Opinions on adding Bacon

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Here are some pics my current curing chamber in my basement's fruit cellar. I have my first non bacon hunk of meat in there, it's a Spanish Lomo, a pork loin cured with real Spanish smoked paprika and garlic.

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I bought the book from Amazon yesterday so going to give it a read once it gets here.
 
jamaral141989 said:
I bought the booked from Amazon yesterday so going to give it a read once it gets here.
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This thread reminded me to finally search for and order a copy of this book.

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The reason I got into charcuterie was just my obsession with bacon, but because I'm Spanish, and growing up there was a certain type of Spanish Chorizo that our whole family would split a massive order of around every major holiday, it used to come up to Detroit from Carbondale Illinois. It would rotate as to which which family would place the couple hundred pound order, and whoever was the point person that holiday would then separate the orders into paper grocery bags and we'd go visit the various aunts uncles and cousins, and inevitably it would turn into a party. I remember when I was finally in my early twenties and I was the guy who went and placed the order for the family, and did all that. It was one of the last times the families did that. People got older and passed away, and traditions fell by the wayside.

And then sadly the Mexican Grocery that used to carry Spanish foods as well went out of business, so we couldn't even get it anymore (and I think the maker in Illinois went out of business too.)

I've searched for over 20 years to find Spanish Chorizo similar to what I grew up with, and nothing was even close. So I got into making my own cured meats to try to recreate from memory the flavors of that sausage. I've still not nailed it, so I'm hoping that this book helps.
 
That's partly why I want to get into it. I grew up in Massachusetts with a Portuguese family. I grew up eating Chorizo and and Linguica. I moved to Maine about 6 years ago and that culture just isn't up here. When I go to visit my family in Mass I always end up coming back with a bunch of it for grilling and making Portuguese soup. Sadly its about a 6 hour drive so I don't make it down there often and the only place I can find it is a old time store that still makes it the same way for the last 80 years since they came to America. Unfortunately the man and wife that own the shop are getting old and its only a matter of time before it goes away completely. So that will be one of the things I will be trying to master as well so I can carry on the flavors of my childhood.
 
jamaral141989 said:
That's partly why I want to get into it. I grew up in Massachusetts with a Portuguese family. I grew up eating Chorizo and and Linguica. I moved to Maine about 6 years ago and that culture just isn't up here. When I go to visit my family in Mass I always end up coming back with a bunch of it for grilling and making Portuguese soup. Sadly its about a 6 hour drive so I don't make it down there often and the only place I can find it is a old time store that still makes it the same way for the last 80 years since they came to America. Unfortunately the man and wife that own the shop are getting old and its only a matter of time before it goes away completely. So that will be one of the things I will be trying to master as well so I can carry on the flavors of my childhood.
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Next we'll want to try to make chorizo beer...

Nah, I don't think so... bacon + beer, yes. Anything else, no.
 
Revvy said:
Next we'll want to try to make chorizo beer...

Nah, I don't think so... bacon + beer, yes. Anything else, no.
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Yeah, I would guess the flavor profile for something like that would be really hard to pair well. I will definitely be making some Chorizo though. Talking about all this is now making me take one of my batches of frozen Portuguese soup out so I can have it for lunch.
 
Yea, the consensus is make an extract. I'm going to use the method Revvy suggested and documented.
 
jamaral141989 said:
Yea, the consensus is make an extract. I'm going to use the method Revvy suggested and documented.
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Have you decided if you're going to use a neutral alcohol or go with something like bourbon?

So, weird coincidence in regards to Portuguese Chorizo. I have a buddy who is a food reporter for CBC radio across the border in Windsor, Ontario, his wife has a major seafood allergy, one that's so bad that he can't even kiss her if he's been eating shellfish. She always goes back home to visit her parents right around this weekend every year, and he wants to then indulge in all the foods he can't eat around her.

I usually end up cooking mussels of some sort for him at this time. My facebook memories reminded me that a year ago last weekend I went and stayed at his place for the weekend and he took me around to some of his favorite places.

One of them was this great fishmonger owned by evidently an Italian Husband and a Portuguese wife so we're in there last year buying all sorts of beautiful shellfish including some juicy mussels, and over in a small meat counter there was Portuguese chorizo. I usually do a mussel dish with Spanish Chorizo so we got some and I whipped up the dish with some sourdough bread.

