The "Making Do" Challenge -- Sausages, part 3

I'm in the midst of making sausage from a chunk of pork cushion meat, using the ingredients I have around the house.  This is part three; to see yesterday's post:  Click here.


Today I tried full-sized patties of each blend, to see how they turned out after having a day in the refrigerator for the flavors to blend.

Blend #1

As I feared, it was too salty.  Even my salt-loving guest taster agreed, and that says a lot.  I hadn't considered the impact of the salt in the liquamen when I was measuring the straight salt at the beginning.

To adjust this, I cut up more pork chunks and included seasoning and added it to Blend #1.  Here's what I used:

     2 lb 6 oz meat
     3 g pepper
     3 g mace
     15 g fresh parsley
     1/2 cup cold water

Note that I did not include any salt and I was out of dried apple.  The nice thing about the parsley was that it showed me how well I had mixed the new part in with the old.  It wasn't well blended until the parsley was distributed throughout.

This worked out so well.  The new blend had just the right amount of salt and a bright, slightly spicy flavor.  We enjoyed it with fried eggs at breakfast.

Blend #2

Well, the recommendations to mix garlic in to make sausage was spot on!  The garlic flavor was strong but not so much to put us off.  We truly enjoyed it as a patty along with a salad and crackers.  The salt balance was right and it was moist and flavorful.

Blend #3

This was the mix where I decided to increase the flavor ingredients to really make an impact, and boy, did it work.  My guest taster declared it "A keeper!" and I agreed.  I couldn't really taste the apple but imagined it added a bit of sweetness.  The rest of the flavors were bold in a pleasant way and the salt level (from just the liquamen) was just right.

And now for a bonus!

When I chunked up the rest of the cushion meat to adjust Blend #1, I had enough left over to try another blend.  I kept recalling a conversation I had with an Egyptian friend,  AF, when we discovered we were both foodies who liked to cook.  He told me his favorite spice combination on meat used cardamom, pepper, and cinnamon.  This caught my imagination and inspired me to try it with the fourth sausage flavor blend.

Blend #4

4 lb 5 oz pork
28 g salt
50 g raisins
2 g pepper
1 g ground cardamom
2 g cinnamon
1/2 cup red wine


This turned out to be my absolute favorite.  Sweet, spicy, bold, salty (just right), and the red wine added its own floral perfume to the mix.  Truly a wonderful eating experience.  I would make this again any time!


The Verdict

I declare my sausage-making experience quite the success.  All the blends turned out well, even #1 after I adjusted it to balance the salt.  And, of course, #4 was the best of all.

At this point I had to decide how I wanted to proceed.  I had the ingredients to make tube sausages but I was running out of time; I had too many other things that had to be done.  So I decided to make them all bulk sausage.

I weighed out 1/2 lb quantities, shaped them into cylinders, and wrapped each in plastic wrap.  Each lump was labeled with the blend number and all the lumps were put into freezer bags with notes as to what was in the blend.

The funny part was how potent the garlic scent was, even through two layers of plastic and solidly frozen.  It has since settled down but, wow!  Strong!

It is nice to know I have a variety of sausage flavors to work with.  It was also fun to discover how easy it was to make up my own flavor combinations and still have them tasty.  My guest taster was astonished at how good they all were; he just hadn't had "high quality edible art" before.

Now he knows!

Stay safe and well, everyone.

Pinterest needs a picture for me to post, so I am including a picture of my cat.  She did not get any sausage but she did ask for some.  : )

The "Making Do" Challenge -- Sausages, part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the beginning of my sausage-making challenge.  I had 15 pounds of pork cushion meat and a variety of items in my kitchen and garden to help make amazingly-flavored sausages (I hoped!).  See yesterday's post here.

Today I want to tell you about the flavor combinations I tried.  These were combinations that I wanted to do by thinking about what I like and playing from there.

The First Blend

3 lb (1359 g) pork chunks
34 g salt
15 g dried apple
2 g total mace and black pepper, roughly 1 g each
about 65 ml liquamen mixed with 65 ml water

Following the directions from Sausage Making for Beginners, I weighed the salt and "other" ingredients, mixed them in with the pork, then set up my grinding station.

