Found the wifes weakness....Bacon!
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 19:59
In past years, I have made bacon once or twice. Back in early October my wife and I attended a local beer & bacon festival, what a combo! We stopped by the Dakin Farm booth (they specialize in Vermont cob smoked hams & meats), the Dakin Farms rep, was frying several pounds of cob smoked bacon. My wife went nuts over there bacon, I myself had several strips, and it was good stuff, compliments of Dakin Farms. This got my gears turning toward bacon, so the following weekend, I ordered a case of pork belly from a local butcher, and as luck would have it, the butcher also had dried corn cob (for smoking) on hand. The first 12lb batch was a bacon cure with honey. The kids & wife liked the flavor, I thought it was good, but did not care for the way it cooked in the frying pan, it would easily burn due to the honey glaze on the bacon!
I moved on to another recipe, for curing bacon. I used "Big Guy`s brine" following the recipe but with a few adjustments. In the place of the sugar, I used a maple sugar (similar to a brown sugar) and also added 2 Tbls "concentrated liquid smoke" to the 1 gallon brine, then let the bacon set in the brine for 5 days. After 5 days, rinsed and let the bacon set for 30 minutes in cold water. After 30 minutes, let the bacon hang over night in the fridge, and smoke the next day, using the corn cob for the smoke that I got from the butcher.
My next bacon recipe was a maple cure/rub that I picked up from Butcher packer, this was my personal best bacon to date, the flavor was fantastic and pan fried perfect!
If you haven`t made your own bacon, try it! It beats the store cost at 6-7 dollars a pound, and it`s simple to make! Start with a small batch until you get your favorite recipe. Believe me, the family will love you for it!
I moved on to another recipe, for curing bacon. I used "Big Guy`s brine" following the recipe but with a few adjustments. In the place of the sugar, I used a maple sugar (similar to a brown sugar) and also added 2 Tbls "concentrated liquid smoke" to the 1 gallon brine, then let the bacon set in the brine for 5 days. After 5 days, rinsed and let the bacon set for 30 minutes in cold water. After 30 minutes, let the bacon hang over night in the fridge, and smoke the next day, using the corn cob for the smoke that I got from the butcher.
My next bacon recipe was a maple cure/rub that I picked up from Butcher packer, this was my personal best bacon to date, the flavor was fantastic and pan fried perfect!
If you haven`t made your own bacon, try it! It beats the store cost at 6-7 dollars a pound, and it`s simple to make! Start with a small batch until you get your favorite recipe. Believe me, the family will love you for it!