Bacon came out fantastic, although one piece that was really just a strip of belly was really salty and the rest is a little salty. I'll definitely reduce the salt next time.
Pics below are my half of the haul from the one pig.
Yes mate, pumped with a souped up commercial brine (added brown sugar, salt, maple powder, peppercorns, bay leaves etc and then brined for 10 days.
2 days in the smoker, first day with pecan and oak smoke at 72C, in the fridge overnight then back in the smoker next day with no smoke at 76C until they came up to 69C internal.
Well sure. I made a commercial brine (5 gallons), juiced it up with some maple powder, sugar and spices and then pumped the hams and bacons with a little 60ml marinading syringe all over with the brine.
Then i immersed them all in the brine in the fridge for 10-14 days in a new trash can making sure they were submerged by placing a large plastic bag on top and weighing them down with a click seal tupperware full of water on top.
Then you take them out, rinse the salty brine off and leave them to dry so they form a tacky sort of skin on them. This is called the pellicle and it helps the smoke to adhere to the meat. You can do it by leaving them in the open for a couple hours, but i like to leave them in the fridge uncovered overnight to dry.
Then into the smoker and smoke at a low temp.
There's a few ways to handle this process, my butcher mates commercially cold smoke for 8 hours and then sous vide in a 70C water bath until the hams reach an internal of 69C (10-12 hours).
I have control of the smoker box temperature as well as control of the remote smoke box (and seperate control of the airflow) so i keep the box temperature at 72-75C the whole time and smoke for 8-12 hours then rely on the heat to do the same thing.
I also take my pork to 69C although 66C is a safe temp to kill bacteria and ensure it's fully cured.
You can also do this in your offset or weber style smoker by smoking at 225 until you reach internal temp, that's called hot smoking and works well, although the end product is a little different.
More ham from the pig up the hill. Pickles from the garden, beetroot from the garden and eggs from a friend down the road. Cold dinner in the heat last night.
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Home butchered pork chops marinated in sage and juniper with apple sauce, home grown spuds and spagrus and supermarket peas.
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makin bacon;
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I really need to stop looking at this thread before lunch.
Bacon came out fantastic, although one piece that was really just a strip of belly was really salty and the rest is a little salty. I'll definitely reduce the salt next time.
Pics below are my half of the haul from the one pig.
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That's a win!
Did you pump them too (can see some small holes in the pics)
Yes mate, pumped with a souped up commercial brine (added brown sugar, salt, maple powder, peppercorns, bay leaves etc and then brined for 10 days.
2 days in the smoker, first day with pecan and oak smoke at 72C, in the fridge overnight then back in the smoker next day with no smoke at 76C until they came up to 69C internal.
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Wow. Beautiful.
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Hams be forming pellicles for their trip to the cold smoker early AM.
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Punkin what does that mean? Can you explain the process if you don't mind?
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Well sure. I made a commercial brine (5 gallons), juiced it up with some maple powder, sugar and spices and then pumped the hams and bacons with a little 60ml marinading syringe all over with the brine.
Then i immersed them all in the brine in the fridge for 10-14 days in a new trash can making sure they were submerged by placing a large plastic bag on top and weighing them down with a click seal tupperware full of water on top.
Then you take them out, rinse the salty brine off and leave them to dry so they form a tacky sort of skin on them. This is called the pellicle and it helps the smoke to adhere to the meat. You can do it by leaving them in the open for a couple hours, but i like to leave them in the fridge uncovered overnight to dry.
Then into the smoker and smoke at a low temp.
There's a few ways to handle this process, my butcher mates commercially cold smoke for 8 hours and then sous vide in a 70C water bath until the hams reach an internal of 69C (10-12 hours).
I have control of the smoker box temperature as well as control of the remote smoke box (and seperate control of the airflow) so i keep the box temperature at 72-75C the whole time and smoke for 8-12 hours then rely on the heat to do the same thing.
I also take my pork to 69C although 66C is a safe temp to kill bacteria and ensure it's fully cured.
You can also do this in your offset or weber style smoker by smoking at 225 until you reach internal temp, that's called hot smoking and works well, although the end product is a little different.
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I googled pellicle and got dunder shrooms??
Killing off the trichinosis eggs is the big one with pork. Have you discovered 'meat eater' yet punkin?
Just googled. This?
Steven Rinella - MeatEater @ YouTube
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Yep, there's some on Netflix and the podcasts are pretty good too :-bd If you find any more let me know
Not really my thing mate.
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He does a fair bit of cooking in it. The one I watched yesterday was sausages, bear bacon and pickled heart.
my first go at bacon
while the smoker is still hot just put in a few ribs
Looks the business to me mate.
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I used to collect nipples when I was a chef, what are you going to do with yours? :D :D
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Reheated some left over from the night before pulled pork lasagne for dinner.
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Baking the leg of ham i've been smoking for a couple days tonight with vegies. I wish i could take a picture of the smell in the house right now.
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More ham from the pig up the hill. Pickles from the garden, beetroot from the garden and eggs from a friend down the road. Cold dinner in the heat last night.
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Noyce.
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Oven baked Peri Peri wings with Green Jalepeno sauce from a bottle and wedges.
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Cooking a new batch of Peanut Satay sauce. Whole house is redolent with belanchan, chilli and fish sauce along with cumin and peanuts.
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@punkin can you please share the recipe or pm it to me. :)>-
Good word, where'd you pull that from :)