Bacon time !!!

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
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We all miss stuff from back home, from time to time........

tocina is bland, local dominican stuff ( lasirena sells it, as an example ).
Pros: cheap.100-120 pesos per lb.
Cons: it is not cured at all, as far as i can tell. It is paper thin.
Ok, to put in salads or pasta, but thats about it.

Dominican frozen bacon.
Pros: none that i can see. Well not too expensive.
Cons: it is frozen. Price/quality is bad. Very fatty.

Imported frozen bacon. I usally buy smithfield.
Pros : it is cured, and ok-ish taste.
Cons: they use nitrate ( well, sodium nitrate ). Very expensive.


So, new adventure for me : make my own bacon !!!!
Tomorrow, i have a 7lb porc belly arriving on my doorstep ( local " butcher"----- well pig killer-----is sending it by motoconcho, straight off the beast ;) ). And it is cheap, around 90 pesos per lb.

So I am reaching out to the dr1 community for any ideas, must-do's or must-not-do's. Perhaps we have some members who have made their own bacon ?

All ideas for cure condiments are welcome !! I'll probably try out 4 diffrent cures, anyhow.
Oh, and i wont be using nitrates, so if i die of food poisonning, you guys will know why ;) ;).

Also would like to know what wood you would use to smoke it.


Thanks in advance !!
 

DRDreamer72

Member
Nov 17, 2014
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Wet cure is easier than dry cure. I have made a couple of batches that way and there are many easy recipes on the internet.

When it comes to smoking it, I would suggest keeping some of unsmoked, just because you are going to go through some trials and tribulations with the smoking part.

If you can find someone who smokes meat, ask them if you can put a piece in with their next batch of meats. Alternatively, a smoker that is based on a seperate electrical heater, such as a cooking ring, to generate the smoke is a good way to go.
 

william webster

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Jan 16, 2009
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I brought a butcher book in Spanish to teach the local man...
Teach him how to stop using a cleaver....and give me better cuts

The Ontario Pork Association has them
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
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I brought a butcher book in Spanish to teach the local man...
Teach him how to stop using a cleaver....and give me better cuts

The Ontario Pork Association has them

I maybe should have started with that .......lol.
The " butcher" butchered the meat :(

Anyhow, i trimmed it again, and again and again.......and put it to cure.

Today i rinsed off the cure and now i am smoking it, on a fire, not in a smoker, they are for cityfolk and sissies ;)
 

cavok

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Jun 16, 2014
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Cabarete
The bacon I buy in Janet's in Cabarete is excellent. Tocineta Chef. The fresh stuff - not the packaged frozen. Thick-sliced. It's at least as good as Oscar Meyer thick-sliced for reference, or better.

Never had bacon from Europe. Maybe it's better(?).
 
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malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
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The bacon I buy in Janet's in Cabarete is excellent. Tocineta Chef. The fresh stuff - not the packaged frozen. Thick-sliced. It's at least as good as Oscar Meyer thick-sliced for reference, or better.

Never had bacon from Europe. Maybe it's better(?).

I have multiple reasons for wanting to make my own bacon,

Industrial/processed bacon ( and of course all,other foods ) are full of scary sh.it. I try and avoid them as much as possible.

In France we have ( or used to have, as people will just buy the processed stuff for convinience now ), lard, basically a slab of smoked pork belly.
No need to freeze or put in the fridge, it can just sit in the pantry, and you slice off bits when needed.

$$$ wise bacon is a crazy product. Very expensive when you think of it, especially as it shvirels into nothing when you cook it.
I wouldnt mind paying good money for a good product........ except most, if not all, the bacon I have bought here in the dr is either insipid ( for the fresh stuff ) and/or full of water and preservatives( for the imported frozen stuff).

Last but not least, in the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse, he who owns the bacon will be a Lord or a Prince, de-facto. ;) ;)
 

malko

Campesino !! :)
Jan 12, 2013
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So I spent my morning and part of the afternoon smoking the cured pork belly......

On an outside home-made barbecue, in a home-made kiosk in my conuco....lol.
I basically just hung the dried slabs above a smoky fire. I used mango and orange wood.
FYI, you will need a lot of wood.
On youtube they run down to the local supermarket and buy a small bag of "apple chips"....... god knows what they are made of, but if they can burn and produce smoke for hours on end, naturally, well bob's my uncle.

6 hours later, all was said and down.
I had left the skin on 1 of the slabs, since it i was in experience mode. And it was a great idea, as we used that to add in habicuelas ( baked beans style ).

I am both happy and midly disppointed with the end product.
Happy because the bacon tastes GREAT !!!
Midly disappointed because I need the belly of a much, much bigger pig in order to have a stock for a couple of months.
Also, even though, i trimmed the meat after the " butcher", it still has a rugged shape....... not really a problem, unless you want to serve it up to guests and need it to look good along with tasting good.

I will probably make my own bacon again...... especially as it turns out really cheap.
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
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Malko, in the USA we have a propane smoker. There are alternatives though.

We recently bought a small, very heavy, smoker box along with 6 large bags of several different wood chips, and shipped it down to DR. You have to soak the wood chips for at least 30 minutes, then you put them in the metal box. We will then put that in our gas grill on a low temp, close the top/cover, and smoke whatever we’re making, ribs, chicken, pork roast, etc. I’ll let you know how it works out.
 

Russell

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2017
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There are several ways to smoke meat, poultry, fish and ''Bacon'', which, in my opinion is a separate flesh type. LOL

For Centuries our family has used both the hot and cold smoking methodologies. Either works for any of the above.
Hot smoking is more akin to 'cooking' than does cold, which is more like a preservative method.

Cabella's and other such Hunting supply magazines offer some excellent cold smoking apparatuses.

Our Family methos for cold was to erect a wood smoker box which forces the smoke between the outer wall and inner wall liners before it (the smoke) reaches the bacon.
We always beep the heat source away from the food while it is cooking.... ''cold smoking''.

The bacon is floated in a brine made from pickling salt or sea salt (non-iodized); for a period of about 4 to 6 hours before drying off. The brine is ready for use when a potato is able to float upon it.

The product should be quite dry before being placed in the smoke chamber.

It is recommended that the bacon or Ham should be smoked for about 4-6 hours but I smoke it overnight for that heavy smoke effect.
The wood of choice ,which in our case here in Nova Scotia , is apple.
But any high density fruit tree should do as well.
The apple chips are placed in a cast iron frying pan with a cover and a cover tube about 1'' dia. then feeds to the smoke chamber...(cold smoke).
Biggest job is to keep the pan full of carbon chips replenished.

Great with salmon and mackerel as well.

Probably missed a few things but that was the essence of it all.

Great Bacon and Hams.... now you got me thinking. (again).
And, that could be dangerous.
FYI this way of curing meat and fish have been a long centuries old tradition in my family.
Instructions are ab bit mixed up.... easy to unravel.
Russell