He raved about it so much he tweeted to his foody followers all about it.

So this morning he messaged me to say that his wife was leaving for the weekend, and he was going to be over this side the border most of the weekend working on a book he's writing. I mentioned if he wanted to swing by one night I'd cook something.

He brought up the mussels, and said he'd grab some of the chorizo if I was interested.

:D
 
Nice. Odd enough I spoke to my mother yesterday who still lives up in the area I grew up and when she comes down in May she's bringing me 15 pounds of chorizo and linguica
 
I'm getting some fatback to make bacon with. I heard its popular in some parts of Europe. Just waiting for the pig to be butchered for that cut.
 
Also, I'm curious. I'm using that EQ calc, what % do you usually go with the nitrate, also that is just the prague pink powder correct.
 
Revvy said:
Make a bacon infused alcohol, either Bourbon which is traditional in beers, or you could try with vodka or everclear (which won't add any additional alcohol flavor,) then "freeze" it so the fat cap settles on top and you can pull it out of solution (which will appease the armchair "it's gonna kill your head retention" chestnut that always gets repeated by people who never experiment but bring it up everytime someone attempts to get creative- I've done just about every thing someone has said would ruin head and had beautiful beers with plenty of head) strain it further, and add that at bottling or kegging time.
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That's exactly how I did it for a Bacon Bourbon Stout I made a few years ago. Cooked up a few packs of bacon, drain just the fat into a 3/4 full bottle of cheap and nasty bourbon and let it sit for 2 weeks. Invite some friends over in the mean time to eat bacon sandwiches. After 2 weeks, I went through 2 or 3 cycles of freezing overnight, draining through a coffee filter to catch the frozen fat globules, and re-freezing.

The result was a rather strong smoky bacon bourbon which I would add a few drops to a poured beer, and that was really all you needed to give it a smoky, bacony, flavour and aroma punch.

Next time I would add it to each bottle before filling up and capping to let it mellow out and make it easier to serve but definitely experiment which another brew and add it post-bottle to find how many drops is right for the beer.
 
The only thing I've noticed in reviews for these types of products is you don't really taste the bacon unless you up the smokiness. I'm really going for that porky smokey flavor, so the I think the extra with a neutral spirit will work best.
 
I brewed a Bacon Porter for the wake of a deceased friend we knew as the Slab Bacon. Starting with a more or less standard porter recipe, I substituted a bit of smoked malt, maple syrup, and crispy bacon steeped in Vodka overnight then frozen to separate the grease from the bacon essence. It was pretty well received, but a couple months later I tried a leftover bottle, and noticed a decidedly rancid flavor. Okay for a novelty beer to be consumed fresh, but it deteriorated quickly afterwards.
 
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It sounds like you may have had a little left over fat/oil get into the beer. I actually just had a couple beers today(because after all this I've been very curious) and a few of them were over a year old from a local brewer here. After explaining the method Revvy used he said he did the same thing minus making the bacon himself. None of them had an off putting taste but he didn't use much bacon extract in them so it was pretty feint in each. I could be wrong but I would hope that with a 100% fat/oil removal that nothing off putting should develop in the flavors with age.
 
jamaral141989 said:
Also, I'm curious. I'm using that EQ calc, what % do you usually go with the nitrate, also that is just the prague pink powder correct.
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For nitrate, etc, you go with the default setting. I had another calculator I thought I saved to pintrest that allowed you to set it for the US or UK recommended settings. But I thought the calculator I gave you just had the default amount. But the one I gave you has 6.25%? I don't mess with that. That's what keeps us from killing ourselves. :)

Yeah, you want Prague or Pink salt #1. Number 2 is slow acting so it's for sausage making.
 
Yea it had 6.25%. I figured the default was right but I just wanted to double check that was correct.
 