Meat and flavoring, but no liquid, tossed and waiting for the grinder

I have a metal grinding attachment for my mixer, so that was assembled and put into the freezer to chill.  The beginner's website said to use the fine plate but the mixer's instructions said to use the medium plate for sausage, so that is what I used.  I set up an ice water bath for the metal mixer bowl which will catch the ground meat.

The fit was very good!

As directed, everything was clean and cold.

It didn't take long to grind the three pounds of pork.





I took a little of the ground meat and cooked it to see what it tasted like before I added the liquid.  It was fine; I liked the flavor, which was a blend of the ingredients and none actually stood out.



Then I added the liquamen and water to it and mixed it with a wooden spoon until meat looked like the bulk sausage I have bought in the store.  I figured that was the best representation of what the paste should look like.  Really, it was just the ground meat but stickier.  I made another patty and was a little worried that it was too salty.  But I was willing to wait until the next day so the flavors could blend.

Then I packed the sausage into a plastic tub and put it into the refrigerator while I planned the next mixture.

The Second Blend

I had read so much about the wonderfulness of garlic in a pork sausage that I decided to try it in this blend.

3 pounds (1359 g) pork chunks
34 g salt
8 g of chopped garlic in oil
12 g fresh parsley
130 ml water

Garlic, salt, and parsley ready to be ground

I went through the same process:  grind the mix, add the water, stir to get a paste.

I cooked a small patty and thought the flavor was the right blend of garlic.  Not sure I got much of the parsley but it wasn't bland.

Then into the refrigerator while I set up the third blend.

The Third Blend

I had just a little over 2 1/4 lbs of pork chunks left.  I decided I would change the flavor ratios more, to make the flavors stronger.  I also wanted to use up the rest of the dried apple.

2 lb 5 oz pork
11 g chives
9 g dried apple
2 g mace
2 g black pepper
125 ml liquamen

Notice that I didn't add any salt to this one.  Since I decided to use all liquamen for the liquid, I hoped that would be enough salt.  I was still worried about the first blend being too salty.

Apple and oniony chives.  Yum!

When I tried a small patty of the paste, I thought the salt level was just right.  I also got the idea that I had put in too much pepper -- it had a bit of a burn to it!  But again, I thought it was a good idea to wait for the flavors to blend.

Tune in tomorrow for part 3 of the sausage-making extravaganza!

The "Making Do" Challenge -- Sausages, part 1

So the world came to a halt while we all hunkered down to wait for the COVID-19 virus to run its course.  As so many other people did, I purchased food to have enough to feed me and mine without having to go to the store very often.  I did not hoard and I never took the last of anything; it is important to me to share with others.

It occurred to me that I am fortunate enough to be able to afford the more expensive food items, like big chunks of meat, higher price-per-pound meat, fancy cheeses, etc.  Then I realized I should buy those foods and leave the inexpensive items for people with lower incomes.  So I came home with a 15 pound bag of pork cushion meat and an idea to learn how to make sausage.

My reading around the internet reminded me that our word "botulism" comes from the Latin word for sausage, emphasizing the need to be careful and clean in the making process.  I needed to learn the right way to do it; to this end, I found this website:  "Sausage Making for Beginners."

I appreciate the step-by-step instructions and discussion the author offers.  I like that he gives some recipes to help me see what to do.  And I am grateful for his emphasis on cleanliness.  The process looked doable, so I set about doing it.

I was inspired by this line:

You will be crafting high quality edible art.

In the area where he gives recipes, he gives these ratios:

• 1 part meat and fat
• 2.5% salt
• 1% other stuff
• Up to 10% liquid

The "other stuff" will define your sausage.  These are things like black pepper, paprika, garlic, sage, onion and chili powder.

The liquid portion can be anything wet (water, wine, stock, milk) and serves four purposes.  (1) It adds moisture to the meat resulting in a juicier sausage.  (2)  It lubricates the meat making stuffing much easier.  (3)  It adds flavor to the sausage if you choose to use wine or stock.  (4) It helps disperse the other seasonings throughout the rest of the sausage.  Make sure any liquid is ice cold before adding to the meat.

In a situation where I need to use what is in my house and not go shopping for specific ingredients, I felt like I was in control of the flavoring.  Between the spices in my pantry and the herbs in my garden, I believed I could make a variety of tasty sausages.

