The Quest for Real Bacon

Air dried cured Meat Techniques

Postby BriCan » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:09 pm

NCPaul wrote:Wow! :D How long did you let it cure before you rolled and tied it?

Way too long :oops: The recipe calls for twelve days :?: mine was down for twenty eight days :oops: --- myself I would/will do five days

What did you think of the spicing mix?

Love it, I will see if I can incorporate it into other cures

Did you make what you remembered as real English bacon?

You do realise that I am that old that I may be one of the few that remembers real English bacon :lol: To be totally honest I would have to say yes, but one must remember that there was/is different types of real bacon over there which makes these projects well worth trying/doing


When I don't know what I'm doing, it never comes out like this. :D


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Postby BriCan » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:13 pm

salumi512 wrote:I can't decide whether I want that with a poached egg or a beer. Maybe a bacon and beer breakfast. That looks great!


Do scrambled eggs with beer and cheddar cheese, add bacon with hash browns on the plate :lol:
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Postby BriCan » Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:14 pm

wheels wrote:Nice job Brican, those round 'slices' are just the right size to fit a nice crusty roll... ...Mmm


There might be a bit left to try :wink:
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Postby BriCan » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:39 am

Maple bacon

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Postby Ruralidle » Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:47 am

Pity we can't easily source maple sugar over here in the UK :( because that sure looks good.
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Postby vagreys » Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:28 pm

It's neat to see how it came out.

Newbie question: I've read your position on the 5-day cure time for streaky and middles. Since the loin eye is lined with a layer of fat on one side, and the cure will have to penetrate almost entirely from the lean side, doesn't the loin eye need more cure time (since it isn't curing evenly from all directions at once toward the center) than the thinner parts of the cut?
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Fri Sep 13, 2013 7:24 am

vagreys wrote:It's neat to see how it came out.



Newbie question: I've read your position on the 5-day cure time for streaky and middles. Since the loin eye is lined with a layer of fat on one side, and the cure will have to penetrate almost entirely from the lean side, doesn't the loin eye need more cure time (since it isn't curing evenly from all directions at once toward the center) than the thinner parts of the cut?


Doing a tad more research on The Quest for Real Bacon it seems as good a time to run this again(dry cure style) and as well take a stab a Ramsay of Carluke way :)
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby Ruralidle » Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:49 am

For meat without rind I have always broadly followed the - 1 day per half inch of thickness + 2 days, followed by 3 to 4 days for "equalisation" - advice and have never had any obvious problems with curing. The meat has always had an even colour, tasted fine and kept well. When I say "broadly" I mean that I never go under the time but do sometimes go a day or two over the exact calculated time
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Fri Sep 27, 2013 5:32 pm

The Quest for Real Bacon still goes on;

It seems to me that this can be an never ending circle where one goes around and around in an ever diminishing circles never seeming to get to the core of things but on the other hand having a lot of fun (and maybe putting on a few pounds in the process :) )

Some of you know me well to know that there is no rime or reason to what I do and my mind sets off in so many directions that I really need a traffic cop to keep me on the right track sometimes. Then there are the times that one gets hold of something like a dog with a bone that will not give it up for anything.

And so such a day (dog with a bone) arrived two days ago, when one of the girls from downstairs came up to see me (just to clarify; I work on the third floor of a building) saying that there was a feller downstairs asking if I can make a particular bacon and yes the look of disbelief was upon my face and the answer as usual was I can do anything within reason but said I had better go down to find out exactly what type of bacon he was after … have you ever noticed how ‘some’ not all north American’s tend to mispronounce English words :shock:

On talking to the gentleman it seems that what he is after is a Shropshire bacon and wondered if I make or could make the afore mentioned bacon. The answer that I gave him was that anything was possible but like a lot of things it comes down to a recipe and that I would take a look but would not promise anything due to ether lost or closely guarded recipes that some do not or will not share due to infringement/guilt/inferiority complex or what.

I recalled that I had herd the mention a long time back and the thing that kept on coming to the forefront while talking to this guy was old school and old ways and with the dying breed of Master Cures diminishing without things being passed on would/will be a sad thing cuz all that would be left would be (as they say this side of the pond) bologna … a big bag of mystery meat that one should not ask or know what is in it.

The feller had a packet of my Ayrshire short back in his hand that he was going to try and mentioned that his Scottish friend had given him some Ayrshire bacon and he had found that it had tasted very close to what he remembered to the Shropshire bacon that he recalled. One thing led to another and the coarse of conversation led me to mentioning the custom Ayrshire bacon that I do for a client on the Island and that he might be interested in a sample/buying some. He enquired to the taste of it to which I replied; mild and delicate with hints of nutmeg, mace and coriander to this his eyes lit up so I told him that I would pull one out of the freezer to thaw so he could taste

After he had left I came back upstairs and took a quick shufti on the lap top as to what is out there and up came the following;
http://www.maynardsfarm.co.uk/wp-conten ... avours.pdf

‘quote’ … Shropshire Mild Bacon

A local favourite, this bacon, marinated with coriander, nutmeg and mace

is now widely recognised as a famous Shropshire delicacy

………………

Which now gets me wondering and not the least to say ‘chomping on the bit’ to av a go

Ruralidle, I think this is your neck of the woods ow about a taste test?? To let me know wot things are about
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby Ruralidle » Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:54 pm

Hi BriCan

I haven't been to Maynard's for a few years now - if fact, ever since I started making my own. Our usual choice was the Staffordshire Black and I have made a few versions of my own but I have never tried the mild. I will see if I can get uo there to buy some :wink:
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:46 pm

And so "The Quest for Real Bacon" continues ....