Wow, I just tried the consomme method linked earlier and it totally works. Amazing. I grated about 10oz of ginger and 3oz of dehydrated hibiscus flowers into 3 cups boiling water and reduced it down to 1/4 cup over 30 minutes or so. Strained out the solids, then added 1/4 tsp gelatin to 150ml water. Froze the solution, put the ice block on my strainer over a bowl in the fridge and 24 hours later I had a concentrated ginger-hibiscus liquid above a giant lump of gelatinized proteins. So strong! Going into the ginger beer I made with wlp001/wlp007.
 
The one I purchased doesn't have that. I got 6 pounds of pork belly with the skin on curing now. Flipping it twice a day, should be done on the 11th. Going to do a cold smoke with oak chips from the JD barrels. Not only will I have a good amount of bacon extract at the end but a hole lot of bacon...which is never a bad thing.
 
jamaral141989 said:
The one I purchased doesn't have that. I got 6 pounds of pork belly with the skin on curing now. Flipping it twice a day, should be done on the 11th. Going to do a cold smoke with oak chips from the JD barrels. Not only will I have a good amount of bacon extract at the end but a hole lot of bacon...which is never a bad thing.
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Do you have a foodsaver or other type of vacuum sealer? I lay the slices in either 6 or 12 pieces, overlapped like they come in the stores, vac seal and freeze them. I picked up a meat slicer on closeout at K-mart a couple years ago, so it's really handy.
 
Yea, I have a meal saver vacuum sealer. I'll have to pick up some more bags for it.
 
jamaral141989 said:
Yea, I have a meal saver vacuum sealer. I'll have to pick up some more bags for it.
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I just found the best deal on really good quality bags on AMAZON. They were recommended on several charcuterie and sous-vide forums. 19 bucks for 100 seems like a great deal and they're actually a tiny bit thicker than the food saver ones.

I think I'm going to order some rolls from them next time.

Weston 8-by-12-Inch Vacuum-Sealer Food Bags, 100 Count

I don't know if it will work with your system, there's questions and answers at the bottom of the page.
 
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A local brewery makes "belly of the beast" you could try asking them how they do it. It's Rockingham Brewery in Derry, NH
 
@Revvy, quick question I've had my bacon sitting in the brine for about 7 and a half days now, flipping it twice a day. Is it fine to end that part now or is there a taste difference for allowing it more time.
 
jamaral141989 said:
@Revvy, quick question I've had my bacon sitting in the brine for about 7 and a half days now, flipping it twice a day. Is it fine to end that part now or is there a taste difference for allowing it more time.
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Is this a wet cured bacon, or a brine before then doing a dry cure? I've only done dry cure and the only ones I've brined have been for 24-48 hours, then you dry it and rub the cure on, and leave than for 7-14 days.

If it's a wet cure a I think, a week should be fine.
 
Revvy said:
Is this a wet cured bacon, or a brine before then doing a dry cure? I've only done dry cure and the only ones I've brined have been for 24-48 hours, then you dry it and rub the cure on, and leave than for 7-14 days.

If it's a wet cure a I think, a week should be fine.
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I used the method you used on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=384898 including the maple syrup. So just the salt,sugar,nitrate weighed out and rubbed on. Then I put 1/4 cup of syrup in the bag with it as well. So I'm assuming that means I used a dry cure method.
 
jamaral141989 said:
I used the method you used on https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=384898 including the maple syrup. So just the salt,sugar,nitrate weighed out and rubbed on. Then I put 1/4 cup of syrup in the bag with it as well. So I'm assuming that means I used a dry cure method.
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Gotcha. I do between a week or two. Usually it's about when I can smoke it. On my last batch I was going to smoke it the weekend my mom died, so I ended up re-vacuum bagging it and froze it for a couple weeks. Damn good batch.
 
Have you head better results cold smoking then finishing in the oven or just out right smoking it until it reaches safe internal temp
 
jamaral141989 said:
Have you head better results cold smoking then finishing in the oven or just out right smoking it until it reaches safe internal temp
Click to expand...

Now that I live in a house with a yard and I can bbq and smoke, I prefer hot smoking.

I haven't got too far in that Spanish Charcuterie book but they talk about how when they cold smoke, they may smoke stuff for days.

Now that I have more options I can play around more, but for your first batch, if you can hot smoke outside, then do it.
 
I'm doing a hot smoke as I have the room and good smoker for it. Got another few hours in the smoker and then I'll start collecting the fat.
 

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