My goal, given the entire 15 pounds of pork to work with, was to make that variety and then freeze them for future use.  I decided that I would take several days to do the entire process.

I love the flavor combination of pork and apple, especially with nutmeg or mace involved.  I asked some experienced charcuterie makers what they thought about using fresh, grated apple and the general opinion was "meh."  Not really worth the effort and it added a lot of moisture.  But, they mentioned, they have had good results with dried fruits, so I decided to make dried apple bits to put into the sausage.

I took a clean apple, cut it into quarters, cored it, then sliced it thinly on my hand-shredder/slicer.  The pieces went onto a sheet and into my oven, set on warm.

Ready to dry

After drying like this overnight, I had crispy apple slices that I broke up into pieces (not intentionally but most had stuck to the pan), and planned on using them in at least one sausage mixture.

Dry and flavorful

I also got out the pork and started cutting it into the suggested 1 to 2 inch size chunks.  It was very cold, as it should be, but after getting through about half of the package, my meat-holding hand was going numb.  I stopped there and put the meat back into the refrigerator to chill overnight (the same night the apples were drying).

First cut the slabs.  Leave the fat, remove the slime (of which there was very little)

About 8 pounds of pork chunks.

Whew!  It helps to have a very sharp knife.

Tune back in tomorrow to see how I flavored the meat and did the grinding.

Eating an Egg Sausage - part two of a recipe from the Transylvanian cookbook

Yesterday I posted about how to make an egg sausage.  The recipe was from

The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook 

From the 16th century 

THE SCIENCE OF COOKING

You can find a copy of it here:
 http://www.fibergeek.com/leathernotebook/files/2018/05/Transylvanian-Cookbook-v3.pdf

The recipes I have tried are here:  Prince of Transylvania's court cookbook

This is recipe number 44, found on page 11.


Cow intestines stuffed with sweet milk. 

Wash the intestines so that they will not smell; you will need sweet milk, eggs, saffron, black pepper, but mostly eggs. Mix these together, this is the stuffing. Add some parsley leaves to the milk, tie the two ends of the intestines so that the stuffing won’t leak. Poach it in hot water so that the milk will get dry like a liver. If you’re cooking it, cook it in another pot of clean water, once cooked, pass the water through a strainer, pass some sweet milk through a strainer on top of it, put some parsley leaves on it and cook it like that. Add some saffron half an hour before serving it, add some black pepper and salt.

You can view my redaction here.

Today I will tell you the results (in other words, I ate them!) of the sausage-making adventure.

When I considered the instructions, I decided that first you cook the sausages in water, and then make a sauce (of sorts) in which to further simmer the sausages and possibly serve them in it.

The sauce ingredients

1/2 cup hot water from simmering the sausage
5 threads saffron
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley




I put the bigger of the two sausages into a pan with just enough water to cover it and simmered it until I thought it was heated all the way through.  When the water started to simmer, I took out 1/2 cup, strained it, and put the saffron in it to steep.

Simmering sausages!

Once the saffron had steeped for about 20 minutes, I stirred in the milk, salt, pepper, and parsley.

Then I poured the water off the sausage, rinsed and cleaned the pan, wiped the foam off the sausage, and put the sausage back in the pan.  I poured the milk mixture over it and brought it to a slow simmer, turning the sausage over once.

Not a lot of sauce in which to simmer.

I waited about 15 minutes and decided that the sausage was cooked enough.  I wasn't clear on how to use the milk sauce and it seemed thin and not very flavorful, so I chose not to use it when I served the sausage.

I put the whole sausage on a plate and cut it into serving-sized pieces.  I garnished it with a little more parsley but it didn't seem to matter.



The Verdict

I served it as it was.  The focus was on flavor and texture.

First, the sausage casing was rubbery and difficult to cut.  I have since learned from my online friends that I should have let the sausages sit uncovered in the refrigerator for 24 hours to fix that problem.

The filling was soft, with bits of the seasonings either at the top (parsley floats) or at the bottom (pepper sinks) and nothing in between.

  

The texture was strongly reminiscent of flan -- a very delicate, fine-textured custard.  It was the texture I had hoped to achieve when I first envisioned this recipe.

The flavor was very bland.  I could not taste the seasonings except when I chewed on a piece of casing.  This was okay sometimes but other times I got a blast of pepper, which I did not enjoy.