Stay tuned for another exciting :shock: episode of


WWBD --"The Quest for Real Bacon" -- :mrgreen: :drool:
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:38 am

This is something that I have toyed on posting because of the story behind it :cry:



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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby NCPaul » Thu Mar 20, 2014 11:19 am

Tease. Did something go wrong?
Fashionably late will be stylishly hungry.
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Fri Mar 21, 2014 4:38 am

NCPaul wrote:Tease.


Who .... Me ?? :shock:

Did something go wrong?


Everything's going wrong as usual :| :oops:
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Re: The Quest for Real Bacon

Postby BriCan » Sun Apr 06, 2014 7:49 pm

It has been some time since I added to this post and a lot of things have moved/gone on, some life threatening, most life changing.

These are things we all have to live with as we make our way through our time on earth. How we spend our time upon this rock we all call home for the short time we are allowed denotes (usually) what people think about us when we are gone.

These things as well as others; one (or should) ponders while traveling along the path we make for ourselves in the short time we are here

There are some of you out there who know me as a transplanted person in a foreign land, others as close friends while others who know that I would and will go to the ends of the earth (and back) for them

This was going to be a simple post with what I had hoped would be another classic example of doing thing the simple way to achieve something (what I hoped) was another hit/loving example of ‘real’ bacon.

After posing the following bacon on Twitter a close friend asked for the recipe and how it was done, I complied and gave of such saying that this was just a simple thing but in fact was a life changing thing. The reply was that it was too simple and (possibly?) not worth it

The things I do or make are really not that significant or great and when it all boils down as long as they seem to please my pallet and possibly be able sell some of it to make money to live then all (I hope) is well with the world

Before we go too much further I do have to say that this post is not about a put down of any person (living or dead) but to show how the very simple things that we do can and are life changing

The bacon that I posted above I had not made for well over five years due to the fact that I do not (at the moment) have a retail outlet, only a hole in the wall (with no windows) where I make things I sell wholesale (another story for another time)

I used to make three hundred pounds of this bacon a week that I sold in my shop (along with other types of bacon), yes Wheels; even back then I was slowly educating North Americans on what proper bacon taste like

The meat industry as a very young lad growing up and working in the trade in the UK has always been synonyms with Smithfield Market the one and only (as far as I am concerned) Smithfield

As a young lad growing up I had heard of stories of bacon that was doubled smoked and as black as toby’s a*** and formed a mental image of it and while running my shop I had always wanted to reproduce something along these lines


Fast forward to the beginning of last November when I had a conversation on my face book page with a person (Cathy) whom I had wrongly assumed was the wife of a friend of my children, which in fact was his mother. The conversation got around to the subject of bacon and how she missed the particular taste of it and did I still make it. After much humming and haring we finally came to the conclusion it was the Smithfield bacon that I used to make well over five years ago. I did inform her that no I did not make but as someone else had enquired along the lines I would possibly think about it after the New Year due to Christmas overload and personal things.

Christmas came and went and I was/am trying to get my personal life back on track and so less important things get shoved to the back. Smithfield bacon is not as important as getting production back on track as well as producing Haggis for the event that was coming up at the end of January (by the way; this operation is a one man (gong) show)

On the 22nd of February I get a call from Rick that his mother was terminally ill with cancer, had already been under the knife to have one tumor remove from the spine and was due to go under again for one that was pressing against the brain and had not long to live.

Cathy, Rick tells me had three requests –
1) to meet one last time all her close friends. -
2) to meet Mike Holmes (a Canadian residential home improvement contractor and television show host) and -
3) the Smithfield bacon that I used to do

Bacon as I make it takes at the very minimum, three weeks and that’s pushing it. The Smithfield bacon if done proper takes a minimum of four weeks and the unknown equation of how much time I have is the unknown factor

It was without hesitation that I started the journey and the process of producing the Smithfield bacon

https://www.facebook.com/14165925586358 ... =1&theater


Everything was stacked against me, time of which I did not know how much I had. The end process on making this bacon as my mentor who devised the end process of making said bacon had long passed away and the most important part of the process was the hot smoking of the bacon and to that extent I had (and still to this day) no confidence in the present people who run the smokehouse

The process of making this bacon was I know plain sailing up until the bellies went out to the smokehouse. The one thing I needed was a product that was painted on the outside of the bellies once cured and this I had no idea of what it was. I knew the sores but not the product and to make matter worse the head fellow for the branch that the product comes from had retired some months ago and was traveling so no contact. After talking to a close friend who used to work the smokehouse in the good days we came up with the answer ---- caramel colour ($80.00 cost).

The only other obstacle was going to be the hot smoking as Gunther used to only hot smoke bellies to 145 degrees F and I could not trust the new owners (as they have screwed up before numerous times even with repeated cautions) to smoke right as this was going to be a one shot so I went the safe rout with cold smoking hoping that it would not change things too much

I am truly glad to say that thing worked out as the product came out as good if not better than I hoped or expected as Cathy passed away just over a week ago having got to taste the bacon one final time

I was not going to post this as it is written as some people may see it as blowing ones own horn, far from it but the question was asked by NCPaul

Did something go wrong?
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