Re: bacon???

[Guest guest]

--- In , <dianamagic2000@y...>

wrote:

> BACON is good for u??? That's a new one. thanks, diana

>

bacon is OK if you can get it naturally cured and NOT cured with

nitrites, nitrates and other chemicals. once those chemicals are

heated and eaten, they form carcinogens in the stomach. a definate

no no. but if you can find sugar or salt only cured bacon from

unmedicated pigs (at our coop i find mine but it's about 7$ a pound)

you really have something good on your hands. mine is

called " sunday bacon " which is smart to me, i think it should be a

treat.

i cook my bacon in a frying pan on med-low heat and once the fat

fills up the pan, the remaining bacon fries faster. low heat keeps

it from splattering.

i have done the oven method, and it's ok but i find it makes the

bacon a bit TOO crispy for me. however, if i'm in the mood for it,

i do that. and to make it even more tasty, you can spread a little

maple syrup and if you want some rapadura on it for the last few

minutes of baking and have the most divine breafast food i can think

of. be careful it carmelizes fast though.

i love the freezing of the grease idea though. i have been just

pouring mine into a mason jar and keeping it in the fridge.

freezing seems good. i sometimes freeze the bacon too, but usually i

don't have enough to save any. it goes too fast.

[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

>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.

[Guest guest]

>bacon is OK if you can get it naturally cured and NOT cured with

>nitrites, nitrates and other chemicals. once those chemicals are

>heated and eaten, they form carcinogens in the stomach. a definate

>no no. but if you can find sugar or salt only cured bacon from

>unmedicated pigs (at our coop i find mine but it's about 7$ a pound)

You can also buy sliced pork belly, or fat beef, and brine it

(soak it in a mix of salt and sugar solution, or just salt).

I found that this tastes enough like bacon to fool most

folks, and actually it's less salty too, which I like better.

Once I just sprinkled salt on it and baked it -- it was great!

-- Heidi