Overall, the group impression was, "Meh."  Not interesting.  I found myself thinking of flan even more as I ate it, and wishing there was a caramel sauce over the top.  (Not that it would go with the parsley or pepper.)

I would call it a success in that the recipe turned out as I expected.  But we did strategize on how to improve the eating experience for the rest of the sausages and for if I made it again.

For Eating the Rest

I took several pieces and fried them, like regular sausages, in olive oil.  That crisped up the casings but did nothing to make the flavor exciting.

Then I cut up the rest of the pieces and cooked them with chopped ham and cubed cheddar cheese.




This was tasty but why not just put the ham and cheese with scrambled eggs?  Why go to the trouble of making these sausages?

For Making It Again

My first thought was to make the filling more like scrambled eggs, so possibly make it 2 parts eggs (or more) to 1 part milk.  That might keep the seasonings better distributed in the filling, too.

The next idea was to simmer the spices in the milk first to flavor it, then let the milk cool before mixing it with the eggs.

I also thought it would be interesting to make it more flan-like by making it sweet and use spices like cinnamon, and then serving it with a thin caramel sauce.  A dessert sausage!  Quite the sotelty, I think.

It Was Asked

My guest tasters asked, "Why do you think this was made in the first place?  What made this recipe important enough to be included?"

My guess is that it is intriguing.  It is a pretty sausage to look at, with the yellow and the speckles of seasonings.  That is enough to get a guest's attention.  And then when you discover it is a sausage filled with eggs (or custard) instead of the usual meats, that can cause discussion.  I think if I could fathom the right egg-to-milk ratio and get the seasonings to distribute well, it could be a very tasty treat on my guests' plates.

I won't make any promises, but if I do this recipe again, I will report on it.  I do still have plenty of sausage casings left over!

UPDATE:  My friend, SS, believes this recipe might have been invented as a food for Lent.  It would make a meal more like you were eating meat, giving variety to an otherwise repetitive diet.  I think that is an excellent observation.

Making an Egg Sausage (part 1) -- Another Transylvanian cookbook recipe

It is time to pick a recipe from the Transylvanian Prince's Cookbook!

This is the digital translation of a book in Hungarian that I have tried recipes from before.  Here is the book reference:

The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook 

From the 16th century 

THE SCIENCE OF COOKING

You can find a copy of it here:
 http://www.fibergeek.com/leathernotebook/files/2018/05/Transylvanian-Cookbook-v3.pdf

The recipes I have tried are here:  Prince of Transylvania's court cookbook

Today I picked recipe number 44, found on page 11.


Cow intestines stuffed with sweet milk. 

Wash the intestines so that they will not smell; you will need sweet milk, eggs, saffron, black pepper, but mostly eggs. Mix these together, this is the stuffing. Add some parsley leaves to the milk, tie the two ends of the intestines so that the stuffing won’t leak. Poach it in hot water so that the milk will get dry like a liver. If you’re cooking it, cook it in another pot of clean water, once cooked, pass the water through a strainer, pass some sweet milk through a strainer on top of it, put some parsley leaves on it and cook it like that. Add some saffron half an hour before serving it, add some black pepper and salt.

My Redaction

The idea is that this is a sausage that is filled with an egg/milk mixture.  When I first read it I thought the filling should be like a stiff custard.  To make a custard, you use roughly 2 parts milk to 1 part egg, however the instructions say "mostly eggs", which made me think (as the translators noted) this should be more like scrambled eggs.  I struggled with this and so compromised by using roughly equal parts milk to egg.

This is my first time ever working with sausage casings (pig intestines, not cow) so I was a little nervous.  I asked my online friends who make salumi and used their experienced advice on how to poach it without overcooking it.

12 eggs (2 1/2 cups), well-beaten
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely minced
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
saffron, ground in the mortar (see close up picture for quantity)

1 four foot and 1 two foot sausage casings (32 mm diameter), soaked and rinsed

This much saffron.

The sausage casings had to soak for nearly an hour, so while that was going on I put water in my big Dutch oven and put it over high heat with the cover on.  When it got to a boil, I turned the heat to low.

