What’d You Do Last Weekend?
Make your own bitters.
Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwiches
What's so special about a BLT, you ask? And why does it warrant a post of its own?
Because with the last piece of pork belly, Todd and I made bacon. Actually, Todd did all of the hard work of curing and seasoning it. I just smoked it. And let me tell you...it was the best damn bacon we'd had in a very long time.
Turns out bacon's really simple. We learned the basics at our Charcuterie class and tried it after reading Ruhlman's Charcuterie book once more. I'll include the steps for Curing and smoking bacon here, because I think we'll be using this again and again, but it's important to refer directly to the book because there's a whole lot more information in there than I'm including.
Fresh Bacon
One 3 - to 5 -pound slab pork belly, skin on
Basic Dry Cure as necessary for dredging (about 1/4c/50g)
Dry Cure
Mix together:
1 pound kosher salt
8 oz sugar
2 oz pink salt (sodium nitrite)
- Trim the belly so its edges are neat and square. Put the belly into a container large enough to accommodate and press all sides of the belly into the cure to give it a thick uniform coating.
- Place in a ziploc bag or a large nonreactive container just large enough to hold it. Refrigerate the belly for 7 days, flipping the bag 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. The thicker the belly, the longer it will take to cure.
- Remove the belly from the cure, rinse thoroughly (I can't say this enough) and pat dry. It can rest in the refrigerator for up to 3 days at this point.
Note: Ruhlman goes into a long description of cooking the bacon in the oven, but I chose to smoke it in the smoker until it reached an internal temperature of 150.
Remember, the ends will be saltier than the middle, but if it's all very salty, poach it gently before frying to leech out more of the salt.
