LET'S START OFF WITH CHARBAY, possibly the best, and certainly my favorite micro-distiller in the world. Later in this post, I'll talk about my use of Tapatio tequila, in... - bacon!
BACON IN THE NEWS
BACON PRICE ON THE RISE AGAIN??
It's up - due to the dreaded porcine virus then, its down - the virus is licked & supplies RISE, now - up again as demand goes up! Seriously? Eat your bacon. Just eat it!
COOL BACON INFOGRAPHIC:
Wow, check out this infographic, a public service announcement provided by the manufacturers of Bacon Salt. Apparently 45% of Canadians perfer bacon to sex. Hmmmm. That may explain a few things about some of my friends north of the border...
THIS WEEK'S BACON IS Benton's, about which I wrote two weeks ago. Here is a video documentary about the proprieter and his smokehouse; very interesting! So I ordered three pounds.
This bacon had the sharpest smoke aroma of any bacon I've ever opened.
It looked great cooking up, although it had a few curled slices, which I quickly clipped:
Close up:
This bacon was pretty unique.
It weighed one pound, .3 ounces and had a very strong aroma of hickory smoke upon opening. Very strong.
It produced a whopping 215 ml of rendered fat! But also only reduced to a net weight of 5.1 ounces after cooking.
Most bacons get down closer to 4 ounces post cooking and produce a lot less rendered fat. Anyone have an idea about the physics of this bacon?
It cooked up crispy in the 'landscape' mode but chewy in the middle. The flavor was good, HOWEVER, and I must add this caveat - it was WAAAAAY too sweet.
Mr. Benton does say that the cure is simple - just sugar, salt and pepper.
Rating: 2.5 on chewiness, 2.5 on flavor (would score much better if less sugar), 3 on crispness. I have two additional pounds which I'll do in the future.
COOL BACON INFOGRAPHIC:
Wow, check out this infographic, a public service announcement provided by the manufacturers of Bacon Salt. Apparently 45% of Canadians perfer bacon to sex. Hmmmm. That may explain a few things about some of my friends north of the border...
THIS WEEK'S BACON IS Benton's, about which I wrote two weeks ago. Here is a video documentary about the proprieter and his smokehouse; very interesting! So I ordered three pounds.
This bacon had the sharpest smoke aroma of any bacon I've ever opened.
It weighed one pound, .3 ounces and had a very strong aroma of hickory smoke upon opening. Very strong.
It produced a whopping 215 ml of rendered fat! But also only reduced to a net weight of 5.1 ounces after cooking.
Most bacons get down closer to 4 ounces post cooking and produce a lot less rendered fat. Anyone have an idea about the physics of this bacon?
It cooked up crispy in the 'landscape' mode but chewy in the middle. The flavor was good, HOWEVER, and I must add this caveat - it was WAAAAAY too sweet.
Mr. Benton does say that the cure is simple - just sugar, salt and pepper.
Rating: 2.5 on chewiness, 2.5 on flavor (would score much better if less sugar), 3 on crispness. I have two additional pounds which I'll do in the future.
MAKIN' BACON! AGAIN! I visited my friend Sean Hofherr - a quality purveyor of meat and related products in Northfield, Illinois. He's my go-to guy. Here's a portion of a new pork belly and the cure mix I made for it:
Next week, I'll show you the hunk 'o porky goodness being rubbed with my homemade cure. I also treated the meat with a high quality tequila from Charbay. It's called Tapatio and is the finest stuff I've tasted.last weekend, and procured a nice hunk of pork belly. If you're a reregular reader, you know that Hofherr's is a high quality purveyor of all things butcher-esque.
MORE PULLED PORK!!
On the same trip, I bought a nice piece of "Boston Butt" for smoking on Sunday. The "butt" is actually a pork shoulder, and I prepared it on Saturday night by injecting it with my own mix.
To prepare the chimney filled with hardwood charcoal, I used a trick I learned through wife Debbie, from dad Richard Peck - to roll up and then tie the newspaper you stuff in the chimney. I've been doing it this way for some time and it works infinitely better than just crumpling up the paper. It hasn't gone out yet and seems to get the charcoal ready quicker!On the left, you can see the paper rolling up; on the right it's tied in a knot.
It smoked most of Sunday - most of it left the building for son Sam's pot luck lunch at work - Coyote logistics. Just look at that mahogony coloring, after finishing! Awesome taste and texture, too. Thanks for the meat, Sean!
To prepare the chimney filled with hardwood charcoal, I used a trick I learned through wife Debbie, from dad Richard Peck - to roll up and then tie the newspaper you stuff in the chimney. I've been doing it this way for some time and it works infinitely better than just crumpling up the paper. It hasn't gone out yet and seems to get the charcoal ready quicker!On the left, you can see the paper rolling up; on the right it's tied in a knot.
It smoked most of Sunday - most of it left the building for son Sam's pot luck lunch at work - Coyote logistics. Just look at that mahogony coloring, after finishing! Awesome taste and texture, too. Thanks for the meat, Sean!
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