Smoking Meat...

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That reminds me I missed 24 Hours in Emergency last night, will have to catch up on SBS on Demand.
 
Left over 8 hour smoked lamb shoulder on flat bread today.


YUM
 
I've been in the process of making bacon for the first time over the last few days. It's being made from pork loin (short cut bacon) rather than the belly, using a variation of the Canadian bacon recipe from the Charcuterie book. It was done as a wet cure, ingredients in that were:

4L water
350g non iodised salt
225 sugar (I used brown sugar)
42g curing salt #1 (6.25% sodium nitrite)
This was boiled on the stove and allowed to cool to room temp then refrigerated overnight, at which point the loin was submerged in it for 48 hours in the fridge. Yesterday I removed it from the cure, rinsed and patted dry and placed on a rack in the fridge in prep for smoking it today. It will be smoked with hickory.

I did cut a small slice off it yesterday to fry up for an early sample tasting and it was bloody delicious so I'm looking forward to the proper finished product. :D

The three images are the cured loin on the rack, the slice in the pan and the loin submerged in the cure earlier.
Pork Loin.jpg Frying Bacon 2.jpg Brined Pork Loin.jpg
 
Let us know how it goes. I've only done bacon before with a 7 day dry rub
 
Turned out bloody well for a first attempt! Next time I'll leave it in the cure for longer, will try 4 days as there was a slither through the middle that wasn't quite reached by the cure, but the smoking went well and gave a lovely flavor to it. Definitely better than the earlier tasting.

It smells more like ham steaks "raw" but once fried in the pan it's bacon through and through. Just need something to make slicing it easier now.

Looking forward to trying again though and improving on it :)

IMG_20171008_143142.jpg
IMG_20171008_174724.jpg
IMG_20171008_181804.jpg
 
While not a traditional recipe, the best brisket I ever made spent around 70 hours in the Grainfather at 55C (sous-vide with sea salt, garlic powder, fresh marjoram and rosemary twigs), then about 2 hours in the smoker with banksia cones at around 60C. Rested for about 15 minutes while I got the smoker up to 200C, then caramelised on the outside, which only takes about 1 or 2 minutes on each side. Wrapped in alfoil, put in a plastic container and rested for another hour before serving.

The beauty of this method is that you are completely in control of the timing when it comes to serving the meal. A big enough chunk can easily be rested for several hours.
 
Only recently joined the meat smoking cult.
Was able to get a good deal recently on a new model Kamado Joe, and this weekend I have it it's first decent run.

Atomic buffalo turds, moink balls, and a pulled pork (sous vide first), all smoked with cherry wood...

Was pretty tasty

 
I didn't use a water bath over the smoker dish so it sat at about 130C ish for about 5 hours. At that point it still appeared to have too much liquid so I bumped it up into the 180-200 range for a couple of hours. As to be expected the wider/flatter pan evaporated more quickly but the crunchy bits were delicious.
 
Smoked another batch of bacon earlier in the week. This loin came from a butcher instead of Coles, and didn't blacken as much over the 3-4 hours in the smoker. This one I cured for 3 days which I think is long enough but I did overdo the salt a bit so will dial that back on the next one.

In any event, it's a lot nicer than store bought bacon and I enjoy making it too.
 
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