Capital District Bacon Challenge

Attention Capital District: I challenge you to start makin' bacon.

Makin' bacon isn't hard to do, and when you are done, you have a lot of pretty damn good bacon. Plus just saying the words "Makin Bacon" is fun. Go ahead. Say it out loud. I'll wait.

Fun, right? There are two minor obstacles you will need to overcome to start makin' your own bacon. They are finding pork belly and getting Cure#1 locally. So here's what I am going to do. I'm going to describe how I made a recent batch of bacon. Then I'm going to give you links to a bunch of bacon recipes followed by several options to buy pork belly locally. The only remaining challenge is getting your hands on some Cure#1. I haven't seen it for sale locally. I've got a plan for that too. Stay with me and before you know it, you'll be makin' bacon.

The first time I made bacon, finding pork belly was tough. I've been around the bacon block a few times and getting pork belly got much easier. This batch of bacon started with a pop-in to Adventure in Food in Menands to pick up an almost 11 pound pork belly.

Once the belly is thawed, I took the weight and portioned out the cure. The main ways of curing a pork belly are in a brine or a dry cure. Brining is faster, lately I've been leaning toward the dry cure. To brine it, you dissolved your cure ingredients in water, submerge the pork belly, wait awhile, dry it off and smoke the meat. To dry cure, you combine the cure ingredients, rub them all over the pork belly, wait awhile, rinse it, dry it off and smoke the meat. Sorry I'm being a little vague about the cure ingredients, but salt and sugar are the only constants. Feel like adding maple syrup - go for it. You could even go with savory ingredients. The Moderinst versions adds pepper, corriander, star anise and mace to the salt/sugar cure. Hell, pancetta is just seasoned bacon without the smoke. (Side note: once you've made bacon, making your own way-better-than-anything-you-can-buy-in-a-store pancetta is a very easy possibility.)

I've been tinkering with my cure each time I make bacon. Here's what I used this time around for a 4860 gram pork belly.

Percent Grams Pork Belly 100.00% 4860 Kosher Salt 2.26% 110 Cure #1 0.62% 30 Sodium Erythorbate 0.06% 3 Sugar 2.67% 130

It looks confusing but it's pretty straightforward. You take the weight of you the pork belly and multiply by the percentage. 4860 * 0.0226 = about 110. Just multiply the percentages by the weight of your pork belly (in grams), work your way down the column, and weigh the ingredients out. Just to be a little fancy and appease my compulsive tinkering needs, I used two kinds of sugar, regular sugar and some turbinado, in this batch. I went 90 grams sugar and 40 grams turbinado. Also, the sodium erythorbate isn't necessary. I started using it after looking at the Modernist Cuisine bacon recipe. My understanding is that is is kind of like vitamen C and speeds up the cure. Here's what Wikipedia says about the stuff. I've got it so I've been using it but I'm not sure 3 grams out of 283 grams of cure is really going to do much. Hell the scale is only accurate to half a gram. But none of this is important. If you want to tinker with sodium erythorbate, I've got a plan for that too. Keep going. Since I was being all arsty fartsy with the turbinado sugar, I whirred the rub in a food processor to make the sure a little finer and easier to dissolve. Probably not necessary and definitely not necessary if you are using only granulated sugar.

Rub the pork belly with the cure. Get it all over.  Then place the belly in a large ziploc - you may need to cut the belly up. I should have because while this belly fit in my bag, it was too big for how I planned to air dry it and I cut it in half later.  In the past, I've wrapped in plastic wrap, 2 gallon ziplock bagged, vacuum sealed it. They all work fine. Just get good coverage with the cure. Put the whole mess on a rimmed baking sheet and put it in the fridge. When you think about it, give the belly a rub to try and maximize the contact between the meat and the cure. This process will draw liquid out of the pork belly. The rimmed baking sheet is to catch any spillover or leaks and prevent a mess in your fridge. A mess in the fridge is no fun. Ask me how I know. Here's the rubbed pork belly ready for a 7 day chill.

After a week, I washed the belly and air dried it for 5 days. This is another Modernist Cuisine holdover that isn't really necessary. You should dry the pork belly before smoking it. Overnight on a rack in the fridge would certainly work work well enough. I put a little hole in the belly, run some butcher's twine through and hang it from an S hook in a basement fridge.

