Quick and dirty bacon

[Guest guest]

Since there has been so much on bacon, here is an

experiment I did:

I took some sliced pork (pretty fat, but not really " bacon " fat)

from the Korean store, and brined it in a solution of 1 cup salt, 1 cup

sugar, and about a half gallon of water.

Then I baked it until crispy. It was pretty darn close to bacon. But

without the nitrate taste. You can smoke it too, or add smoke

flavoring, but I didn't miss the smokiness at all (I was feeling

lazy and not like setting up the smoker).

I did the same with beef. The advantage to this method is, you can

use any ol' cut you have around. Once you bake it, you freeze it

to heat in the toaster oven whenever you crave bacon. And you can

control the saltiness. If you REALLY want it salty, put a layer of salt

in a tupperware, then the meat, then more salt, and put it in the

fridge (as long as you want).

I invested $125 in a meat slicer from Costco, and now I can make

" bacon " whenever I want. (the meat slicer is great for jerky too!).

I suspect it would be even better aged in kefir whey or kimchi juice

first ...

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

how long did the pork 'sit' in the brine, and what 'cut' was it?

TIA

Dedy

----- Original Message -----

From: Heidi Schuppenhauer

Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 6:55 AM

Subject: Quick and dirty " bacon "

Since there has been so much on bacon, here is an

experiment I did:

I took some sliced pork (pretty fat, but not really " bacon " fat)

from the Korean store, and brined it in a solution of 1 cup salt, 1 cup

sugar, and about a half gallon of water.

Then I baked it until crispy. It was pretty darn close to bacon. But

without the nitrate taste. You can smoke it too, or add smoke

flavoring, but I didn't miss the smokiness at all (I was feeling

lazy and not like setting up the smoker).

I did the same with beef. The advantage to this method is, you can

use any ol' cut you have around. Once you bake it, you freeze it

to heat in the toaster oven whenever you crave bacon. And you can

control the saltiness. If you REALLY want it salty, put a layer of salt

in a tupperware, then the meat, then more salt, and put it in the

fridge (as long as you want).

I invested $125 in a meat slicer from Costco, and now I can make

" bacon " whenever I want. (the meat slicer is great for jerky too!).

I suspect it would be even better aged in kefir whey or kimchi juice

first ...

Heidi S

[Guest guest]

>Heidi,

>how long did the pork 'sit' in the brine, and what 'cut' was it?

>TIA

I left it in the brine overnight, maybe up to 24 hours. I don't know what

cut it is -- at the Korean market they call it " sliced pork " , but it looks a

lot like meaty bacon. I also did the same thing with what they call

" sliced beer spareribs " and it came out good too. Actually it is the

brine that makes it though -- once I took some chicken thighs and

brined them in salt/sugar and smoked them, and people thought

it was ham.

Heidi S