Use of spices & sugar in smoked bacon


 
Monty House

Monty House

TVWBB Pro
I've done bacon twice so far; a savory and the Ruhlman maple sugar recipes. While both batches were delicious, I've begun to question what effect spices & sugar have on the final product. Frankly, the sugar in the Ruhlman recipe was only slightly noticeable after six hours in applewood smoke.

I'm trying an experiment for my current batch: MTQ only.
 
Monty,
I've made a lot of bacon with MTQ only, and to be honest, I can't tell much difference from when I added maple syrup and/or maple sugar, black pepper, spices, etc.

Pressing some cracked pepper onto the slab, or rubbing in some cinnamon/sugar just before smoking has added flavors.
But, like Martin, simple works best for me.
 
So simply adding the cracked pepper by pressing it in? I have been doing a diluted honey to act as a "glue". But I'm getting a bit of charring on the outside when I fry my bacon. Normally, I like to cook my bacon in the oven where I have less of a charring problem. While I think each person should find what they like, the world is filled with flavors. Exploring those is something of an adventure. I don't have Charcuterie or similar books at the moment, but I sure look forward to adding them to my library in the future so I can peek at other approaches and ingredients. I ran into a recipe for a Chinese bacon that may or may not be to my liking, but I want to try it at least once.

I will have to respectfully disagree with MartinF. I don't think it is all "crap" to be honest, even if it isn't to my taste.
 
Steve_A (Tatoosh) said:
I will have to respectfully disagree with MartinF. I don't think it is all "crap" to be honest, even if it isn't to my taste.
Click to expand...

I wasn't looking for agreement or disagreement, I was just expressing my preferences and opinion on the subject.

What I said doesn't mean that there aren't flavors that I like added to bacon on occasion...I like pepper bacon or bourbon bacon once in a while...but deep down, I'm a traditionalist who prefers the clean bold flavor of true dry cured smoked bacon....I want my bacon to taste like bacon...it doesn't need help from anything else.

As always, YMMV!

~Martin
 
Last edited:
There ya go! Bourbon bacon? I've read about "bacon bourbon" but do you mean a bacon flavored with bourbon, not a bourbon libation flavored with bacon? And I'll admit I love the Pepper bacon (bacon with a pepper coating) the most. I was cracking pepper over my bacon when I cooked it for years. Now I'm trying to get it to adhere when I smoke my bacon as I mentioned in my earlier post above.

Edited to add Sechuan Bacon Ingredients:

3 pounds pork belly, skin on or off
1/2 cup Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1/2 cup kosher salt
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns, ground
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
5 star anise pods, crushed
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Instacure No. 1

So there is a group of things I don't normally associate with bacon and a few I do. Now to run down a source of Shaoxing wine and Sichuan peppercorns. Recipe from Hank Shaw at http://honest-food.net/2011/03/22/sichuan-bacon/
 
Last edited:
To me, it seems that you Americans are used to adding more taste to the meat than I am. Like Martin, I am used to keep things simple. Bacon, made from good raw materials, smoked and treated right, does not need any other taste than it has on its own. You can't improve perfection.
If I want to add spices to bacon, or a bacon dish, I do it during the final preperation, and not during the brine period, or the smoke, other than the choice of wood. If the bacon tastes "smoked", and nothing more, it's very versatile, and I can add chili, pepper, sugar, thyme, juniper and so on during the final cook.

Further on, I have tried different spices during brining. In my experience, it is mostly a waste of spices. There is not much difference, IMHO.
 
Maybe it is the BBQ gene, with it's plethora of rubs, marinades, and sauces. I have nothing against simplicity. Much of our preferences are based on both personal preference and life experiences. Balut is a simple delight to some of my family and not so much to me. It takes two or three preparatory libations before I'll even consider it! And like deviled eggs, I think it needs a healthy dose of paprika.
 
I generally don't add much to my bacon cure. I feel after a few years at this and many batches, I'm still working with too many variables without adding spices to the cure. I figure I'll start adding spices once I'm 100% happy (or bored) with a basic cure.

With that said, I recommend only using spices with an equilibrium cure, and more so with a dry cure. If you are using a concentrated cure or brine, the short time isn't usually sufficient to transfer your flavors to the belly. And with brining, you volume of water tends to dilute the flavors.

With equilibrium methods, you can calculate your spices as a percent of the belly mass and adjust the amount if it is not noticeable in the final product.
 
I can't add much more to this conversation, but to answer the OP, I'll say that different spices seem to come through more when I brine than dry rub bacon. Same with Canadian bacon and Buckboard, for that matter. In a dry cure, there really isn't much more to add beyond the cure. Peppering the slab before smoking has worked well for me, so that may be a good time to add other seasonings?
 
