Spring Bacon

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Butterbean
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Spring Bacon

Post by Butterbean » Tue Mar 29, 2016 22:46

Don't know how this will turn out but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Was making bacon today and decided to do something different and use some of the things growing around that are in season. Collected some wild chives, kumquats and rosemary and added this to the cure mix. Smells pretty good. Sortof a floral bouquet. The aroma of spring.

Ingredients: 2.5% salt, .25% cure #1, 2.5% raw cane sugar liberal amounts of wild chives, kumquats and fresh rosemary.

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Last edited by Butterbean on Wed Mar 30, 2016 15:00, edited 2 times in total.
harleykids
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Post by harleykids » Wed Mar 30, 2016 05:46

I think those favors will work great together! Kumquats have a really nice flavor and smell!

I like the non-typical bacon...I make a curry bacon that is my favorite for BLTs, as well as a Mexican spice bacon with cumin, chili powder, opinion and garlic.

Nice to have a variety of favors to play with in other dishes!
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Bob K
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Post by Bob K » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:14

Ah Spring. Great to use the seasonal produce!
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Post by Butterbean » Wed Mar 30, 2016 14:16

The Mexican spiced bacon sounds interesting Harley. What type rates on the spices do you use? I also made some pepper bacon using some Tabasco peppers I grew last year and made into powder. I used a teaspoon per 5 lbs of bacon. This pepper is much hotter than store bought stuff so I'm a little concerned I may have overdid it.
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Post by harleykids » Wed Mar 30, 2016 15:38

No ratio on the spices, I simply sprinkle the spices over the bacon as I would in Mexican cooking.

So I lay down my salt and cure #1 first, per meat weight, then I sprinkle the garlic powder, then the onion powder, then the cumin, then top it off with the chili powder.

Same way I do my brown sugar and maple syrup bacon with cinnamon.

The only part I measure to the 10th of a gram is the salt and cure....the sugar, syrup, and spices are all added by hand until it looks the way I like. I keep it simple.

But always measure the salt and cure. The other items are to taste!
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Post by Butterbean » Wed Mar 30, 2016 23:03

Thanks Jason. Things tend to come out better when I just season by feel too but I sometimes forget that. While this pepper is pretty potent I doubt much of it will actually make it in the bacon but a lick of my finger after submerging it in the seasoning reminded me just how spicy it is.
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Post by harleykids » Thu Mar 31, 2016 04:40

I am sure it will be fine and not too spicy BB, as you wash off all the cure and spice after curing is done. That should make the spicyness almost perfect!
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Post by redzed » Thu Mar 31, 2016 07:36

Interesting experiment BB, how long do you intend to cure the bacon? Using fresh ingredients in curing is not that common, so there might be a reason for that. In one of my orange lonzino projects I left the orange slices in a vac bag with the meat for a little over 3 weeks and there was visible discoloration of the meat next to the orange slices. Maybe it was just the citric acid or maybe something else. I look forward to seeing how the bacon will turn out. :grin:
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Post by Butterbean » Thu Mar 31, 2016 19:01

I was planning on letting it cure for around three weeks. Your orange lonzino is where I got the idea to try this. It smells beautiful.

I made some of your orange lonzino but didn't notice any discoloration but I didn't vac seal it. I actually can't even say if it was good or not because my son nicked it and carried it off to school. He said he loved it. Just wish he'd left me some.

Since I can't vac seal bags this large I'm able to actually move the toppings around when I rotate them so if I don't get any discoloration it might indicate the discoloration is the result of the citrus being fixed in one spot or possibly an oxygen thing. I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens and let you know.
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Post by Bob K » Thu Mar 31, 2016 19:41

Butterbean wrote:I made some of your orange lonzino but didn't notice any discoloration but I didn't vac seal it. I actually can't even say if it was good or not because my son nicked it and carried it off to school. He said he loved it. Just wish he'd left me some.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: LMAO

I just cased an orange lonzino today. Vac sealed for 18 days. The oranges were a little brown but the meat was fine.
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Post by Butterbean » Fri Apr 22, 2016 21:33

Finished the bacon today. No noticeable discoloration on the bacon from the kumquats and other fresh ingredients. They didn't change color much at all through the curing process. Rosemary and chives wanted to cling to the belly but not bad. Flavor is interesting. Seemed to evolve as you chew finishing with a slight sweetness. Cherry smoke was spot on I think.

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Post by Bob K » Sat Apr 23, 2016 16:17

That is some fantastic looking bacon! I bet it tastes as good as it looks :grin:
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Post by redzed » Tue Apr 26, 2016 06:57

Excellent looking bacon with just the meat/fat ratio that I like. Makes my mouth water!
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