Michael Ruhlman's Maple Cured Bacon from "Charcuterie"

[Bob Correll]

Bob, what make was your electric smoker?

Elsie, I had an Outers smoker for jerky, fish, etc, but for bacons and ham I used an antique refrigerator that I had converted into a smoker.

This thing was all metal with wood trim around the door face.
It was missing the door, so I made a wooden one, and put vents on it.
Smoked was generated via electric hotplate, and a pan of wood chips.
It worked great for cold smoking.

I'm sure that a hotplate, and pan of chips would also work well in a WSM for cold smoking.

 

[Robert Clark]

I made bacon for the first time and boy is it GOOD!!

 

[Tommy Lee]

I just pulled my pork belly and starting the drying rack part. My question to you guys is...what is the piece of belly supposed to smell like and should some parts be brown?

I expect it to be a little less than fresh from being 7 days in my fridge and while not pungent it does have an odor. Is that supposed to be noticeable? This is also when i sniff all the way at the meat, not like its stinking up my fridge or anything.

thoughts?

 

[K Kruger]

If you overhauled a few times I'm not seeing a problem.

 

[Tommy Lee]

ok, bacon is done, but I am more lovingly calling it BAM at this point since it is more of a mix between bacon and ham.

For some reason my pork belly cooked through at the bottom to the point of being ham consistency. I maintained the temp at around 200 degrees, but for maybe 15 minutes it was in the 225 range. I pulled it around 145 and that was the result.

I deviated from the recipe slightly and used Tender Quick instead of Pink salt.

My question is: What went wrong? Should I err on the lower cooking temp next time? Did the different curing salt basically turn my belly into ham?

Overall, the taste is good, but a bit salty and overall its more of a texture thing as it looks like Bacon, but is tougher like ham.

 

[Robert Clark]

The first batch I did I cooked at a little higher temp because I was impatient.

Some of the thinner pieces turned out more "hammy".

The second batch I kept the pit temp between 170-190 and it turned out better but took longer.

Not sure about the tender quick!

 

[Doug Wade]

I might be able to give you some insight into the "hammy" question on Monday. My wife surprised me with a couple of pieces of pork belly she picked up at the market before I had a chance to buy maple sugar, so I tried...

Piece A: 1/4 cup pre-made maple cure mix, fortified with 1/4 cup grade B maple syrup.

Piece B: 1/4 cup Morton Tenderquick, plus 1/2 cup grade B maple syrup.

I have pink salt as well, and assuming those are reasonably good I'll hopefully finally pick up some maple sugar at some point and try going that route.

 

[Tommy Lee]

@robert clark: thanks for the reply...I think it was something to do with the temp i cooked it at. I think I will try the 170-190 range next time.

@doug wade: yes, please let me know if there is any difference in the tenderquick piece. I saw earlier in this thread that somebody suggested different proportions if using tenderquick, but I didn't see that until after I made the normal recipe

Not sure if you guys have PCC down in CA, but that is where I got my Maple Sugar, kinda pricey, but I was impatient and wanted it NOW. Thanks for the help.

 

[Doug Wade]

We don't have PCC, I Googled it and I think that's a local chain only, but we have equivalent places. If I don't want to drive out to Berkeley Bowl or whatever I'll just mail order some.

My two slabs just came out of the smoker and I have some first impressions but haven't cooked a test strip yet. I smoked with wicked good charcoal and apple chunks, mostly at 170 but a bit lower to start and up to 199 right at the end. 5 hours. It looks and smells great.

As per Charcuterie which says it's okay to cut off a corner somewhere and taste it right as it comes out of the oven, I did and my first impression is very good. No real difference between the two either in taste, look, or preliminary texture. Just kind of a nice smoky sweet taste mostly, not salty at all for that matter. I'm basically reassured that it's going to be at least decent but I can't speak to the final texture until it's really been cooked in the pan.

Hopefully I'll have an update tonight but I thought I'd get that first impression down while I was thinking about it.

 

[Doug Wade]

OK, just tried a couple of test slices. The tenderquick version was a little more strongly flavored in general - both saltier and sweeter tasting but not to excess. Good texture on both. Nothing I'd describe as hammy.

My wife felt like the commercial maple cure version was very good - on a par with the best commercial bacon we've had but not better. She tried the tenderquick version and was like "this is the stuff!" and started swiping it from me.

So the good news is she's on board for checking suitable markets she drops in on occasionally for maple sugar, so with a little luck we should be able to try it that way eventually.

Tommy - in addition to the temperature issue, I wonder how thick you've been slicing it? If you slice it quite thick it's probably going to be a bit chewy. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of.

 

[sam roberts]

Originally posted by Shawn W:

Can you taste the maple in the end product? Is it sweet, strong or just a hint?

I used a bunch of brown sugar in my first bacon and I couldn't taste it ... wondering if the maple sugar is worth it.

I'm wondering about this too. I've never been able to get a maple flavour in my bacon. I used maple syrup in the salt, like this recipe, taste was delicious, but not maple.

Last time, I diluted the syrup a little, and brushed it onto the bacon just before smoking, that didn't work either.

So, is maple flavoured with this recipe?

 

[sam roberts]

Originally posted by Cameron:
I have to go to this amazing european butcher ( I think they are danish) for pork bellies, pork fat, rendered lard etc for when I make salami, bacon, and other charcuterie delights.

Which butcher? I live around the corner from Windsor meats, in Vancouver, and usually get the Sloping Hills farms pork belly from them.