The four foot casing

The beaten eggs, milk, parsley, pepper, and saffron all went into a pitcher.  I saw that this liquid stuffing would be best poured into the casing and the pitcher made it easy to control the flow.  I noticed that the parsley and pepper floated to the top, so I kept a spoon handy and stirred it well just before each pouring.



Once the casings were ready, I slid them over the end of a funnel and tied a knot in the end.  I decided I would work over a bowl, just in case I lost my grip on the casings or there was a leak or other disaster.  It was really pretty easy to pour the egg mixture into the casing and allow the casing to slide off into the bowl.

The entire four foot casing fit over the tip!

The parsley and pepper floated to the top anyway.

When the first casing was full (the four foot one) and tied off, I realized I had about 1 1/2 cups of filling left, so I soaked the second casing.

I think it is pretty!

At this point I was ready to poach the sausage.  I brought the water back up to a boil, turned off the heat, put the sausage in, then put the lid on and set the timer for 20 minutes. At the halfway point, I turned the sausage over.

When the time was up, the sausage was firmer and lighter yellow in color.  I moved it into a bowl of ice water, as my salumi friends said it was best to poach it gently (as I did) and then shock it in the cold water.  I added more ice as needed to keep the water very cold and turned it over once.
It is obvious in these pictures that the parsley and some of the pepper floated to the top and the rest of the pepper sank to the bottom along the length of the sausage.

The "up" side

The "down" side

It took about 20 minutes until the sausage was cool to the touch.  Then I drained it and put it on a towel on a plate.  I put it into the refrigerator, uncovered, to dry and continue to cool overnight.



The second sausage was prepared just like the first, except it only took about 10 minutes in the ice water to get it cool to the touch.  I noticed that a lot of the pepper had sunk to the bottom of the pitcher, despite my attempts to keep it afloat with stirring.  It was hard to get it to go into the sausage casing.

Pre-poaching sausage number two.

This is the end of making the egg sausages.  Tune in tomorrow for part two, eating the sausages!

Makin' Bacon, Again!

You know, when you have a big bag of Basic Dry Cure just sitting around in the cupboard, well, you have to do something with it...

I acquired a ten pound slab of pork belly, which I cut into three about-equal pieces.

My first attempt at making bacon at home is posted here.

The first thing I did was see just how much 30 grams of dry cure looked like -- and it was much less than a 1/4 cup scoop!  No wonder my first attempt at bacon was too salty!  I put on probably close to 50 grams of cure the first time, then another 50 grams after I accidentally dumped the liquid.

I decided to do the flavored bacon, and I chose to make one sweet and two savory.

Sweet:  The sweet one used a mixed of basic dry cure (30 grams) and 125 grams of brown sugar, as suggested by the authors of Charcuterie.

Savory 1:  The first savory had 30 grams of the dry cure mixed with approximately 5 garlic cloves, crushed in a mortar along with 3 bay leaves.  I also put in 10 grams of peppercorns some of which were lightly crushed between two cast iron skillets.  Note to self:  Roll the skillet that is crushing.  Don't pound with it!  Unless, of course, you want to have tiny peppercorns flying all over like popping corn.

Savory 2:  The second savory one had 30 grams of the dry cure mixed with approximately 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and 7 springs of fresh marjoram. This mixture was wonderfully fragrant, as was first savory mix.

I put them each in their own big bag and popped into the little refrigerator.  I made a note on the calendar to "overhaul" them every two days:  this is turning the meat over and allowing the cure to redistribute around the meat.

The first time I went to overhaul them, I found a large puddle of sticky liquid all around the outside of the refrigerator.  I was surprised because I made an effort to make sure all the bags were zipped closed.  It turns out the sweet cure mixture's bag had one little part that was not fully closed, and so it leaked all over.  Grrr.  I decided to just close up the bag and not add anything else.  I still overhauled it every other day as directed.  The other two bags were fine.

I left them to cure for 14 days this time.  The book recommends a week but I have read in other places that it is okay to keep curing it longer.  The bacon might be salty from this length of time, but I am willing to find out.

On Day 14, I pulled them from the cure, rinsed them well, and patted them dry.  The meat was firm, so they seemed properly cured.  (I hope!)

The two savories, pre-smoking.

The sweet, sitting atop the savories, pre-smoking.

