Michael Ruhlman's Maple Cured Bacon from "Charcuterie"


 
Well, after my failed atempt at makin "Good" bacon. See this thread. I followed the recomendations there and tried this recipe. I started with a 13 pound belly and cured it for 7 days, last night I rinsed it, test fried up a slice, not too salty yeah, and dried in the fridge over night. Put the belly on the smoker about 45 minutes ago. Gonna keep the smoker nice and low 165° - 170° and hope for the best.

Around here bacon isn't so much a vegetable it's more like candy. My kids will eat bacon on everything. My daughter even orders bacon on her hamburgers, but then pulls the bacon off eats that first then finishs what she can of the burger
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So the pressure is on to produce
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Pulled the bacon off the smoker at internal temp 145°, placed in ziplocks bags and cooled in ice water. Sliced and fried some up, mmm good.

Now it just needs to pass the family taste test.
 
Gave this a try starting last week and threw it on the smoker earlier today.

Found pork belly at a local asian supermarket and used 3 pieces that were already cut but had a decent fat layer on them. think the total was about 2.5lbs so I halved the recipe and also used dark brown sugar as I didnt have maple sugar.

One thing I found is the entire cure mixture didnt liberally cover the pork belly, like in comparison when rubbing a butt or ribs but it seems to be ok. curious if others found this ?

I followed the rest of the instructions for the rest.

I used 15 briquetes and some apple wood chunks and had a hard time maintaining 180-200 consistantly, I ended up having to use the blow torch to keep getting the coals going. I think the problem was the first 3 coals I used were not going good enough but live and learn.

now for the taste results:
I put a good amount of apple wood on there, not sure if I oversmoked it or not but I was able to taste the maple and it did taste like bacon and a bit like ham but it was only a small piece I tried. I will have to fry some up in the am if I can wait that long.
 
re: coating - I made the recipe with maple sugar recently and found that it coats everything but it's not super thick or anything.

Speaking of which, this latest batch is really good - I got a slicer which makes it a lot easier to cook (because of the consistency) - and I think the maple sugar cure is a bit better than the simple tenderquick + grade B syrup mixture I did before but not massively better - I wouldn't hesitate to make that version again if I didn't have maple sugar or pink salt.

Some earlier comments indicated that perhaps some of the hammy texture is from letting it get a bit hot. And also the very edge piece can be a bit weird both in terms of texture and the amount of cure - in some ways it doesn't make a very good test piece compared to further in. I wonder with your small pieces if this wouldn't be a bit of a problem...
 
I ended up just picking up a Chef's Choice 610, which is about $100 US at Amazon. As far as I can tell it's the cheapest slicer that actually works. The company makes some nicer models but for my purposes I didn't see any features that justified the higher price - and at some point you're spending so much you might as well get a used commercial model (Hobart).
 
Well after months of fence sitting I finally took the plunge and entered into the world of bacon making.

As I type this, the 2 portions of belly (approx 3 lbs each) are sitting about 5 degrees off finished. I removed the skin off of one and left the other intact. I'll see which I prefer. I followed the Ruhlman recipe as I have lots of maple products available in my region.

Given that it's about -20 C outside I thought I could get by without water in the pan.... BAD IDEA! The temp climbed MUCH faster than I would like but I was able to wrangle it under control. I should be pulling at approx 3.5 hrs.

Hopefully samples will be had shortly and I will post some pics if I get the chance. Thank you everyone for you postings as they have proved great motivation
 
If i'm unable to locate Maple Sugar is there any sub for that like brown sugar or something else?? Or just skip it?

Getting close to makin' some swine!
 
If i'm unable to locate Maple Sugar is there any sub for that like brown sugar or something else?? Or just skip it?

Getting close to makin' some swine!
Click to expand...

for first tries, I suggest going this route with a simple mix of salt, sugar, and curing salt in the brine. Its super easy and a good spring board to more complicated methods.
 
MR's recipe is hardly complicated, seems very straight forward. Link you also looks easy enough and doesn't have the maple sugar i'm missing..
 
I'm surprised you can't find maple sugar. Have you tried asking at some specialty food stores. Ifyou can't get it, why not use maple syrup?
 
Honestly i haven't tried that hard to find the maple sugar
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....going to call a few specialty stores tomorrow. Recipe calls for the sugar & maple syrup.
 
Stefan B
TVWBB Fan

Posted February 04, 2011 03:00 PM Hide Post
MR's recipe is hardly complicated, seems very straight forward. Link you also looks easy enough and doesn't have the maple sugar i'm missing..
Click to expand...

I found the recipe in Charcuterie produces bacon the is overly salty and overly sweet and for the expense in ingredients, not all that special. I get it that when someone makes their own bacon they want it to be special, but for me that means sourcing good pork and treating it simply. And I kind of like starting from a point with the fewest variables so I can figure out what corrections need to be made.

Certainly it's all opinions, and these are mine, feel free to disregard them.
 
Originally posted by j biesinger:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Stefan B
TVWBB Fan

Posted February 04, 2011 03:00 PM Hide Post
MR's recipe is hardly complicated, seems very straight forward. Link you also looks easy enough and doesn't have the maple sugar i'm missing..
Click to expand...

I found the recipe in Charcuterie produces bacon the is overly salty and overly sweet and for the expense in ingredients, not all that special. I get it that when someone makes their own bacon they want it to be special, but for me that means sourcing good pork and treating it simply. And I kind of like starting from a point with the fewest variables so I can figure out what corrections need to be made.

Certainly it's all opinions, and these are mine, feel free to disregard them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Point taken JB. Think i'll take your advise and try S Mac's recipe for my first go at some delicious bacon. I'll be sure to start a thread and take lot's of pic's along the way.

Cheers,
Stefan
 
You can get really nice maple sugar on Amazon, just so you know.

I personally think the maple bacon recipe is wonderful, easy, pretty near foolproof, and different enough from what you can get at the store to be interesting in its own right. The Charcuterie garlic/pepper recipe is also wonderful.

But it depends on what you're doing with them. For me, the maple bacon is perfect for breakfast but I think it would probably taste a bit odd in a BLT... but the garlic/pepper one's fantastic.

I'd make the one that seems tastier to you.
 
I attempted a variation of this recipe last night. I didn't have the patience or the desire to buy maple sugar, so I substituted with white sugar.

The belly (the pig's, although it applies as well) was larger than the 2.5 gallon bag, so I folded it over and tried to form the bag tightly around it...should I take it out, cut it in half and put it in two bags so they lay flat?
 
I've been cutting them so they fit in a 2.5 gallon bag. Sometimes I'll do a different recipe for each half but mostly it's just a convenient size to deal with.
 
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