Once it is dry, smoke the bacon. You could do it like me a wait for a night that includes tornado warnings and a monsoon. I suppose a nice day would work too. Smoke at about 200 degrees until the internal temperature is 155 degrees. The weather didn't cooperate and it was getting late so this batch of bacon got smoked for about 4 hours and got finished in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Just loaded in the smoker

Smoking nicely

And her it is from the deck after and inch of rainfall during a really strong thunderstorm but just before the sky turned a very creepy shade of yellow

Finished slabs of bacon

I wrapped the bacon up in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Cold slab bacon is much easier to slice. I have a slicing knife, but I didn't always have one. Chef knife will work. So will the carving knife that you only use at Thanksgiving. I also have a itty bitty Waring slicer that I have effectively stolen from my mother-in-law. It's too small to slice the whole width of a slab so when using it, I can only get 5 to 6 inch slices of bacon. Not as pretty to look at next to you eggs, but perfect for BLTs and wrapping scallops (which is really just an excuse to eat bacon with a toothpick).

Started slicing with a knife

The Waring slicer that I'm pretty sure is older than me

Some long slices, some short slices and some trimmings

Three quarters of a pound portions for packaging

Once everything was portioned, I vacuum bagged it. The bacon freezes quite well. Save the trimmings. they are great for bacon bits or any recipe that calls for diced bacon.

From that almost 11 pound piece of pork belly, I got a little over 8 pounds, 4 ounces of bacon plus another 10 ounces of trimmings. We had some bacon with tonight Breakfast for Dinner.

I thought it was really good. One of my better efforts. My daughter Allison loved it. I think I might replace all the sugar with Turbinado next time. Maybe even increase it a little. Once you've made bacon, there will be a next time. But take a look at that last picture.

Now that I've typed all this, I can see where it looks intimidating. Do let it be. I started simple and over the course of a few years of playing with the recipe, this is my latest effort. The easy version is weigh the meat, portion out some salt, sugar and cure, rub it on meat, wait a week, wash/dry, smoke and eat.

And even the smoking is simple. You can use a gas grill - dial in a 200 to 220 temperature and put some wet wood ships in a homemade foil boat over the burner. Put the bacon on the top rack and throw a Dollar Store foil tray underneath to catch dripping and prevent a flare up. A very small fire in a Weber kettle would do it. If you have a grill, you can get some smoke on the bacon and the finish it in the oven. Just light a small pile of coals, add some chips to smoke. Then put it in a 200 degree oven until you get an internal temperature of 155 degrees. Dun. Slice it up and you can freeze whatever you aren't going to eat that week.

Don't be affraid. Look at these posts:

Saucisson MAC wrote and photographed a much better call to bacon arms than I did here.

Michael Ruhlman wrote this during Charcutepalooza.

Alton Brown did this while making fun of a show he ended up hosting.

Don't have a scale? If you are using Morton's Kosher Salt - take 1/4 cup of salt, 2 tsp of Cure #1, and a heaping quarter cup of sugar and mix it all up. That should be enough cure for a five pound piece of belly. If you are using Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, up the 1/4 cup of salt to 1/3 of a cup (the salts have different sized crystals). And, no, the irony of using kosher salt to make bacon is not lost on me.

Still worried, I am a tweet (@JonInAlbany) or an email away and willing to help.

Now that you are relaxed, confident and excited to make your own bacon, here are some places you can get pork belly.

Adventure in Food Trading: (518) 436-7603
Depending on their inventory and needs, they can carry pork belly from a number of suppliers. One of them is local and part of the Empire 87 program they have going. Of all the pork bellies I have used, they have sold me the best ones. This almost 11 pound pork belly was about $70.

Rolf's: (518) 463-0185
Rolf's makes their own bacon. But if you call them before Wednesday, they will save you a whole belly or as much as you want to buy. If you call Wednesday afternoon, the pork belly may already be in the brine. Also, if you are interested in skin-on pork belly, you can occasionally get it from Rolf's. If you do use skin on pork belly, the skin will be much easier to remove while the bacon is still hot. The skin can be a very good shield if you are smoking the bacon a little too close to the heat source. You'll scorch the skin and not the bacon. And while you are picking up the pork belly, get some Teawurst to eat while the bacon is curing.

Adam's Fairacre Farms - website
There are several locations for Adam's and I have only been to the Newburgh store. They almost always have some pork belly available in Newburgh, I'm assuming it is the same in other stores. During a recent store visit, $12 would have gotten you a 5 pound piece of pork belly. Not a bad price for a first attempt at bacon if you happen to be near a store.

Restaurant Depot
You need to know someone with a Tax ID (or have one yourself) to shop here. I don't remember the prices, but they had pork belly in stock both times I've been to the store.

