Baconage underway again

[Electric Miner]

I am really enjoying making my own bacon. So...

New experiment in bacon. It'll either be sensational, or a complete disaster.

Turkish Coffee Bacon

Cure ingredients by weight of pork belly...

3% coarse kosher salt
3% finely ground coffee
2% sugar
0.5% ground cinnamon
0.5% ground ginger
0.5% coarse black pepper
0.25% ground nutmeg
0.25% ground cardamom
0.25% ground cloves
0.25% cure #1

Rub the pork belly with the cure, and put it, along with all of the cure mix, into zip-loc bags and refrigerate for 10-14 days. After that I'll smoke it with something. Maybe cherry, or alder.

The kitchen smells like Christmas cookies right now.

[Electric Miner]

8.6 pounds of pork belly





Cut into manageable pieces





Piece #1 is 1068 grams in weight, which guides the mixing of the cure for that piece. I'll mix a small batch of cure for each piece, based on the weight of that piece





3% coarse kosher salt or 32 grams





Zeroed scale and weighed 3% finely ground coffee





The cure mix for the first piece





Rubbed pork belly, which will now go into a zip-loc, along with all the cure in the pan.





Four bags of rubbed belly, headed for the refrigerator for the next couple weeks, after which I will smoke them over something, maybe cherry or alder








And in the meantime, I have these for the grill tonight, or tomorrow. I may take the wife out for dinner tonight.

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Yummy!

[Captainkirk]

Rock and roll, EM!

[Electric Miner]

And I have set up a batch of cottage bacon for curing either tonight or in the morning. Maple bacon this time.

[Electric Miner]

2nd batch put to cure tonight is a batch of Maple-Pepper cottage bacon made from meaty pork shoulder/boneless country ribs.

Ingredients by weight of meat

3% coarse kosher salt
3% pure maple sugar
1% coarse black pepper
.25% cure #1
I'll let it cure for a couple weeks before smoking it.

[Electric Miner]

The bacon is out of the smoker and the first slice is test frying.





Flavor leans towards the spices, though the coffee flavor is there. Not as salty as I expected. If I do this again, I'll cut back to .3% for spices and maybe use a powdered coffee meant for espresso machines, or actual Turkish coffee. Or maybe use instant coffee. Definitely cut back on the cloves. The flavor of cloves is not overpowering, but it is noticeable.

[Electric Miner]

[Electric Miner]

Currently curing 21 pounds of pork belly. 15 pounds of green chili, 6 pounds of cayenne.

All percentages are a percentage of the weight of the pork belly being cured.


Green chili bacon

Salt              3%
Green chili   3%
Sugar      2%   
Cumin      .5%   
Garlic      .5%   
Onion      .5%   
Pepper      .25%   
Cure #1      .25%   


Cayenne bacon

Salt      3%
Cayenne   2%   
Sugar      2%   
Garlic      .5%   
Onion      .5%   
Pepper      .5%   
Ginger      .5%   
Cure #1      .25%   

[mazo kid]

EM, that sure looks good! I only eat bacon a couple of times a year, so is definitely looked forward to.

[Electric Miner]

Roughly 15 pounds of green chili bacon, all cured and going into the smoker tomorrow morning.

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Yummy! 

[Dellbert]

Yummy! 

Sam stop saying that  lets go to his house. All looks good EM.

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Dellbert, I can't help myself...all the food that Miner posts up just LOOK so good to me! 

[Electric Miner]

Green chili bacon is in the smoker with apple wood. Glazed it with a thin coat of agave syrup and hatch chili, both diced fine and pureed.