 

[sam roberts]

Originally posted by Bryan S:
OK the Maple Bacon is done, and cooling in the fridge. I'll slice it up tomorrow, but here's some pics for you to look at. Link to Maple Bacon pics.

Bryan, how do you light that?

I have been having no end of temperature control with my weber. Despite all this talk of the "minion method" I find that when I add unlit briquettes to my weber, they don't light, not really. I'm having lots of problems keeping the heat up.

And then I see that picture....

How do you do it?

Did you light just a few bricks? How, and how did you add them?

 

[Doug Wade]

With the recipe I used above (Grade B maple syrup, which is quite strong, but no maple sugar) you wouldn't say "Hey, that's maple" although I think I can tell it's there. It's actually pretty hard to have a maple flavor come through if there's anything in competition at all - even making things like maple walnut ice cream it's hard to really have it taste enough like maple. I'll be interested to hear if somebody who used the sugar as well could really taste the maple. I've used maple sugar in things before and as I recall the flavor's pretty strong.

re: lighting, perhaps Byran will have more specific advice, but in my limited experience if you get the coals you're adding quite hot, and give it a couple of minutes to heat up the surrounding coals some before really assembling the smoker you'll have enough momentum going into the cook that it doesn't take long to start approaching the temperature you want, and you just start shutting down vents in anticipation of that so you coast up to where you want to be. (Do this maybe 50 degrees before you hit your goal). I only use lump though so perhaps the Kingsford is harder to light, I really have no idea, I've never really used it.

 

[Jane Cherry]

Not to get off topic here, but Grade B maple syrup is only syrup I have bought for the last 15 years. We eat it on pancakes. I prefer the thick consistency, dark color and superb flavor. Grade B is not too strong, in my opinion, for just regular eating. It is, of course, the preferred syrup for cooking. IMHO, if it's good enough for cooking, it's good enough for eating. The same holds true for the wines and liquors you use in cooking/drinking.

I remember (I'm that old) when Log Cabin brand was real maple syrup and came in a cabin shaped tin. It hasn't been for quite a long time, maybe the last 25 years.

It is imperative to use MAPLE SUGAR with this recipe/curing process.

 

[sam roberts]

Originally posted by Doug Wade:
re: lighting, perhaps Byran will have more specific advice, but in my limited experience if you get the coals you're adding quite hot, and give it a couple of minutes to heat up the surrounding coals some before really assembling the smoker you'll have enough momentum going into the cook that it doesn't take long to start approaching the temperature you want, and you just start shutting down vents in anticipation of that so you coast up to where you want to be. (Do this maybe 50 degrees before you hit your goal). I only use lump though so perhaps the Kingsford is harder to light, I really have no idea, I've never really used it.

How do you light just a few lumps?

After struggling with paper, and newspaper, and various pile shapes, and blowing, and much pain and soot everywhere, I finally got a charcoal chimney... it works great, but you can't actually light 4 or 5 bricks with it.

 

[Doug Wade]

re: Grade B syrup - I like it too! I'll use it on waffles sometimes, just depends on my mood.

Originally posted by sam roberts:

How do you light just a few lumps?

After struggling with paper, and newspaper, and various pile shapes, and blowing, and much pain and soot everywhere, I finally got a charcoal chimney... it works great, but you can't actually light 4 or 5 bricks with it.

Oh... I have a gas grill with a side burner, and if it's just a couple of coals I'll put them right on its little grate, no chimney, no nothing. And then I'll flip them with some tongs to get the other side.

With a chimney you can just stick the whole chimney on the burner, no paper, no nothing. I pull it off and put it on the grate of some cooker I'm not using after a few minutes because I don't want too much sparking or bits falling into the burner and it should be pretty far along by then.

Neither process is something I particularly recommend (I'm sure there are burners where it wouldn't be safe) but it works for me. And usually with minion I'm adding, oh, maybe a third to half of a chimney - the couple of coal thing would be unusual.

 

[Bryan S]

Originally posted by sam roberts:
How do you light just a few lumps?

After struggling with paper, and newspaper, and various pile shapes, and blowing, and much pain and soot everywhere, I finally got a charcoal chimney... it works great, but you can't actually light 4 or 5 bricks with it.

Sure you can if you bought a Weber Charcoal Chimney. 2 ways to do this. First way, easiest way is to turn the Weber chimney upside down and place your few pieces of coals in the bottom part, which is now the top. Second way, harder way, is to take the grate out of the Weber Chimney and flip it and put it back together. Not that easy but that's what I did. You can also just use a propane hand held torch to light your coals as well. HTH

 

[sam roberts]

Originally posted by Bryan S:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by sam roberts:
... but you can't actually light 4 or 5 bricks with it.

Sure you can if you bought a Weber Charcoal Chimney. 2 ways to do this. First way, easiest way is to turn the Weber chimney upside down and place your few pieces of coals in the bottom part, which is now the top. Second way, harder way, is to take the grate out of the Weber Chimney and flip it and put it back together. Not that easy but that's what I did. You can also just use a propane hand held torch to light your coals as well. HTH

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

OK, I checked, I can reverse it.

When you made your pile of about 30 briquettes, did you put the few light ones on the top of the center?

And did you wait for them to start lighting their neighbours, and for the chunks of wood to start smoking, or just assemble the weber right away?

Thanks,
Sam

 

[Tommy Lee]

@doug I sliced it normal bacon thick sliced, but my reference to chewy/hammy was literally in what it looked like. The bottom looked like ham like you have during the holidays. I am fairly convinced that I just cooked this thing way too high and will try more of the 170 for 5 hours next time. thanks for the help!