The Asian Super Market on Central Ave.
This is hit or miss. When they first opened, I bought pork belly here a few times. Now, sometimes their meat counter doesn't look as clean or fresh as it should. Also, they typically sell large chunks of pork belly with the ribs still attached so you may have to do some butchery to remove the bones.

The Meat House: 3 Area Locations
I haven't been impressed with this chain, but they are one of a few local places selling pork belly so they are on the list.

Now that you have the knowledge and a slab of pork belly, all that's left is the Cure #1. You've read this far and I promised I had a plan if you just stuck with me. Well, I do. Here it is:

Get in touch with me in the comments or send me an email (the address is in my profile). Tweet me (@JonInAlbany). In exchange for a promise of a photo of your to-be-cured bacon for the blog, I will give you enough Cure #1 (aka pink salt or Prague Powder#1) to make it. If you want to mess around with a few grams of Sodium Erythorbate, I'll give you that too. I'm in Trader Joe's all the time. I can meet you there. Wherever. We'll figure it out and get you started.

C'mon Capital District. Start Makin' Bacon!

Farmer's Market Lunch

We went to the Troy Farmer's Market this morning. And if you take some fried up Modernist-ish bacon,

a beautiful tomato,

some very fresh lettuce.

and some good bread...

then you can enjoy a blurry BLT.
 

A sandwich so nice, I had to eat it twice.

Modernist-ish Bacon Continues

I took the Modernist-ish pork belly out of the cure on Friday. It's hanging in the basement fridge. I'm hoping to smoke it on Thursday. Could be just me but hanging any charcuterie makes me think of Christmas. "The (insert cured meat) was hung with care..."

Modernist-ish Bacon

This writing goals down thing might actually work. Since I wrote down some goals last week I've:
- worked out 3 times including a 5k almost all the way run
- got some information on upcoming 5k races (Thanks DelSo)
- got the kitchen molding primed and installed (I'm going to fill in the nail holes tonight)

 

- most of the joint compound kitchen work is done, just a little touching up left in two spots but I have to keep waiting for it to dry
- and tonight I am also beginning a batch of Moderinst inspired bacon.

Adventures In Food has begun selling a bunch of locally made/grown products.  The list is here. One of the items they are carrying are pork bellies from Stillwater Farms. The 7.4 pound belly cost $5.50 a pound.  Can't beat the price for a pork belly that looks this good.

I took a closer look at the salt and sugar proportions from the Modernist and Charcuterie recipes. They are pretty similar. The Modernist recipe uses a little more sugar, but the Charcuterie recipe suggests adding other sweet ingredients (brown sugar, maple syrup, maple sugar) to taste. So, pretty similar. In addition to the basic cure of salt, sugar, and cure#1, the Modernist recipe included  Fermento, coriander, pepper, mace, star anise, and sodium erythorbate. I decided to break down the Modernist recipe and drop coriander, pepper, mace and star anise. I almost swapped out some sugar with brown sugar but the opted against it. We'll see how this batch comes out and then I'll start tinkering. Here' the belly covered in cure.

Once the cure is on, the belly gets vacuum packed and put in the fridge for a week, turned daily.

Off to touch up the molding...

Eating Modernist Bacon

This post is long overdue. The bacon has been done awhile and this was the third time we've eaten it. I can say without doubt, this is the best bacon I have ever made. The only problem, I'm not sure if this deliciousness was derived from a combination of the recipe/technique or because this batch was made from the highest quality pork belly I have ever purchased. If only all of our problems were this bad....

The next mission is to try the Ruhlman bacon cure with the Modernist technique on an Adventures In Food pork belly. Challenge accepted!

Shuffled off to Buffalo

Work has brought me to Buffalo this week. I'm typing this is the lobby of a Holiday Inn listening to the smooth sounds of the Backstreet Boys. I have to write something about the Modernist Bacon when I get home. We've had it twice so far. Spoiler Alert: freakin' awesome bacon. The kitchen is stull under construction. The granite backsplash is supposed to get installed tomorrow. Then we just have to pick tile and install it. And I think I'm going to change out all the outlets too. Piece of cake...

Smoking Bacon

Left work a little bit early to come home and get the Modernist Bacon in the smoker. It went pretty well. I used a kind of half-assed Minion method but with lump charcoal. I lit a chimney of charcoal and let it get about 2/3rds lit. I add some unlit charcoal to the base of the fire barrel and then dumped the chimney on top. The recipe calls for a 170 degree smoking. My temperatures fluctuated at bit and i ended up controlling them by propping the smoker door open a little bit. To maintain the opening, I used a small rock I saw under the deck. I have never tried the Minion method with briquettes (I avoid using briquettes) and I think it might work a little better with the prefab uniform coals.I think I need to add a metal baffle to direct the heat down as it enters the cooking chamber. The past few times I used the smoker, I used a fire brick as a heat sink/shield.