A friend was willing to smoke them for me.  He used charcoal, got the smoker to 200 degrees F, and slow smoked them until their internal temperature was 150 degrees F.  He used applewood chips, and it took 2 hours and 10 minutes to get the bacon to temperature.

Oh, the scent!  It was lovely!  They looked good, too.

In order, left to right:  Savory 2, Brown Sugar, Savory 1

The Verdict

I tasted them while they were still warm from the smoker.

Savory 1 was strongly peppery -- the peppercorn flavor was dominant, and while I couldn't distinctly taste the garlic and bay leaf, I could tell there was an undercurrent of "other" flavors playing with the pepper.

Savory 2 was mildly peppery.  Actually, it blended with the other flavors nicely to give a pleasant savory flavor that went well with the smoke flavor.

Brown Sugar was mildly sweet--remember that a lot of the cure leaked out--but still flavorful.  I would like to try it again without a leaky bag!

I liked them all, as they were.  Next up:  frying up the slices to see how those taste.

I did try to cut off the rind but found that I was cutting off meat, too.  I decided that the rind was really just fat and I didn't need to worry about it.  Why waste tasty food?  I am not sure what the rind actually should look like and what was there was not chewy.  Perhaps I will find out about it some day.

The taste test for fried bacon was conducted by me and one guest taster.

Top two:  Savory 2, next: Brown Sugar, bottom: Savory 1

I found it hard to cut the slices reasonably thin, so I slow-cooked them to make sure they were cooked all the way.

We both liked all three flavors, although we agreed the brown sugar version was unremarkable.  I would like to try it again some time without a leaky bag.  I thought my guest taster's favorite would be Savory 1 because its flavors were so bold, but he liked Savory 2 best, as did I.  I liked the boldness of Savory 1 (the garlic and pepper really stood out) but thought Savory 2 had a better balance of flavors.  No one ingredient in Savory 2 stood out; it was all just a lovely blend.

None of the bacon flavors were too salty, for which I was grateful.  I would do all of these again and look forward to experimenting with other flavor combinations.

Success!

Now I have about 5 pounds of home-cured bacon in my freezer, and the person who did the smoking has 3 pounds.  Yes, I got about 8 pounds of cured bacon from a 10 pound pork belly.  I think this was a good result, and I am happy to have it all.

Makin' Bacon at Home

It is fun to learn the "old" skills.  I have often asked myself, "How did they do/make this back before they had...?"  

In this case it was, "How did they make bacon before grocery stores made it prevalent and easy to acquire?"  It is an old skill that has been making a comeback, which is why this book, Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn, caught my attention in a bookstore one day.  I must also admit that my interest was peaked while at the Culinary Symposia -- so many people there are accomplished at curing and smoking meats.  I loved tasting their impressive accomplishments.

I was taken in by this quote from Charcuterie (page 40):

... what you make at home will be superior to just about anything you can buy at supermarkets.  Most of the bacon there comes from factory-raised hogs, the curing done at commercial plants, and the result is thin strips of watery meat that, even when cooked until crisp, have a taste only reminiscent of real bacon.

When you make your own bacon and fry a slice, you'll know what bacon is all about.  Notice the copious amount of fat that renders out, and that the meat doesn't reduce in size by fifty percent.  The result can give you an understanding of why bacon became such a powerful part of America's culinary culture. 

I decided that my first attempt at curing bacon should use the most basic technique.

First I made the dry cure mixture.  The authors note that the ingredients need to be weighed, not measured, for a cure that will work as advertised.  For example, they say that Morton's Kosher salt weighs 8 ounces for one cup, but that Diamond Crystal (the brand I used) weighs 4.8 ounces for one cup.

"Pink salt" is the trade term for salt mixed with nitrite.  It is 93.75 percent salt and 6.25 percent nitrite.  The mix is dyed pink so it cannot be easily confused with regular salt.  Nitrites, consumed in large quantities, are dangerous.  Be careful!  But their small quantities are important in the curing mixture to help prevent botulism.

The Basic Dry Cure with Granulated Sugar (page 39)

1 pound/450 grams kosher salt

8 ounces/225 grams sugar 

8 teaspoons/56 grams pink salt

Combine all the ingredients, mixing well.  Stored in a plastic container, this keeps indefinitely.

