Franken-Bacon (experiments in pork belly curing)

[JerBear]

Here are some experiments I'm working on. Some seem to be a little more successful than others at the onset. However, that only means there'll be room for improvement and more testing.

From left to right is:

Bulgogi Bacon
Piloncillo and Chile Bacon
Dilly Bacon
Hop Tea Bacon
Belgian Candi Sugar / Hop Tea Bacon



I also did a little experiment where I combined some hallertau hops and oak pellets for a test burn to see if the hops would smolder to go up in flames which is the consensus I'd received from other brewers. Turns out that they smolder pretty nice. The smell vacillated between cigar / pipe tobacco but in a pleasant way. I got whiffs of citrus and definitely the oak. I'm not sure if I'll use the hops to smoke the bacon but might add hops pellets to the mix for a longer and more controlled burn.

Note the bottom layer of hops.

[DiggingDogFarm]

Wow!!!


~Martin

[wheels]

Great work. You may find that "You kiss a few frogs before you find a princess!" But, when you do, all the effort seems worthwhile.

Phil

[JerBear]

You may find that "You kiss a few frogs before you find a princess!"

Ooooh...frog bacon?!?! Now why didn't I think of that??

Each one had 3% salt and 3.2g pink salt per kg (the bulgogi bacon had a little less salt to compensate for the soy)

Bulgogi - soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, gin (didn't have sake), ginger, garlic, green onion, korean red pepper powder

Piloncillo/chile - melted mexican cone sugar and toasted/chopped chiles (molino [smoked] and ancho)

Dilly - coriander, dehydrated dill weed, dill seeds, garlic. I wanted to add some vinegar for more of a dill pickle flavor but thought the acid in the vinegar would adversely affect the belly. Thought about a "dehydrated" vinegar but didn't have time to put some together)

Hop - hop tea

Hop/Candi - hop tea, belgian candi sugar

[captain wassname]

Hi JerBear re your hop bacon.
There was thread on here about hop sausages and the unfortunate Bangermuncher said he destroyed his taste buds with hop cones.
From a bit of research I decided that these so called hop sausages were made of beer and so developed my beer sausage.
I have since discovered from a beer forum that hop sausages contain hop shoots rather than cones
So if your bacon dont turn out right you may want to go down that road.
Incidentally did you ever consider chocolate ?
I added some chocolate to the bit that was left over after stuffing my last lot of beer sausage and it worked.

Jim

[JerBear]

Great feedback Jim. I know quite a few people that grow their own hops so getting shoots shouldn't be too difficult. There's a local restaurant that makes a hop sausage and when I talked with the chef he said he didn't know the quantity, just used the bag he was given and I got the impression it was the hops (not pellets or shoots). I've been thinking about going back and pressing him a little more, it is close to beer o'clock.

Regarding the hops in this sausage, I used about 22 grams of hops (not pellets) that my friend gave me and made a tea. I dropped the hops into 2 cups of water at 200ºF and let sit for 15 min before straining. I was looking for mostly hop flavor and just a little bitterness. I would have liked more flavor but that would have required a longer boil which would have gotten me the bitters so I skipped it. I'm going to rinse the bellies tonight and hang overnight then smoke for about 5-6 hrs tomorrow. Can't wait!!

I like the idea of chocolate, what did you add, powder or actual chocolate? I think that something with cacoa nibs and juniper would make a great venison sausage and could be transferred over to bacon with a little tweaking.

[captain wassname]

chocolate was

http://williescacao.com/fine-chocolate/products/

The madagascan black.
It came in a block and I grated some of the botom.
Its very strong and bitter I used
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... cb36301e2a
I posted here when I was done

Jim

[JerBear]

I see you liked the .25%. The rest was just beer/cumberland?

[captain wassname]

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... 64ff1b7eae

Its all in this thread.Used a commercial mix.

Jim

[JerBear]

I apologize for the delays in updating everyone on the status of my experiements. I've had a lot of meaty projects going on and the write-up got a bit delayed.

I decided to put everything in a blog post because I'm just too wordy some times (often?). Anyway, I'm breaking up each of the bacons into their own post for easier reading...here is post number one on the Dilly Bacon:

http://hgsausageworks.blogspot.com/2012/11/frankenbacon-dilly-diaries.html

I'm hoping to post the other bacons each night for the rest of the week..

[captain wassname]

I do love to hear from a fellow looney.

Jim

[wheels]

Yep, don't you just love it!

Phil

[JerBear]

Just put up the latest post on Frankenbacon - Bulgogi Style

http://hgsausageworks.blogspot.com/2012/11/frankenbacon-bumfuzzled-bulgogi-bacon.html

[captain wassname]

Just a thought but maybe the smoking process is tending to mask other flavours.
Maybe you could try a slice gently fried before you smoke.

Jim

[JerBear]

I wholeheartidly agree that the smoking process, and the hops in particular, masked flavors. While tasting before smoking will give me a better idea of the flavor profile I personally believe bacon doesn't actuallyl become bacon until it's smoked.

But, that's exactly the sort of in the box thinking I'm trying to move away from. I'll have to think on this awhile.