I'm just about to light the chimney here. You can kind of see that brick I mentioned behind the piece of lump charcoal on the shelf.

In goes the slab of Modernist bacon. It smelled pretty good.

I had the temperature probe in the air near the slab of bacon. For the most part, I'd say this thermometer read between 160 and 180. Not bad. I was kind of busy during the smoke and babysitting the fire a little more would have helped too.

Here it is cooling before getting refrigerated. Looks good. I'll cut it up tomorrow night. I should weigh it to see if there was much weight loss during the cure and smoking. Remind me tomorrow.

In kitchen news, we have plumbing again. I would have been a horrible colonist.  And the cars are back in the garage. I cleaned that up tonight. Anyone need some scrap Sheetrock?

Super Sunday

I had plans for Super Bowl Sunday. They just didn't quite work out. I like to go out to eat at a nicer than our usual restaurant for dinner. The place is usually empty and the kids get a higher end restaurant experience. I even did a little research into where to go. Several choices are typically closed on Sunday: Yono's, DB Brasserie, Brown Derby, The Epicurean and Taste to name a few. I had settle on Grappa 72. Their online menu has a cheese plate and I knew Allison and Casey were going to like trying the cheeses because they really enjoyed the cheese plate on our cruise this summer.

But earlier this morning, I had the word no parent ever wants to hear. "My ear huuuurrts." So we went off to the doctor where the earache turned out to be strep for Allison and the cough was really a wheeze for Casey. And thus ended the nite out.

Instead, I bought some pre made pizza crust. Not exactly proud of that but they didn't look terrible in Hannaford. And I had a roundabout rationalization justifying the purchase. We still don't have a working kitchen sink. Got a bathtub, and two bathroom sinks. I guess I could kneel down and wash stuff in the tub. That would require bringing everything to be washed upstairs, washing it, drying it without making puddles and then bringing it all back downstairs. With the exception of charcuterie or barbecue projects, I am lazy and therefore there must be some form of urgency for me to wash something kitchen related upstairs.

So the rationalization I came up with while pushing a cart around Hannaford went something like this: It's almost 4, I can't make my own dough in time and even if I tried I would have a mess I can't clean up yet. The Fabulous Flats Stone Baked Pizza Crusts really only have one questionable ingredient and the crusts were going to cook on a pizza stone in the oven. Don't need to wash the peel or stone. I'll need a spoon for the sauce, a knife and a cutting board. The spoon and the cutting board can go in the dishwasher and patiently await a plumbing connection. We'll eat off paper plates. Dinner for four and the only thing I'll have to wash later is a knife. Sold.

The crusts were actually pretty good. Better than I would have expected. I guess that is a perk to having low expectations. And I did have to shake off some of that laziness. The pancetta needed to be rinsed and hung. This is probably too much information, but using great care and a large piece of Tupperware (that is also in the dishwasher awaiting a water line) the pancetta got rinsed in the tub.

Pancetta, meet Modernist bacon. Modernist bacon, I'd like to introduce you to your roommate Pancetta. This fridge smells really good.

Modernist Bacon and more demolition

Work in the kitchen progressed today, but before that happend I had to get the Modernist bacon hanging. The pork belly spent a week curing in a vacuum bag. Now it will spend a week curing in the fridge before smoking.

The pancetta will cure a few more days before I take it out. I think I'm going hang it next to the bacon in the basement fridge and see how it turns out. Work progressed in the kitchen today. Here is an afternoon shot.
 

And again this afternoon.

I'm gong to miss you most of all, Kitchen Sink.

Makin' Bacon Again

The pork belly was a bit smaller than I was expecting. Instead of being closer to 13 pounds (which I thought was a bit big) this one was a little under 10 pounds. So instead of making bacon 3 ways, I dropped it down to two ways - Modernist Bacon and Pancetta. I didn't think the brisket flap would cure well so I sliced it off. With the trimmings, I'll get about a pound of sausage for some future dinners. Here's what I picked up at Adventure In Food on Monday afternoon. You can see my toes at the bottom of the pictures. I'm on my tip toes trying to get the whole belly to fit in the frame.

Here's the portion I cut off to make the Modernist bacon. This piece weighed in at 2767 grams (about 6 pounds). The Modernist recipe calls for a belly with the bones still attached. I'm not sure why. It wasn't an option.