My last post came out partly wrong. I had no intention to say that less spices are "better" or more correct than more. I'm a fan of variation!
On the other hand, first class meat does not need additional taste, but that does not mean that it's wrong to add some, if you want to.

I've always dry cured my bacon, and see that it's about time to try a wet cure, with spices. Some spices are quite expensive in Norway, and for me, using spices costing lets say 10 dollars, and not really beeing able to taste any difference in the end product is a waste of money.

So if someone think I wanted to criticize , I'm sorry.
 
Geir Widar said:
My last post came out partly wrong. I had no intention to say that less spices are "better" or more correct than more. I'm a fan of variation!
On the other hand, first class meat does not need additional taste, but that does not mean that it's wrong to add some, if you want to.

I've always dry cured my bacon, and see that it's about time to try a wet cure, with spices. Some spices are quite expensive in Norway, and for me, using spices costing lets say 10 dollars, and not really beeing able to taste any difference in the end product is a waste of money.

So if someone think I wanted to criticize , I'm sorry.
Click to expand...

might want to try equilibrium brining. It's takes longer and will give the spices more time to penetrate the slab
 
Geir Widar said:
I've always dry cured my bacon, and see that it's about time to try a wet cure, with spices. Some spices are quite expensive in Norway, and for me, using spices costing lets say 10 dollars, and not really beeing able to taste any difference in the end product is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Geir - I believe that my experimental brine was just a standard brine with some dried herbs, garlic and peppercorns added. I used identical seasonings in a dry cure simultaneously, and the difference in flavors was really astounding.


j biesinger said:
might want to try equilibrium brining. It's takes longer and will give the spices more time to penetrate the slab
Click to expand...

Jeff - do you know of any internet resources to learn more about equilibrium brining, or maybe suggestions for Amazon? I'd really like to get past the part of curing where I need to soak the meat in water to eliminate salt at the end of every cure.
 
Jon Des. said:
Jeff - do you know of any internet resources to learn more about equilibrium brining, or maybe suggestions for Amazon? I'd really like to get past the part of curing where I need to soak the meat in water to eliminate salt at the end of every cure.
Click to expand...

there's nothing online that I have found and the only resource I know of is Modernist Cuisine which will run you around $450. luckily I condensed what you need to know here:

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?17621-equilibrium-brining/page2
 
I haven't found anything much online either other than passing mention in some forums and the like.

As j biesinger mentioned, there's a bit about it in Modernist Cuisine, the author has even claimed to have invented the idea, which couldn't be further from the truth.
It's mentioned in Paul Bertolli's book "Cooking by Hand" which predates Modernist Cuisine, or so I'm told.
It's also in The Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook published back in the 90's....a bit disguised, but it's there.

Having said all that, there is't a lot that you need to know about it, it's pretty simple.

Look over the link posted by j biesinger, it contains pretty much all you need to know, including a definition put together by me that sums it up quite well, I hope.

HTH

~Martin
 
Thanks for your replies. I had been following the other thread as well, I just didn't realize it really was *that* simple. I'm about due for some bacon, so I will give it a try.
 
Bob, I took your recommendation using MTQ instead of HM's bacon cure, on a piece of loin-looking pork I found in the close-out section of the grocery store. I did not use anything else. Cured for 7 days, smoked to 155 using applewood, soaked for 1 1/2 hrs changing the water a few times, fried some up and it tasted great. MTQ seems to work fine on its own!
Thanks for making bacon easy...
 
Last edited:
MartinF DiggingDogFarm said:
I haven't found anything much online either other than passing mention in some forums and the like.

As j biesinger mentioned, there's a bit about it in Modernist Cuisine, the author has even claimed to have invented the idea, which couldn't be further from the truth.
It's mentioned in Paul Bertolli's book "Cooking by Hand" which predates Modernist Cuisine, or so I'm told.
It's also in The Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook published back in the 90's....a bit disguised, but it's there.

Having said all that, there is't a lot that you need to know about it, it's pretty simple.

Look over the link posted by j biesinger, it contains pretty much all you need to know, including a definition put together by me that sums it up quite well, I hope.

HTH

~Martin
Click to expand...

Martin, thanks for the tip. I dug out my copy of Cooking by Hand and it does have a nice discussion of brining. I hope to summarize it and post it in the other thread. But until then the key differences seem to be only using the water weight of the meat (65% of total meat mass) rather than the total meat mass. And Bertolli recommends a minimum of 3% salt to prevent bacterial growth during the brining.
 
I agree with Jeff and Bob. I don't taste the spices when added to a brine. I recommend spicing the belly after the cure, before smoking. For me, I've been keeping it simple, but I am addicted to Jeff's miso/salt/sugar cure for bacon. Setting up the cure for 6 lb belly tonight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top