Spring Bacon
- Butterbean
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Spring Bacon
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.
Ingredients: 2.5% salt, .25% cure #1, 2.5% raw cane sugar liberal amounts of wild chives, kumquats and fresh rosemary.
Last edited by Butterbean on Wed Mar 30, 2016 15:00, edited 2 times in total.
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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!
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!
- Butterbean
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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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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!
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!
- Butterbean
- Moderator
- Posts: 1955
- Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 04:10
- Location: South Georgia
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- Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2016 03:03
- Location: Olathe, KS
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.
- Butterbean
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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.
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.
LMAOButterbean 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.
I just cased an orange lonzino today. Vac sealed for 18 days. The oranges were a little brown but the meat was fine.
- Butterbean
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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.