Something specifically that has not been done as an ingredient is BACON, /img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif The Gateway Meat, so lets see some dishes centered around or with bacon as an ingredient.
Could be a simple Bacon & Eggs for breakfast, a tasty classic of Coq Au Vin, Chocolate Covered Bacon, Quiche Lorraine, Bacon Jam, Cheese Burgers...... You get the idea, everything is better with bacon. For those that make their own, lets see some of your wares, there is plenty of time to get a week long cure on a belly or shoulder for buck board bacon. for those who have never made any, there is still time to learn, it's not complicated.
I'm new here. Live in bacon country where there are any number of bacon fest events held to sold out crowds. My grown children have all attended the original Baconfest in the capitol city, it's in it's 9th year. We have one locally, as well. Restaurants, organizations, service clubs, etc. can have a booth and serve a bacon concoction of their choice. Chocolate dipped bacon, bacon cupcakes, you think of a way to do bacon and it's there. Coq au Vin, BLTs and any other recipe with bacon tidbits are popular at our home, I have several soup recipes. Of course,our favorite is bacon on a breakfast plate. I travel about 75 miles to purchase pork products from an award winning locker in between having a hog processed there for our family freezers about once a year. Oh the joy of corn fed hogs for fine pork products!
I made a hot water dough, rolled it out after resting, brushed it with a mix of bacon drippings and toasted sesame oil then rolled it up and rolled that up. Then I rolled it out again, brushed with the oil mix then added the filling and rolled it up and cut it in two then rolled those out. That's a boat load of layers. Fried them in an oiled pan till crispy on both sides. They were quite flakey I was impressed - my first time making these. (won't be the last either).
Crispy D'Artagnon duck - The whole show and it sho 'nuff was goooood.
This is a brown sugar and maple buckboard bacon, made from a hunk of shoulder. It was cold smoked for a few days, was very tasty. And I'll be pickin up some bellies tomorrow for sure.
I had custard left over from chocolate, cranberry French toast this morning and didn't want to waste it so I made this. The texture is grainy because the eggs and dairy were premixed, but oh man this is delicious. Salty, Sweet and Smokey all in one - I encourage everyone to try it. Next time I'll make it as a true Flan.
Just ordered my Prague Powder #1, so at the very least the challenge has got me to finally make my own bacon. Wanted to for years, but never did. I will have my first entry tonight with some store bought.
I do have one question for @chefbubba. Does Canadian bacon count? After seeing @teamfat make some, I've wanted to give it a go.
About a week ago my wife was in a fridge cleaning frenzy and threw out all the icky looking natural sausage casings I had stashed in a bottom drawer, so I'll be using them soon.
I did not take step by step pics as final product is all that is needed. I removed skn and marinated chicken drumsticks in brown sugar, sambel olek, fish sauce, lime zest, double black soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame/peanut oil. Frenched the drums. Wrapped in bacon and indirect grilled for two hours. Didn't feel the need to smoke as bacon already smoky.
@ChefHoff Canadian bacon is fine, same process different cut. Have you ever cured anything? If not, I recommend that you use % of weight for your salt, cure, sugar vs 3 TBSP & 1/4 cup, etc. This method is much more accurate.
You need to have an accurate digital scale. Weigh your meat, convert that to grams. Your cure will be 2-2.5% of the meat weight in salt, .25% cure#1, 1.5% sugar. For my taste, 2% salt is perfect, 2.5% was too salty, just depends on how salty you like things. Example, for a 10lb belly there is 4536g. 2% salt is 90.72g, cure is 11.34g, sugar is 68.84.
Mix all together rub all over the belly and place in a zip bag or vacuum seal, turn it daily and massage the cure into the meat. Should take about a week. Rinse, let dry in the fridge on a rack uncovered for at least 24 hrs, this will let the smoke adhere better. Smoke low temp if you can, I do 150 for 4 hrs then bring it up to 175 or so for about an hour until IT hits 160
I wish I could find find raw jowl! And yes indeed, metric weights make it so much easier. I'm hoping to see lots of good stuff in this challenge, though it might take a week or two or three.
For those of you who might be considering jumping in to home made bacon, here's a tip. Put the meat and the cure into the bag or whatever, check it, massage it on a regular basis, like once a day, maybe every other day. At some point it will change from a floppy hunk of raw meat to a firm hunk of goodness. The magic has happened. Depending on a lot of factors, this could be 5, 6, 10, 12 days. Don't be impatient, don't rush it.
I did not take step by step pics as final product is all that is needed. I removed skn and marinated chicken drumsticks in brown sugar, sambel olek, fish sauce, lime zest, double black soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame/peanut oil. Frenched the drums. Wrapped in bacon and indirect grilled for two hours. Didn't feel the need to smoke as bacon already smoky.
Someone's going to say "brines don't count". Guess what? The supermarket bacon you bought is injected with an array of needles that brines it with salt and liquid smoke. Welcome to the agro industrial business.
I have my homemade dry cured and smoked stuff in the freezer for future dishes this month. Maybe some lardons will go into collard greens or a cassoulet. It's certainly cold enough again
Well, if a take a look at my belly, i can see some similarities...
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