When well mixed, it is slightly pink in color

Once I had the dry cure together, I set up the pork belly in a bag with the cure, as described below.  My pork belly weighed about 2 pounds, so I followed the instructions that use just a plastic bag, not a baking sheet.

Fresh Bacon (pages 42-43)

One 3- to 5-pound/1.5- to 2.25 kilogram slab pork belly, skin on

Basic Dry Cure as necessary for dredging (about 1/4 cup/50 grams)

Skin side is down

If your belly weighs between 3 and 5 pounds/1.5 and 2.25 kilograms, it's fine to simplify the method by placing the belly in the Ziplok bag, adding 1/4 cup/30 grams of dry cure along with whatever additional sugar and seasonings  of your choice, closing the bag and shaking it to distribute the ingredients.  It is no more complicated than that.

The pork will release a lot of liquid as it cures, and it's important that the meat and the container are a good fit so that the cure remains in contact with the meat.  The salty cure liquid that will be released, water leached from the pork by the salt, must be allowed to surround the meat for continuous curing.  The plastic bag allows you to redistribute the cure (technically called overhauling) without touching the meat, which is cleaner and easier.  Refrigerate the belly for 7 days, flipping the bag or meat to redistribute the cure liquid every other day. 

After 7 days, check the belly for firmness.  If it feels firm at its thickest point, it's cured.  One week should be enough time to cure the bacon, but if it still feels squishy, refrigerate it for up to 2 more days.   

Remove the belly from the cure, rinse it thoroughly, and pat it dry with paper towels, discard the curing liquid.  It can rest in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3 days at this point. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F./93 degrees C. 

Put the belly in a roasting pan, preferably on a rack for even cooking, and roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F./65 degrees C., about 2 hours; begin taking its temperature after 1 1/2 hours.  It will have an appealing roasted appearance and good aroma, and it will feel firm to the touch.  Remove the rind or skin, now, when the fat is still hot, using a large sharp chef's knife. 

Allow the bacon to cool to room temperature (try a piece now though, straight out of the oven--it's irresistible; remember that end pieces may be a little more salty than the rest).  Once it is cool, wrap well and refrigerate.

There are more instructions on testing the bacon for saltiness and correcting it if too salty.  They also say that you can freeze it for up to 3 months if you won't be using it all up within 1 to 2 weeks.

My Notes

I didn't include the list of "additional sugar and seasonings" since I wasn't planning on using them.

My pork belly weighed about 2 pounds.  I still used 1/4 cup of the dry cure, which I scooped, not weighed.  (Note:  They listed 1/4 cup as both 30 grams and 50 grams.  The Internet tells me 30 grams is correct.)

After I shook it and turned the belly inside the bag to cover it with the cure, I pressed out as much air from the bag as I could, and put it into the refrigerator.

The cure crystals as they sit on the pork belly surface

And then a small disaster occurred.  I had been looking at the bacon and, not realizing I had left the bag open, turned it over and dumped much of the liquid onto the floor.  It was one day into the process, so I put in another 1/4 cup of the dry cure and hoped for the best.

I remembered to turn it as described.  On the last day I rinsed it well and patted it dry while the oven was preheating.

Rinsed, dried, ready for the oven.

The other side, on the rack and the baking pan.

It took just a little over 2 hours for the internal temperature to reach 150 degrees F.

Looks good to me!

I took the rind off, carving it off in pieces.

I think I need to practice this skill.

I tried a piece while it was still warm.  It was tasty but it was an end piece and it was almost too salty for my taste buds.

After a few days, I cut off two small pieces, cooked them, and ate them.

Two end pieces

The Verdict

The pieces looked good.  They smelled good.  They didn't shrink.

But oh, they were too salty!  It was hard for me to assess their overall flavor because I was reacting to the saltiness.  My three guest tasters all thought the saltiness was just right, and were very pleased with the rich flavor it had.

I didn't try the techniques described for reducing the saltiness, which are essentially to blanch the bacon.  But I did use it in the Transylvanian recipe of Veal in Grape Leaves.  It gave the filling just the right amount of saltiness, as well as a rich, meaty flavor.

So I would call this a success, with the thought in mind that I will try it again to see if I can improve on the salt level.  I will try to keep all of the liquid in with the meat this time (!) and weigh the cure before I put it into the bag.  It is possible that the bacon was too salty because I used too much cure.