The Bacon Caper
Sunday, Jan. 30, 9:15 A.M.: scanning Facebook, I notice a post from a food friend in Santa Cruz- She’s taking part in a cook-and-blog event called Charcutepalooza.
9:16 A.M.: click the link to find out what Charcutepalooza is. Joy and excitement- it’s an excuse to buy Ruhlman’s ( oh how I love him) book, Charcuterie, and play with pork and other things! Always wanting to make things myself, my only venture into charcuterie was a stab at chorizo after a trip to cook with Diana Kennedy in Zitácuaro, Mexico. Always meant to do more.
9:20 A.M.: inform my husband that we have to get dressed and go shopping! Given the date, and the Feb. 15th deadline for posting, I figure I need to get this going TODAY. I decide that I’ll do both of the February challenges, bacon and pancetta, just because I have to see how they work. I’ll probably do both all the way through, not because I’m an overachiever, but because I’m curious.
10:40 A.M.: Finally in the car heading to Borders for the book purchase. They don’t have the book, only received one, it sold in December. A search of stores shows one book available in Tustin, 15 miles away. They call to reserve for us, we head north on I-5 towards the book.
11:30 A.M.: Book in hand, we walk across the parking lot saying how lucky we are that the book was available at the Border’s that is in the same center as Whole Foods, our first stop in our search for pork belly, plus the slight hope they might have “pink” salt.
9:16 A.M.: click the link to find out what Charcutepalooza is. Joy and excitement- it’s an excuse to buy Ruhlman’s ( oh how I love him) book, Charcuterie, and play with pork and other things! Always wanting to make things myself, my only venture into charcuterie was a stab at chorizo after a trip to cook with Diana Kennedy in Zitácuaro, Mexico. Always meant to do more.
9:20 A.M.: inform my husband that we have to get dressed and go shopping! Given the date, and the Feb. 15th deadline for posting, I figure I need to get this going TODAY. I decide that I’ll do both of the February challenges, bacon and pancetta, just because I have to see how they work. I’ll probably do both all the way through, not because I’m an overachiever, but because I’m curious.
10:40 A.M.: Finally in the car heading to Borders for the book purchase. They don’t have the book, only received one, it sold in December. A search of stores shows one book available in Tustin, 15 miles away. They call to reserve for us, we head north on I-5 towards the book.
11:30 A.M.: Book in hand, we walk across the parking lot saying how lucky we are that the book was available at the Border’s that is in the same center as Whole Foods, our first stop in our search for pork belly, plus the slight hope they might have “pink” salt.
12:25 P.M.: Leaving Whole Foods with two pork belly’s (which look beautiful to me, but I really have no basis for comparison as these are the first I have ever seen uncooked) but no “pink” salt. I had trouble convincing my husband that the Himalayan pink salt was not what we needed. Google “curing salt” on my iphone and find a note about someone having seen Morton’s Tender Quick home meat cure at an Italian deli in Tustin! I don’t know if this is the optimum curing salt, suspect it isn’t, but I’m on a tight timeline here. Head a little farther north on I-5 to the Italian deli.
1:55 P.M.: We arrive home with curing salt (and dried chick peas- I’d been looking some that were not in a can), pork bellys and the new book. Reading through the recipes quickly (often my biggest failures in the kitchen are because I don’t always read the recipe thoroughly- this can really cause issues) I pull out a variety of herbs and spices and try to get started. Then I realize I am trying to work on both the pancetta and the bacon at the same time, realize this is not a good idea, and push aside all of the herbs and spices that will be reserved for the pancetta. Whew, feeling a lot better now- organization helps.
2:35 P.M.: Weigh ingredients for bacon (so glad I invested in the new digital scale for macaron recipes after returning from France a couple of months ago!). After mixing the curing salt with the kosher salt, I realize I have probably just made a major commitment to curing meat. I’ll only need a 1/4 cup for this slab of pork belly. I decide to use maple syrup for the cure, but needed to add a bit of brown sugar to bring it up to 1/2 cup recommended.
2:45 P.M.; Just a few hours after this whirlwind project started, I have the beginings of bacon; a wonderfull slab of pork belly slathered in salt cure and maple syrup, and swaddled in a 2.5 gallon siplock bag (who knew they made them that big?). Into the bottom of the garage refrigerator to be turned and massaged every other day. What an afterlife this slab pig is going to have!
Monday, Feb. 7, 7:00 P.M.; Time to was the salt off and slide the sucker into the oven. I have grave reservations about the success at this point- there is little visible change in the meat in the 1 week+ that it has been curing. I expected to see some puddling liquid in the bag as the salt did it’s work, but there really wasn’t much more in bag than what I had put in the previous Sunday.
Estimated cooking time was to be 2 hours at 200 degrees to reach an internal temperature of 150; however this took more like 2 1/2 hours. I immediately sliced off two pieces and fried them up, and, my, were we surprised. It was BACON! Not smoky, because we hadn’t added that step, but it was crispy, fatty, and well carmelized around the edges. Actually, really well carmelized around the edges, because in my eagerness to taste the end result, I had the pan too hot. And, this high heat method caused the meaty part to get a bit tough in spots, but didn’t give the fatty part time to cook through.
So, the next night, I decided that a BLAT was just the right thing to have for dinner. This time I did the bacon in the oven, my favorite bacon cooking method- 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, turn the bacon, and then about another 15 minutes. I sliced the strips about 1/4″ thick, and it did seem to take a bit longer than the half hour- the meat part was cooking, but the fat part wasn’t done! 
Et voila! The bacon was delicious, if a bit unevenly cooked. Though the edges look overdone, they did not taste burnt, just faintly sweet.
The final result- not terribly creative, I know, but I have been on a diet for most of the past 6 months (this explains what looks like too much mayo oozing everywhere), and this just sounded really good! What would I do differently next time? Use homeade bread. And wipe the plate before snapping the picture.
One thought on “The Bacon Caper”
Normally I don't like bacon… But for some reason this bacon looks so good. I wish I could taste it through the computer!