Salami Makers

We had our own Bacon Olympics at a friends house.  The ground rules were that everyone has to make something with bacon in it and bring a growler of beer.

Well living within 5 minutes of over 10 breweries the beer was more than covered.  When we got there of course a few over achievers had 5 gallon mini kegs of their own home brew so everyone didn’t really need to bring a growler, but the end result worked out nice!

While others like making beer, I’m more interested in meat.  It was fun because two other people used my home made bacon in their dish.  One guy made an awesome Bacon Macaroni and Cheese.  The home made bacon had a big impact on the flavor and it was fantastic.  The other guy made man candy, basically bacon that has cayenne pepper and brown sugar on it, another outstanding offering.

I knew that I had a reputation to uphold, and I was not about to disappoint.  I came up with Bacon Bratwurst.  I took 2 lbs of scrape bacon and mixed in to 3lbs of port shoulder and regular bratwurst seasoning, stuffed and grilled.  Let’s just say, there were no sad faces nor any leftovers.

The best things happen when you are interested in Salami and cured meats.  I was volunteering at a church pancake breakfast and what happened you ask?

The manager pulled out some wild boar, I mixed up some spices they had in the kitchen, he mixed up a dipping sauce and the kitchen staff at this pancake breakfast had a really tasty appetizer.

Then when we were done the manager (Greg) came by the house with my friend Dan and we tasted my first attempt at a Canadian Bacon.  Wow is all I can say.

I cured it in a brown sugar, rosemary, juniper berry, fennel mixture for 12 days, then soaked it for about 15 minutes in water, dried it off and smoked it at 100 degrees for 2 hours, 140 for 2 more and 160 for another hour.

It has the consistency of prosciutto, nicely smoked but not too much, good amount of salt but again, it came out better than I expected.  Another excellent addition to the repertoire!

Home made bacon is the best, no question no debate.  I started making my own and then the local butcher shops raised the price of pork belly.  What do we do when the price goes up…?  We go wholesale, in this case Restaurant Depot sells pork bellies in cases of 2, that’s 2 whole bellies.  Well that’s too much for one household so one of my friends wanted some, we split the case and all was right with the world.

So this batch more friends wanted to stock their freezers so what you see here is three complete bellies, about 40 lbs of bacon in my smoker.  Apple wood smoked. Yum.  Darren the original co-bacon maker does his own.  Part of this will go to a 40th birthday party next weekend wrapping up filets and scallops, another yum and happy birthday to Heather!

For a cure I use brown sugar, salt, rosemary, fennel, juniper berries, pepper and garlic powder.  5 1/2 days in the cure, into the smoker for 6 hours at low temps.  The house smells fantastic, the kids are giddy with the anticipation of a Sunday morning breakfast with fresh bacon and all my friends are anxiously waiting for their sliced bacon.