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.

I Love Olives (But not like this!)

So I found this neat book, Lost Arts, A Cook's Guide to Making Vinegar, Curing Olives, Crafting Fresh Goat Cheese and Simple Mustards, Baking Bread and Growing Herbs.

ISBN 0-89815-674-2

The author is Lynn Alley and in the introduction she tells of her childhood realization of "any connection between the food on my table and the land from which it came."  After that she discovered a love of gardening and an "interest in the 'lost arts.'"  While pursuing those interests she began to teach others and, in the process, wrote this book.

Chapter 1 is titled "The Old Bat, or How I Came to Make the Best Olives Ever", which made me laugh!  The first paragraph is,

For centuries, humans have been curing and enjoying olives.  I have to wonder why.  If you've ever tasted a raw olive, you've got to marvel at the imagination of the first person to pursue the matter!  Was he starving?  Or crazy?

She goes on to tell the tale of a

rather opinionated friend of a friend who, during a discussion on the subject of curing olives, supplied just the kick in the seat of the pants I needed by insisting that she knew how to make olives better than anyone else.  Her smug assertion prompted me to go home and make the best batch of olives ever.

How?  My understanding was that all olives had to be cured in lye, which I have no problem handling (I have made soap) but was a little unsure I wanted to use it on my food.  She does describe how to use a lye solution and the benefit: "it does the job of leaching the bitter glucosides out of the olive more quickly and more thoroughly than anything else can."

She also describes a dry salt cure, which sounded interesting to me, but what really caught my attention was the brine cure.

The brine cure is simple and safe, and it offers the most plausible response to my question about who first discovered that the olive was, give the right circumstances, edible.  I suppose it's possible that, long ago, some olives fell into a saltwater tide pool and stayed there undisturbed for a considerable length of time.  Then one day someone, perhaps a housewife or fisherman, happened by and decided to give one a try.  Much to her delight, the olives had become pleasantly salty and quite edible.

Ms. Alley says "People still cure olives today in some Greek islands by dipping a basket of olives daily in the sea for 10 days.  When the inner flesh is dark brown, the olives are ready to eat."

Well, this year I planted two olive trees and one of them supplied me with actual olives!

I strained my back carrying them up the slope.  ; )

I know, but it was the first crop and I was excited to give curing a try.

Her Process (page 12)

To begin the brine processing, place your clean olives in cold water and change the water each day for 10 days.  ... Weight the olives down with a plate so they all stay submerged.  No need to cover at this point.  This will start leaching the bitter glucosides out of the olives.  Notice the change in both the color and the aroma of the olives.  At the end of the 10-day period, you can make a more permanent brine solution to continue the process.  Add 1 cup of non-iodized salt to each gallon of water.  Use enough of this brine to cover the olives.  Change this solution weekly for four weeks.  At the end of four weeks, transfer the olives to a weaker brine solution until you are ready to use them.  The solution should contain 1/2 cup of non-iodized salt to each gallon of water.

Just how long it will take for your olives to become edible, I cannot say.  Mine seem to take about two or three months to really develop a rich, olivey flavor.  The best piece of equipment you have for assessing when your olives are done is located between your nose and your chin.  It doesn't cost much to maintain (outside of your biannual dental checkups), so use it!

Store your olives in the weaker brine in a fairly cool, dark place and keep them covered.  A scum may form on the top of the olives, but according to my mother's Italian neighbors, this simply adds to the flavor of the olives! ... Toss out the scum and use any olives that look unspoiled.  (A squishy olive is a spoiled olive.)

My Attempt

First I washed my harvest.  Then I put it in a clean container and amply covered it with cold water.  I didn't have any sort of plate that could hold the olives down (everything I had was too big) so I used a clean cloth to push the olives under the surface.

I think it is pretty.

I changed the water nearly every day for the prescribed ten days.  Each time I rinsed the olives and cleaned the container and wrung out the cloth.  Everything looked great and the colors were changing, becoming more uniform. At some point the olives remained submerged on their own.

This was taken about half way through the ten-day process.

On the tenth day...

I realized that I didn't need to mix up an entire gallon of brine for my olives, so I reduced the quantity accordingly.  1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water reduced to 1/4 cup of salt to 1 quart of water.  Plus I threw in a little extra salt just to be sure.

Salty brine.

I rinsed the olives and thoroughly washed the container before use.  The container had a lid but did not seal air tight.  I stored it in a cupboard so it was in a cool, dark place.  I marked the calendar to remind me to change the brine each Wednesday.  The extra brine was stored in the refrigerator.

First day of brining.

After a week in the brine, the olives looked like this:



Notice there is one missing.  It was squishy and broken so I threw it out.  I rinsed the olives and washed the container before refreshing the brine.

At the end of the second week, this is what I found:

See the mold?

Ick!  But was this the scum Ms. Alley mentioned?  I was uneasy but I dutifully rinsed off each olive, washed the container, and refreshed the brine.  Another olive was thrown away.

At the end of the third week, it was worse.

Double ick.

Each olive was surrounded by a haze of slimy, fungal filaments.  The brine was discolored.  Nothing was appealing.  I threw out the whole thing and called the experiment a failure.

What did I do wrong?  I wonder if I didn't make the brine salty enough.  Other sites I looked at said the brine should be strong enough to float an egg.  I didn't check this because I was following the book's directions.  Or maybe my set up wasn't clean enough?  I was trying to be thorough without sterilizing since that seemed more authentic.

I was discouraged but not totally put off.  Maybe I can find some wayward olives around my town and try again.  Or I can wait until next year if my trees produce again.

I am pleased I gave it a good try and also that I didn't invest a lot of time or money into this failure.