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Maple Bacon

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:39 pm
by BriCan
Where does one begin.... Well first thing first, I have to apologise to a long time member as I had promised to do this (post this recipe) too many days ago. The days have been long; in fact they have been so long the milkman beat me home most days. Doing production in the early hours of the morning one has time to reminisce on the whys and wherefores of what I do day in and day out for a living always doing my best hoping that somewhere along the way that I bring a smile.

When I signed on many months ago there was a question/debate on the whys and wherefores of making/curing maple bacon. With this in mind I asked the ‘why’ question to people injecting maple syrup into the meat (bellies) and in my (vivid) mind would be right down messy as well as a pain in the you know what.

Please understand that I do realise that one has to use what was has on hand, that being said I did offer a remedy if that person wanted and all it would involve was a PM. Whether that person thought I was talking out of my rear end or not or just thought the cost of a pint of beer was too expensive is food for thought.

With that being said the following is how we do Maple Bacon dry cured, just plain and simple and simply delicious.

After boning out the selected bellies proceed by rubbing two handfuls of All Purpose curing salt into the rind side of the belly (takes about a minute; until it starts to sweat). My two handfuls weigh 160 gm (a little over if fine), place in a non corrosive container rind down and elevated off the bottom so that it will not sit in the juice that comes off the meat as this will harden the meat.

Next; take another two handfuls of All Purpose curing salt and rub into the meat side of the belly, again this will only take a couple of minutes.

Following the All Purpose curing salt the next step is to lightly (please note I said lightly) coat/cover the surface of the salted belly with your spice mixture after which we put on top a light to medium coat/cover of the maple sugar.

Repeat until all bellies are done (in my case there was four of them), place the container in the cooler/fridge for one week uncovered.

One week later take the bellies out of the cooler/fridge and take to the sink area where the bellies are rinsed with tepid water, container rinsed out and bellies placed back into the container. Cover the bellies with cold water and leave for one hour (this will/should eliminate any saltiness that can occur.

After one hour take out of the water and hang to dry down so that we can apply the second coating of maple sugar. If the bellies are too wet then the maple sugar dissolves too fast to be effective. When restacking the bellies rotate top to bottom as one would normally do.

Replace the bellies (in the container) back into the cooler/fridge for one more week.
At the end of the second week we hot smoke this bacon, the following are my notes:

Start temperature at 155 degrees F.
No wet bulb and damper open
Cook to an internal temperature of 132 degrees F.

Believe me when I say that this is one of the simplest bacons to do, not having a smokehouse should not put anyone off at all as the cooking process can be done in an oven in anyone’s house.

Wallie; let me know how things go, any question by all means ask.

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bellies boned

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curing salt

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maple sugar

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salting the rind side

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coating with spices

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maple spice
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bacon at one week
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soaking in water
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start of week two
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close up of maple spice

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:08 pm
by wheels
UK members may have difficulty getting maple sugar - it's for sale online here:

http://www.specialityfoods.org.uk/product.php?xProd=160

Hey Brican, guess who's got some Nethergate Old Growler Stout - the beer used by Emmets for their famous Suffolk Black Ham?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I'll post the results on the other thread.

Phil

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:46 pm
by DanMcG
Thanks for the tutorial BriCan, I got some bellies coming in Friday and would like to give this a try. How much maple sugar do you think you use for lets say 10 pounds of belly?
and Where do you get yours, I got some from Butcher-Packer a while back, but I didn't get much flavor out of it, but it was a wet cure. dry might be better.
I also don't see it listed on their site now.
Thanks, Dan

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:51 pm
by BriCan
Which was why I made the offer to send some home.... :cry:

the cost for 5 Kg was a pint of beer, must av been too much. :oops:

Wallie has about 2 - 2 1/2 Kg which was one of the reasons for posting on how it done.

I will await his report hoping it is favourable as with the bratwurst he made

Robert

But what do I know :oops:

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:05 pm
by BriCan
DanMcG wrote:Thanks for the tutorial BriCan, I got some bellies coming in Friday and would like to give this a try. How much maple sugar do you think you use for lets say 10 pounds of belly?


Dan as you see from the photos there was about 150 gms, because I was posting for Wallie who is in the UK I thought best to give him a guidline in weights. I normally use between two to three handfuls. HTH

DanMcG wrote:and Where do you get yours,


http://www.stuffers.com/

DanMcG wrote:I got some from Butcher-Packer a while back, but I didn't get much flavor out of it, but it was a wet cure. dry might be better.


Dry is always better, you have more control over the product.

DanMcG wrote:I also don't see it listed on their site now.
Thanks, Dan


Let me know if you have problems, I can always ship some

Robert.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:21 pm
by DanMcG
Robert, what is all purpose cure? Is it Mortons tender quick or something similar?

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:29 pm
by wheels
BriCan wrote:Which was why I made the offer to send some home.... :cry:

the cost for 5 Kg was a pint of beer, must av been too much. :oops:

Wallie has about 2 - 2 1/2 Kg which was one of the reasons for posting on how it done.

I will await his report hoping it is favourable as with the bratwurst he made

Robert

But what do I know :oops:


Hey Brican, I think that you're shaking the wrong end of the stick here! I only posted that link so that other members could make your cure.

