Bacon is Ready

The bacon just came out of the smoker and we are quite pleased.  With a small nudge in the right direction by the staff at Benton’s, we cured this bacon for 10 days, hung it for 10 more, and then cold smoked it.  The next step in the evolution is to reign a greater control over the smoke since that is a large component of the flavor.  This time we used a mixture of oak, apple and pecan.  I plan on using only hickory as soon as it can be sourced.

With the busy season approaching, I have started several other curing projects for our charcuterie plate:  lonzino, coppa, saucisson sec, and lardo.

Lonzino is a salt cured and dried pork loin similar to  bresola. After spending 12 days on cure, it is hung to dry for around 20 days.

Coppa, also known as capicola, is a salt cured and air dried cut from the shoulder of the pig.  The muscle bundle on the side of the shoulder blade is used.  It spends 18 days on salt cure before being flavored, stuffed into a beef casing and air dried approximately 20 days.

Saucisson Sec is a french dried sausage as the name implies. Pork shoulder is ground with black pepper, garlic, and sugar.  It is then stuffed into casings and air dried for 14 days.

Lardo is the salt cured and air dried back fat from the pig.

I will post more pictures as the curing and hanging progresses.

Andouilli

Coppa

Lonzino on Cure

Canadian Bacon

~ by bigbadsole on February 16, 2009.