round out the joint. The smoker settled at 200F.

I placed the bacon on the lower level. After about an hour the bacon had reached 150F, so I took them out.

After a total of six hours smoking, the ham got to an internal temp of 155F. Done. Was all the fussing worth it? I dunno, we'll find out soon.

Cheers.

Ham Serial Part Three: Let it Dangle

Upstairs, Bonne Femme, is conducting the music appreciation class. The boys are getting their grips on some of the beacons eighties: The Dead Kennedys, Love and Rockets (not as popular), and Ministry. I think class is going well, above the thrashing I can hear the boys being told to stop jumping on the couch.

Meanwhile down below in studio C, the ham has come out of it's week long briny bath. I'll let it get some air for at least 24 hours before puttin some smoke on it.

Before I hung the ham, I let it, along with the cured bellies, soak in a change of water. I fried up some of the bacon this morning and it was too salty. I am hoping a short cold bath will bring a little balance.

It's almost time to fire up the cold smoker.

Cheers.

Duck Tale Part Two

So here we are in studio B with the drying box. You may remember this decommissioned kitchen cabinet from Hunt for Proscuitto. In there you see a couple of devices to measure temp and humidity, and a casserole for adding water in the box.

But let's jump back to this morning.

I degreased and bagged the duck stock, then I got all the duck fat I made yesterday, I got all the duck fat and lard I made a month ago, and put them into a dutch oven along with the legs, lollipops and gizzards we saw in Duck Tale Part One.

Into a 200F oven, see you in six hours.

Meanwhile back in Studio B:

Duck Prosciutto.

It's been twenty-four hours since I put the duck breasts in a salt bed. Now rinsed and dried, they are noticeably darker and firmer.

Here I use a bamboo skewer to make a hole. I'll thread the hole with a stainless s-hook off an old IKEA pot rack.

So like I was saying yesterday, I used the fourth breast for dinner. I cross-hatched the skin then seared each side (skin side first) in a dry skillet. Three minutes per side. I sliced it up and put it on top of a salad. Bonne Femme accused me of being "gourmet." What? pan sear, salt and pepper, what is gourmet about that? Duck should be served like beef or tuna, rare.

As you can see above, I covered the opening with landscape fabric so the box can breath while filtering light. I found a draughty spot in the basement and I hung the box in front of it. When I last checked the temperature was about 50F with a relative humidity of 40%. I'll leave it for a week.

Confit.

Back upstairs in the test kitchen the confit is ready to come out of the oven. I carefully remove the bits putting the legs and lollipops in a crock and the livers hearts and lights in a glass jar.

I strain the fat through a china cap lined with muslin then top off each vessel.

I'll cover them with foil and set them in a cool spot for a few days. I wonder what I could make with that?

For further reading on confit or duck prosciutto, check out Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.

Stayed tuned from Part Three when we find out if the drying duck has blossomed into prosciutto or turned to just jerky.

Cheers.

Duck Tale Part One

I bought two ducks at Walt's last week. It has taken them five days in the fridge to thaw. I cut them up today.

I laid the breasts on a bed of salt then added more salt. I saved one for dinner tonight.

I seasoned the gizzards, the legs and the lollipops with salt and pepper. Everybody goes into the fridge for twenty-four hours.

I roasted the bones and bits for brown stock. (Note: Roasting duck bones gives of the aroma of McDonald's. If you happen to have been a child in America, then you know this is a good thing.)

The skin and fat are rendering on the stove right now.

Tune in tomorrow we will confit the legs and prep the breasts for prosciutto.

Cheers.

Ham Serial Part One: Aquisition and Cure

Say what you will about the Southland(I complain about it enough), but I can drive about three miles to a small abattoir where if you find no lamb in the cold case, the man behind the counter will check in the back. When he comes back from the back, he has an entire carcass slung over his shoulder. He flips on the band saw and three swipes later Bonne Femme has fixins for Rogan Josh. While we are there I decide to buy a ham.

I bought a ham today. One of the smaller ones, six kilos (14.5 pounds). I take it home. I need to trim it and start it to cure.


I first remove what I believe is the aitch bone. I haven't had my meat class yet.

It's a small flattish bone that makes the socket for the ham bone. Meanwhile I set the brine on to boil: four gallons of water, three pounds of salt, six ounces of pink salt, 2 ounces of pickling spices in a sachet. While I'm waiting for it to cool, I'm going to watch 3:10 Yuma.

Okay it's after midnight now and I am in a South Suburban basement with twenty-seven pounds of pork. The movie was real good, and the brine has chilled enough to get going.

Along with the ham I have some pork belly left over from Sausage Mania Part Deux. I'll get colonial and throw the whole lot in the pot.

A plate for weight and into the fridge. I'll check on our briny bits in a few days.

That's it for now from studio B. Stay tuned. Happy curing.

Cheers.