The comments about the beer were a follow on from your post expressing a desirability for UK beer, I thought we had established a bit of 'banter' about that.

If you've been offended, I'm sorry for trying to help other members who may wish to make this bacon.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:33 pm
by BriCan
wheels wrote:
BriCan wrote:Which was why I made the offer to send some home.... :cry:

the cost for 5 Kg was a pint of beer, must av been too much. :oops:

Wallie has about 2 - 2 1/2 Kg which was one of the reasons for posting on how it done.

I will await his report hoping it is favourable as with the bratwurst he made

Robert

But what do I know :oops:


wheels wrote:Hey Brican, I think that you're shaking the wrong end of the stick here! I only posted that link so that other members could make your cure.


:cry:
Sorry, no offence meant nor taken.

I took a look at the link and guessed the outcome before looking ...ouch!!
which is why I first made the offer to a long time member who either chose to ignore it or just did not see it :?

There have been other times that the said person has made it as though I do not know what I am doing. I too can be hot headed and type before I think, hit the send button and then regret it later. Do I call that person a tosser/wanker and to stop talking via the rear end adding a couple of :) :) hoping that they realise I mean no offence ...... :)

wheels wrote:The comments about the beer were a follow on from your post expressing a desirability for UK beer, I thought we had established a bit of 'banter' about that.


:lol: :cry:

Sorry, I had to go upstairs and weep and :drool: as I did the prep work for the sausage rolls. You really know how to cut one off at the knees :cry: we have a container coming out next week ... too short a time to place some on.

Please keep me informed on the outcome of the sampling :lol:

wheels wrote:If you've been offended, I'm sorry for trying to help other members who may wish to make this bacon.


Nope, as said my booboo, Wallie was out this way albeit the other side so we did not meet. I sent him the Bratwurst spice as well as the maple sugar, I keep this up and I won’t av to buy drinks when home :lol: :lol:

Tag line that I use sometimes is what I use in a news group
uk . food+drink . misc
not meant to be offensive and hope non taken.

Robert

PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:44 pm
by BriCan
DanMcG wrote:Robert, what is all purpose cure? Is it Mortons tender quick or something similar?


Dan, easyist way is to show you the lable, I use this for just about everything from Chorizo to salami, Bresaola and other good things.

I must state here that I am 'old school' and as yet in 40 odd years have had no problems with mold and such HTH.

Any questions please ask

Robert

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:59 pm
by grisell
:o Very interesting with the propylene glycol included (as a humectant?). I wonder why. The salt should serve the same purpose. Same thing with the silica.

Looking up the acronym 'MFG' on the net didn't help. I got some proposals though: Mission From God, More Friendly Garbage, Monkey Follicular Granulosa, Motorrad Fahr Gemeinschaft among others. :D

PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:17 am
by BriCan
grisell wrote::o Very interesting with the propylene glycol included (as a humectant?). I wonder why. The salt should serve the same purpose. Same thing with the silica.


I belive (but don't quoet me) anti caking. One thing though; the older it getys it has this 'yellow' tinge ..... reminis of 'yellow snow' :lol: IGMC

grisell wrote:Looking up the acronym 'MFG' on the net didn't help. I got some proposals though: Mission From God, More Friendly Garbage, Monkey Follicular Granulosa, Motorrad Fahr Gemeinschaft among others. :D


I will go wiv the first but the second has a very strong chance. :lol: :lol:

PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:56 am
by grisell
BriCan wrote: One thing though; the older it getys it has this 'yellow' tinge ..... reminis of 'yellow snow' :lol: IGMC


Does it look like this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_cake ? Then you bought the stuff from the wrong supplier! :lol:

PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:35 am
by NCPaul
Thanks for the post BriCan. :D I've tried using maple syrup and was not completely satisfied. I'll try the dry maple sugar after I get through the last batch of bacon I made.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:30 am
by BriCan
NCPaul wrote:Thanks for the post BriCan. :D I've tried using maple syrup and was not completely satisfied..


Sorry, but reading this brings back memories of when I was in the Merchant Navy in the sixties, :oops: :lol: :lol: we will leave it as that as the children might be reading.... let alone the misses.

NCPaul wrote:I'll try the dry maple sugar after I get through the last batch of bacon I made.


I do not think that you will be sorry, wet cures have their place. I have a copy of the official Wiltshire cure that was given to the Canadian Government from the British Government during the war so that it could be produced out this way and then sent back, its good but as I say; I love my dry cures.


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Ayrshire and Irish short back bacon

as you see I do love my bacon and thats only half of a weeks supply ....
:lol: :lol:

PostPosted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 11:53 am
by wheels
grisell wrote::o Very interesting with the propylene glycol included (as a humectant?). I wonder why. The salt should serve the same purpose. Same thing with the silica.

Looking up the acronym 'MFG' on the net didn't help. I got some proposals though: Mission From God, More Friendly Garbage, Monkey Follicular Granulosa, Motorrad Fahr Gemeinschaft among others. :D


At a guess, MFG is an abbreviation of "Manufacturing"

Phil.