Once I had the weight of the pork belly, I could measure out the rest of the ingredients. Some corriander got toasted before grinding.

 With the exception of black pepper everything else went into a bowl that I just kept zeroing out on the scale. You've got salt, sugar, cure#1, Fermento, mace star anise, and sodium erythorbate.

The belly gets rubbed with most of the cure and sits for 10 minutes.

While it was sitting, I tried to get my new vacuum bags that are extra wide set up. These bags were the only real problem I had tonight. It's always something. Not sure I'm ready to give up on the bags yet. I think I figured out a few tricks that will help next time. I wouldn't recommend these bags yet either. Here it is all sealed up.
 

Once that was in the fridge, I weighed the belly piece set aside for the pancetta. It weighed 1048 grams (about 2.25 pounds). I was hoping for a little bit more but the pancetta is easy enough to make again. And making it smells so damn good. This is Jason Molinari's recipe. Here's the cure: Salt, pepper, brown sugar, cure#1, juniper berries, bay leaves, thyme and some garlic. The combination smells really good.

Here's the pancetta vacuumed up in a pre-made gallon bag. This was much easier. Worked on the first try.

So now we wait. In about a week or so, they'll both come out of the bags. I'll have to find a place to hang the pancetta but the bacon will spend another week in the fridge before smoking.

Just back from the Troy Farmer's Market

I just like walking around the market. I wasn't sure what kind of time I have to play with food this weekend so I skipped the seafood stand. Allison enjoyed picking out a bunch of apples from Saratoga Apples and we split a waffle while I waited in line for a coffee from Spill the Beans. I'm a wimp and pretty much only drink decaf. But the waffle...holy crap those are good.

In other news, the Modernist Bacon project is currently on hold. Adventures In Food was unable to get me a pork belly this week. It is supposed to be coming in this Thursday.  I've been reading American Pie, Peter Reinharts book on the search for a perfect pizza. Strangely, since I've started reading the book, I've been craving pizza. I believe the book was also the start of his Pizza Quest blog. There are some great web-isodes over there. I'll have to make a post with links someday. I think the web-isodes will eventually become a PBS series.

In other, other news...anyone want to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?

Boom goes the dynamite

We were testing a few beams at work today. The beams were removed a bridge that is currently being replaced. Turns out if you center about 85,000 pounds on these beams, they break. It was pretty cool, but quieter than I thought it was going to be.

In Modernist bacon news, I have all the ingredients at the house now except pork belly. Tomorrow, I am supposed to get a call from Adventures In Food to let me know my pork belly is back in stock. I think it will weigh 12 to 13 pounds. My current plan (which is very subject to change) is to make 4 kinds of Modernist recipe bacon, 4 pounds or my typical bacon using the Modernist technique, and 4 pounds of pancetta. I am almost out of pancetta and that can't be allowed to happen.

A Bacon Christmas Miracle

With the help of the internet and a really nice librarian named Terry, I have in my possession the bacon recipe from Modernist Cuisine. If you are half as excited as I am about this, you are pretty damn excited my friend. Terry kindly found the page I wanted out the the 6 volumes (a mere 2500 pages), scanned it and then emailed it to me. Now I have to go ingredient hunting. The recipe calls for Fermento.  I wish I knew that last week because I was in Buffalo and could have picked some up. Luckily I have a friend out there that will be able to hook me up so I can avoid shipping charges. The other ingredient I doubt I can find locally is sodium erythorbate. I'll just have to pick a store online and go from there. Everything else is just spices and Cure#1. I've got plenty of Cure#1.

Definitely going to get a whole Berkshire belly from Adventure in Food for this one. This is so awesome. I have been looking for this recipe off and on since the book came out.

Thank you, Terry.

Canadian Bacon & Eggs

A little while ago, I made some Canadian style bacon. This week, one of dinners was "Breakfast for Dinner." Kids love it and I actually prefer breakfast foods a little later in the day. I got around to making some of the egg/bacon/bowl-type things I had planned to make back when I cured the pork loin.

Spray a little cooking spray in the muffin cups you are going to use. This helps with the clean up significantly. Put in the Canadian bacon - I went with 2 pieces in each up. Then put an egg on top of the bacon.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes and you'll have essentially a poached egg in a bacon cup. I had a few other things going on and these went a little longer. These are more of a soft to medium boiled egg in a bacon cup. I'd prefer the poached stage and would shoot for that next time.

They actually came out pretty good. Currently, this is my favorite way to eat this style of bacon. The bacon seems to come out dry other ways. Will definitely do it again.