The joy of bacon
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HaggisWhisperer
Posts: 125 Member
My children (6 and 8) have discovered the joy of bacon! Now while I am totally on board with this as a breakfast choice (they usually have an egg with this), it is REALLY expensive to feed 3 people decent bacon every morning. My husband is still committed to his Rice Krispies although I am ever hopeful he will mend his ways. Both kids (and me for that matter) prefer a dry cure as they hate the white bits that come out of the brine cured bacon. I think I may have to learn to cure my own bacon as this is crazy.
Anyone tried curing their own and have any handy hints for me? I do have a good local butcher who sells free range pork, so I am confident I can get that. It is mostly the fear factor of taking an expensive piece of meat and trying something I've never done before - I don't want to inadvertently poison my family :sick:
Anyone tried curing their own and have any handy hints for me? I do have a good local butcher who sells free range pork, so I am confident I can get that. It is mostly the fear factor of taking an expensive piece of meat and trying something I've never done before - I don't want to inadvertently poison my family :sick:
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I haven't tried making my own. I agree, bacon isn't cheap. I buy a 3-pack of Applegate at BJs every couple of weeks.0
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This was recently posted on slimpalate.com (kid is an amazing Paleo-eater!) and it looks so easy!
http://slimpalate.com/homemade-bacon/#more-31620 -
I like Safeway's open nature uncured bacon. idk how "paleo" it is though.0
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Just ran across this today. It looks sooo good.
http://www.primalpalate.com/blog/the-best-bacon-youll-ever-have/0 -
Anyone tried curing their own and have any handy hints for me? I do have a good local butcher who sells free range pork, so I am confident I can get that.
I don't bother curing it. If you have access to good pork, then order 'side pork' or 'fresh bacon' from your butcher and have him slice it. This is the bacon before it is cured - and curing seems to almost double the price per pound. When I cook it, I salt it well with Lawrys seasoning salt (allows you to control the amount of sodium). It tastes 98% like cured bacon - it isn't pink (the nitrates do that), but it's the taste that matters, right?
Oh, and for those who suggest 'uncured' bacon from the market: those still have nitrates and nitrites - just from natural sources. As long as the manufacturer doesn't use sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite, they don't have to list it - they can call it uncured with an asterisk (*except for naturally occurring). Uncured bacon uses either celery powder or another like kale, which contains nitrates; bacterial action converts some of the nitrates to nitrites.
Remember - if it's pink, then nitrates were used.0 -
Anyone tried curing their own and have any handy hints for me? I do have a good local butcher who sells free range pork, so I am confident I can get that.
I don't bother curing it. If you have access to good pork, then order 'side pork' or 'fresh bacon' from your butcher and have him slice it. This is the bacon before it is cured - and curing seems to almost double the price per pound. When I cook it, I salt it well with Lawrys seasoning salt (allows you to control the amount of sodium). It tastes 98% like cured bacon - it isn't pink (the nitrates do that), but it's the taste that matters, right?
Oh, and for those who suggest 'uncured' bacon from the market: those still have nitrates and nitrites - just from natural sources. As long as the manufacturer doesn't use sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite, they don't have to list it - they can call it uncured with an asterisk (*except for naturally occurring). Uncured bacon uses either celery powder or another like kale, which contains nitrates; bacterial action converts some of the nitrates to nitrites.
Remember - if it's pink, then nitrates were used.
Sneaky *kitten*! XD0 -
Thanks everyone, I've spent a couple of hours looking at the links that were posted and having a general Google and look through my recipe books. I hadn't realised that different cuts of pork are more popular for bacon over the pond - we Brits seem to favour back bacon and in the USA it seems you prefer streaky (belly pork), the Canadian cut seems to be loin only. Back bacon is a hybrid of the two - which is what I usually buy. I've ordered some curing salt and when that arrives I'll order my meat from the butchers. We have unheated cellar space under the house which I'm hoping to use to hang the meat while the cure works its magic. It is getting quite chilly here now (Scotland) so I think that should be OK - after all, the technique of bacon making has been around a lot longer than fridges.0
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As said before, ask your butcher for uncured pork belly. Slice it up and fry it up. I just use a little salt and pepper on it. Enjoy.0
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I haven't tried making my own. I agree, bacon isn't cheap. I buy a 3-pack of Applegate at BJs every couple of weeks.
Yup! we do too :laugh: There are 4 of us and although we all eat bacon, it lasts quite a while for us because we only make it on the weekends. On weekdays, it's sausage, kielbasa or ham.0 -
As said before, ask your butcher for uncured pork belly. Slice it up and fry it up. I just use a little salt and pepper on it. Enjoy.
I might try this if my attempt at home curing turns into a bit of an epic fail - but I think I'm quite looking forward to the challenge of trying something new in the kitchen now that I have a clearer idea in my head what process I am going to follow. I do love belly pork although my eldest daughter isn't keen at all on fatty meat. My youngest daughter on the other hand adores it and eats the scraps from her sisters plate).
Do you just slice the pork and freeze it in small amounts so it doesn't go off?0 -
As said before, ask your butcher for uncured pork belly. Slice it up and fry it up. I just use a little salt and pepper on it. Enjoy.
^this. Fresh side pork is the bomb. I can't get it in my community, just commercial cured garbage, but occasionally I can get it shipped in. No need to cure it just throw in oven or fry pan with salt, pepper and garlic powder, YUM. And cheaper than cured bacon by far.
Yes, you can portion it out and freeze it.0 -
Do you just slice the pork and freeze it in small amounts so it doesn't go off?
Yep. I just put the number of slices I need for wifey and myself into ziploc baggies and freeze them. Usually about 3/4 pounds (dunno the metric equivalent).0 -
The great bacon experiment concluded today. I sliced up the bacon and have put some in the fridge and frozen the rest as slices so it will be easy to deal with first thing in the morning. We had to test some out though
The kids declared that it was the "best bacon they had ever tasted 
" - so on that basis the experiment was a success. It was a little saltier than my usual bacon, but certainly not unpalatably so. Slicing it thinly is quite challenging.
The actual process of making the bacon was fairly straight forward and not labour intensive at all, however I'm not sure it will lead to much in the way of a cost saving unless I buy cheaper pork - that said, they quality of the pork I bought to make the bacon was probably far superior (proper free range pork) to that used to make the dry cure bacon I usually buy (improved farm standards but not free range). I might price up the pork from one of our other reputable local butchers and see how I get on with that - the butcher I used for the pork this time is quite expensive. It will be interesting to see if the taste of the bacon deteriorates with slightly cheaper meat.0
